Powering Up a Better Supply Chain

At Aggreko, the focus is to ensure that business is always on by delivering energy anywhere it’s needed so that businesses can grow, and communities can thrive. With a global footprint, Aggreko delivers power, cooling, and heating equipment and services whenever and wherever needed and has built a reputation for dependability, responsibility, and innovation. The company constantly operates in high-stakes environments to deliver emergency solutions to its industrial customer base, which includes utilities, municipalities, petrochemical companies, refineries, and manufacturing firms.

The Challenge

Aggreko was struggling with gaps in its shipment and freight payment data and needed better visibility, accuracy, and efficiency throughout its supply chain. “Every time we sent out a shipment, we were almost starting from scratch; we were constantly in reactive mode,” explains Chad Thibodeaux, NAM Transportation Manager for Aggreko. The company wanted to improve its procurement processes as well and take a more proactive approach to managing its existing vendor base and onboarding new vendors. The company also needed advanced technology and solutions to proactively manage its complicated transportation network.
“We’re high-maintenance,” quips James Hoogendoorn, NAM Logistics Manager for Aggreko. “We needed a provider that wouldn’t be scared off by that.” Aggreko was looking for a logistics partner with the same intensity-driven mindset as they have to revamp its North American transportation and procurement strategies.

The Solution

Aggreko found an ideal partner in RedStone Logistics, a Kansas-based third-party logistics provider (3PL). “RedStone didn’t run and hide from our challenges. They stepped up and were willing to take on the job,” Hoogendoorn says. In addition to the experienced RedStone management team, Aggreko gained access to the RedStone Latitude technology solution. Latitude provides Aggreko with real-time information for tracking and exception management, sophisticated reporting and analysis, as well as a best-in-class transportation management system (TMS).

Thibodeaux describes their partnership with RedStone as “a huge, overarching success.” “We now have a tailored solution that captures all our data for every shipment and provides full visibility to crucial information such as length of haul, type of truck, dollar-per-mile cost, etc.,” Thibodeaux explains.

RedStone also helped Aggreko re-align its procurement strategies, conducting a sweeping data- analysis and market research operation to find opportunities for cost and performance improvements throughout the Aggreko vendor network. Today, Aggreko and RedStone work together to continually analyze procurement effectiveness, identify ongoing opportunities, and find new vendors that can help drive better results.

Nailing down accurate freight rates got easier as well, thanks to the custom freight calculator RedStone created for Aggreko. “We’ve always struggled with pricing freight accurately because we operate in so many different markets and use so many different vendors,” Thibodeaux notes. RedStone consolidated disparate pricing data and produced a custom freight calculator, which the Aggreko team now uses as a quick and easy way to provide freight quotes.

In addition, RedStone helped Aggreko streamline a cumbersome freight-payment process by taking on accounts payable duties. Instead of paying hundreds of vendors individually, Aggreko now makes one payment to RedStone, which then manages individual payments to vendors.

With closely aligned philosophies, Aggreko and RedStone have developed a strategic partnership that fully supports the Aggreko company mission. “When facing emergencies and rare events, our customers count on us to engineer specific solutions that solve their needs and allow them to continue being productive,” explains Hoogendoorn. “Ultimately, RedStone did exactly the same for us.”