BASF Wins SAE Environmental Excellence in Transportation Award
Logistics Process Yields Environmental Benefits; Reflects Company's ECO2(SM) Initiative
MOUNT OLIVE, N.J., June 10, 2002 - BASF Corporation recently received the Society of Automotive Engineers' (SAE) second annual Environmental Excellence in transportation award for Service, Maintenance and logistics. BASF was recognized for implementing an enhanced logistics process that improved efficiency and customer satisfaction, while also yielding environmental benefits.
The SAE Environmental Excellence in Transportation Award is based on innovation, originality and demonstrated positive impact on the environment compared to existing technologies and public acceptance. The award program was held in conjunction with the SAE Government and Industry Meeting in Washington, D.C.
"This logistics initiative originated about five years ago in our Coatings business as a project to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of shipping materials to our customers," explained Jim Blair, Director, Group Logistics, Coatings, BASF Corporation. "We collaborated with our routing optimization consultant, Logistics Management Solutions (LMS), to devise a method to ship more products on fewer trucks without compromising the demanding, just-in-time requirements of automotive manufacturers."
For the past five years, LMS (St. Louis) transportation experts have worked on-site at BASF to help plan and execute logistics strategies. "LMS combines proven logistics practices with the latest technology to assist companies in meeting their business goals," said Dennis Schoemehl, CEO and President of LMS. "We work hand-in-hand with BASF so we understand their logistics processes and objectives. As a result, LMS helps BASF leverage its resources and streamline its freight operations."
"Through our cooperative efforts with LMS, the logistics management process BASF has in operation today is a significant enhancement to standard Less-Than-Truckload practices based on the hub-and-spoke shipping concept," said Blair. "Instead of unloading goods at hubs and reloading them on trucks bound for customers, or possibly to other hubs and repeating the unloading and reloading process, we are able to review all movements on a given day between all shipping and receiving sites and optimize the schedule accordingly. It's taking a big picture approach and having the means to implement it."
"A vital by-product of requiring fewer trucks to ship our material is that less fuel is consumed and emissions are lowered in the process," Blair continued. "Also, by using fewer trucks, material is handled less, thereby lowering the potential for incidents. These are tangible environmental and safety benefits achieved from BASF's optimized scheduling and logistics process. It demonstrates our commitment to BASF's ECO2(SM) initiative of having ecological and economical benefits work in tandem, rather than in opposition, with each other."
"BASF Corporation adopted this scheduling process as a best practice for logistics and we have implemented it throughout our company," said F.J. Federico, Senior Vice President, Logistics, BASF Corporation. "This is a good example of a business and corporate function working together to achieve common goals to improve efficiency, customer service and environmental friendliness that would relate to any organization."
"Once we brought this operation to the corporate level, we were able to leverage the synergies even more by consolidating shipments across business lines, distribution centers and manufacturing sites on a regional basis to our customers," said Hal De Void, Package Command Center Manager, BASF Corporation. "The process is a proven success for BASF and our customers. We also have begun collaborating with other shippers having similar shipping patterns and characteristics for further consolidation opportunities."
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