Third party logistics service helps business double production

Warehousing and distribution seems like such a simple process, but it can quickly get out of hand without the right knowledge base behind it.

A recent case study focused on Old Dutch Foods, a snack food company founded in 1934 and based in St. Paul, Minnesota. The company expanded to Canada in 1954 and acquired competitor Humpty Dumpty in 2000.

Despite being in business for seven decades, it had the potential to improve operations. By partnering with a third party logistics service the company was able to:

• Meet efficiency goals by doubling distribution center production
• Ensure product quality with lot and serialized control of SKUs and shipments
• Eliminate inventory shrinkage with tracking
• Increase distribution center output with quicker turnaround times.

"By using new and innovative methods, Old Dutch Foods has successfully completed a major system expansion that is helping to make its supply chain lean and highly responsive, all with lower per unit costs," the article reads. "The system has also demonstrated substantial increases in throughput – meeting their goal of doubling throughput in less time than it previously took to ship half of the volume."

According to Jorn Remmem, Director of Plant Operations and Engineering for Old Dutch Foods, the most important aspect of this plan was forming a strong partnership with a third party logistics service that the company could trust.

The fact that Old Dutch Food was able to double its productivity simply through the use of new technologies speaks to their benefits. With multiple locations in two countries and buildings that were acquired from other companies, there was a recipe for disaster here. Instead, after managing on its own for decades, the company was able to optimize with the help of a third party logistics firm.