"Are we paying too much for our transportation service?" Should we use a third-party provider?" "What should our supply chain look like in 5 years...?" "Should we own our own equipment?" "Are we using all of the options available to us?" "Should we get a Warehouse Management System"

The ITL Consulting Group is a logistics and supply chain consulting and evaluation division of Integrated Transport Logistics made up of transportation professionals that will improve your operations and lower your cost in distribution, technology, safety, and warehouse applications. We specialize in WMS and TMS vendor introduction/evaluation/fit, requirement definition study, Return on Investment,and deployment.

You will NOT get a report from us - just results! We help our clients physically implement measurable improvements within their supply chain, current processes, systems and behaviors. By providing them with our methodology, skills and tools we significantly improve their ability to generate sustainable profits.

ITL Consulting Group is committed to bringing resources of exceptional quality and experience to its clients. Our directors and educational advisors have been assembled based on a blend of consulting and industry experience, logistics and supply chain knowledge, and teaching/facilitation skills. ITL’s consulting staff, by definition, is an innovative and aggressive group of industry leaders with consulting, management, and specialized transportation project experience. ITL is tailored specifically to individual client needs. We leverage the deep experiences of our staff and advisors along with the capacity of the client’s staff to achieve practical results.

Our approach is deliberately flexible – we consciously tailor the level and nature of our support based on specific client needs and capabilities, and on the client’s cultural factors that show the greatest prospects for successful accomplishment.

The BUILDING BLOCKS of ITL’s approach is simple and straightforward:

1. Diagnostic Evaluation - knowing where your company currently is before trying to set out where they can go or should go;

2. Data-Driven Analysis - evaluate the current facts beyond traditional contests of opinion;

3. Fact-Based Recommendations - giving full weight to root conditions and causes – no “pie in the sky” notions;

4. High Communications – consistent communication with the client concerning our findings and evaluations;

5. Collaboration – in all aspects of our consulting evaluation – from beginning, evaluation process to final recommendations & reporting;

6. Practical Actions – recommend actions on practical solutions that will have the best short and long term effects on your company’s transportation/logistics processes;

7. Integrating Technology and operating solutions – recommending technology solutions through software, web-based/e-commerce, and wireless solution that will leverage and enhance information and decision support systems & processes;

8. Building from Existing Foundations, where practical – avoiding “re-inventing the wheel”;

9. Flexibility – the capacity to alter roles, resources, approaches, solutions, and objectives based on what the facts and data reveal during the course of our evaluation;

10. Help develop the Internal Capabilities to implement and consistently execute the revised and new processes presented;

11. Introduce, based on findings, a solution(s) that best fits your companies transportation/logistics needs – including outsourcing modes of transportation, management, 3PL companies, and software;

12. Respect – for our client’s people, current processes, history, knowledge, and values - - and your expectation of us!

Our programs can range from our full-featured traditional consulting to a more specific task defined by our client needs.

Our Objective: ITL’s main objective is to help our clients find the transportation/logistics solutions in a timely and cost effective manner that are right for them…right for their needs, capabilities, and their industry.

ITL's Consulting Services:

ITL offers full-service transportation/logistics consulting that covers all of your needs. We can provide a full range of customized logistics systems designed to:

Lower your overall transportation cost through basic analysis of your current inbound and outbound traffic processes – inter-company, local, regional, and OTR movements

Offer RFP (Request for Proposal) development and management for all inbound & outbound traffic that is currently outsourced. ITL will develop a transportation rate bid to fit your needs and will guarantee at least a 5% reduction in your current overall annual transportation cost

Reduce inventories and expenses through accountability/compliance analysis including introducing simplistic systems like “tag & seal” processes to track your inventories every move to more sophisticated software, web-based, or wireless applications through your current WMS (warehouse mgt systems) and TMS (transportation mgt systems)

Convert logistics into a measurable expense - justify through reductions and gained efficiencies

Increase your opportunity to focus on your core business by implementing sound transportation processes

Improve customer service through our value-added performance reporting programs

Optimize equipment utilization and accountability

Informative Customer Specification Sheets on all shipping and receiving sites, vendors and distribution centers

Provisions for consolidation of multiple less-than-truckload (LTL) shipments into full truckloads

Carrier optimization through strategic transportation mode selection

Loading/Carrying cost analysis

Evaluate and develop carrier and warehouse safety standards
 

OTHER CONSULTING ITL SERVICES:

MANAGEMENT EVALUATION AND PLACEMENT ASSISTANCE – ITL can help fill the gaps in rapid start-ups, during organizational transformation, and when a key logistics executive departs suddenly. There may be special projects without resident leadership resources. A key executive may have retired, or left the company. Reorganization could create the need for new positions. Start-up operations may need planning and management even before the permanent executive has been found. ITL will help you evaluation and secure the leaders you need to fulfill your objectives in transportation/logistics. ITL can provide interim management leadership in most facets of Logistics and Supply Chain operations, from responsibility for Supply Chain strategies, through transportation management, to Warehouse operations. In special project support, we can lead teams dedicated to facility construction, to material handling system design and installation, and/or to WMS selection and implementation. Interim management support can be provided on full-or-part-time bases, and be either short-or-long-term, depending on the specific needs of the situation.

 SUPPLY CHAIN ANALYSIS - Strategy, design and implementation, ITL has worked with clients in a number of widely different industries to develop and implement comprehensive and flexible Supply Chain improvements. Our real-world experience provides us the capability to devise solutions that are practical, as well as aggressive and future-oriented. We have the flexibility to work on any aspect of Supply Chain design and operation, in addition to the vision and integration of an end-to-end design . . . including suppliers' suppliers and customers' customers.

In our view, the keys to effective Supply Chain development lie in:

* recognizing that any company should be operating a number of Supply Chains, for different linkages of distinct sources, customers, products, channels;

* leveraging the capabilities of all participants in the chain, upstream and downstream, internal and third-party;

* creating a demanding vision for the future, and sequencing a series of interim, attainable, steps to reach it;

* knowing the baseline starting point of Supply Chain performance, and measuring the current state constantly;

* understanding the human dimension of the significant process, behavioral, and belief changes that are required for breakthrough Supply Chain performance;

* making operational improvements early and often, while developing the Information Systems foundation for better transaction processing, communications and decision support; and

* keeping the long-term vision, the end-state objective, in view at all times.

The scope of our collective experience is a real advantage in planning and executing a Supply Chain implementation, from Sourcing and Procurement, through Manufacturing integration, into Transportation and Network Design, and Warehousing and Distribution operations. ITL knows the systems issues, and their solutions; we know the 3PL providers and their capabilities; and we know how these pieces fit together.

In short, we can help you understand where your Supply Chain needs to go, and then help you get it there.

 E-COMMERCE LOGISTICS - Make the fulfillment end of the business work as well as the electronic end - - The front end of order entry and management is getting a lot of attention, with many clients entering the arena for the first time, or dramatically expanding the scope of their e-commerce business. Today e-commerce solutions has the ability - at the business-to-business level, as well as at the consumer level - the potential to break down catastrophically when it is time to pick, pack, and ship the order.

The trade press frequently reports on the challenge and frustration encountered when the reality of fulfillment can't meet the promise of the e-commerce concept. We know how to integrated the electronic and physical components of the e-commerce supply chain together to fit your company’s individual needs.

 DISTRIBUTION NETWORK MODELING AND COST MODELING - Distribution Network Modeling is a key component of our strategic approach to Supply Chain Logistics and standard cost modeling allows us to see the quantitative side of our approach. However, too few people recognize that modeling has limited, or even negative, usefulness when attempted as a stand-alone set of calculations. An analysis of current and historical data can yield an answer that is, at best, insufficient for the needs of the future.

The real power and value of network modeling results from its application in the context of:

1) a fresh definition of a company's distribution and service strategies (including flexibility for change), going forward; and

2) the inclusion of projected business dimensions of volume and geography in the alternatives considered by the model.

Too often, a modeling exercise embarks on a search for the lowest transportation cost solution. The real key to building the right distribution network lies in understanding the realities of customer service imperatives - then finding the right balance in service, mode, and cost alternatives. Its not just as simple as plotting a few nodes on the map.

 WAREHOUSE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS (WMS) AND TRANSPORTATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS (TMS) EVALUATION AND SELECTION – ITL has
extensive experience in WMS evaluation and selection with leading companies in a wide variety of industries.

* WMS and TMS Evaluation and Selection - There are many WMS and TMS providers in the marketplace, more every day. Their capabilities and product offerings are in a constant state of flux. And, the definition of "best-in-class" changes frequently. Our background, experience, and commitment to this market means that we know who the players are, the differentiating features of their products, their capacities and capabilities, and the suitability of their products to specific industries.

It's not easy to sort out who and what the right solutions might be, and the consequences of picking the wrong one is significant, often traumatic and expensive.

ITL can quickly assess the needs of your business, develop documentation of your specific and special needs (features, growth capacity, performance), and identify a short list of appropriate vendors. You can be confident that you are in touch with organizations that are capable, reliable, and on-target. And, you can reach this point with an intelligent balance of time and expense against the need to go into a WMS project with the right partners, and the right objectives.

 THIRD PARTY (3PL) EVALUATION AND SELECTION - There's much more to the question of whether you should be considering a Third Party Logistics solution than the obvious financial feasibility issue. Even beyond the typical examinations of "if, when, and how" to bring in any element of third party support, there are subtle factors that have more to do with making or breaking the wisdom of the decision.

Foremost is the foundation issue of whether or not you and your organization are emotionally and culturally ready to integrate third party activities into your operations. Next is the question of how well or poorly the third party's culture complements your own. Critically, there is the "crystal ball" factor of how good the fit might be, and where the provider's capabilities will be, five years down the road . . . and how that might affect today's decision.

Finally, there is the ultimate driver of how you see, and how you can use a third party, for strategic advantage. Not to mention how far back in the Supply Chain you can contemplate introducing third party activities. ITL understands, based on substantive practical experience, the environmental and strategic components of a third party evaluation, as well as the nuts and bolts of the basic business economics involved. We recently designed and facilitated one of the largest third party deals made to date, and one of the most comprehensive in scope as well.


Whether you needs cover the entire Supply Chain, or simply one of its pieces, we can help you reach the right decision, with the right service provider(s), for the right reasons . . . and for the long haul.

Call Scott McGlon, Owner & COO to discuss your consulting needs @ 800.308.2878