Yes, some 30-year relationships do grow stale. But, that hasn’t happened with the partnership of Unilever Foods North America (UFNA) and their long-term logistics partner, DSC Logistics. Quite the opposite.

In the latest collaboration, when UFNA wanted to lower costs they came to DSC and our huge new future-facing facility in Elwood, IL. Always open to new ideas, DSC’s executive leadership team encouraged our engineering team to take a fresh look at UFNA’s needs relative to space and labor. So, they did. After an in-depth study of the types of products and storage requirements, DSC, in collaboration with UFNA, designed a building specifically for UFNA’s business, an efficient state-of-the-art distribution center with a number of optimized operating solutions. It was a matter of deciding what the business should look like and building a shell around it, building solutions from the inside out. In the process, UFNA went from approximately 600,000 square feet down to 468,000 square feet of optimized storage and significant savings on fixed storage costs.

In the new distribution center, the first line of structural columns/I beams is spaced to allow for a clear dock the length of the building, creating a safer column-free working environment. Column spacing allows for an optimized racking solution.  A high-low lighting system with motion detectors results in a savings on utilities that can be passed on to the customer. Pop-out dock doors on pins, not rollers, help to drive down building maintenance costs. Pneumatic dock levelers, rather than the standard hydraulic variety, lessen chances for injury.

In addition to these innovative solutions, DSC and UFNA agreed to extensive logistics center metrics with 16 measurement categories that include productivity, inventory planning, cycle time and financial measurements. One specific metric measured was Percent Activity by Day of the Week, tracking the order and case volume activity across the week. DSC worked with UFNA to identify specific days that incurred the most overtime and then developed a new staffing plan to reduce the overtime spend by $40,000 annually. At DSC, we like finding new ways to help old customers meet their goals. We value strong, vital partnerships like the one we have with UFNA. And, if the new seven-year contract UFNA signed with us is any indication, our customers do too.