No Maverick, Iceman or Goose in this “Top Gun” competition.

Instead, in Kellogg’s annual “Top Gun” program, 3PLs compete in areas of performance Kellogg stresses as vital to their customers’ expectations and their own operational excellence. In 2004, two DSC Logistics distribution centers, in Allentown, PA, and Columbus, OH, won Kellogg’s 2004 Top Gun award—an extraordinary accomplishment.

Kellogg, with a multi-regional network, likes to foster friendly competition as a means to achieving continuous improvement that positively impacts customers. The Top Gun program monitors 17 different metrics covering the spectrum of service, quality, safety, productivity, inventory accuracy, and cost.

By winning Kellogg’s 2004 “Top Gun” award, DSC’s Allentown and Columbus Logistics Centers showed DSC’s emphasis on excellence and on meeting customer’s goals. We achieved Kellogg’s business goals by being the preeminent performer in areas such as productivity, returns processing, case-fill and on-time loading. These were key areas for Kellogg and categories Allentown and Columbus won on a consistent basis.

Focusing on Kellogg’s goals, Allentown increased productivity 15 percent and overall case-fill to a category best 99.1 percent. Allentown’s returns order cycle time was reduced from an average of 30 days to an average of five days by year-end. Returns processing was extremely challenging because the volume of returns in that region far exceeds the volumes of other regions.

Columbus focused on absolute inventory variance, customer damage and return order processing. Absolute inventory case variance averaged 99.997 percent for the year. For Columbus, inventory levels are kept lower than the rest of the network due to space constraints. Columbus’ achievement of high case-fill levels and best inventory accuracy in their categories was a measure of strong process adherence and daily dedication. Columbus also led the network in regularly scoring the lowest on the USI damage audits, further highlighting their dedication to quality.

Both DSC facilities won “Top Gun” for the year because, at DSC, we put the customer first on a daily basis. As competitive as “Top Gun” is, we always follow our promise by upholding the highest standards of integrity, responsibility and accountability.