Asahi Kasei's Journey to a 15% Warehouse Productivity Boost

In the highly competitive automotive supply chain, efficiency is the key to success. Asahi Kasei Plastics North America, a leading supplier, faced significant challenges stemming from a lack of visibility into outbound order schedules. This bottleneck affected staffing levels, increased labor costs, and posed difficulties in meeting customer packaging and labeling requirements. In this blog, we delve into how Asahi Kasei transformed its logistics and shipping and receiving operations, achieving a remarkable 15% improvement in warehouse productivity.

The Challenge

Asahi Kasei struggled with suboptimal staffing levels, labor costs, and inefficiencies in prepping and staging loads due to a manual scheduling process. Lack of visibility into carrier appointments led to extended loading times and growing detention costs. Only a third of carriers adopted the manual scheduling process, exacerbating the challenges faced by the logistics and shipping, and receiving teams.

The Solution

Asahi Kasei's logistics and shipping and receiving leaders took a bold step by combining innovative dock scheduling technology with strategic process changes. The outcomes were transformative:

• Automated Scheduling Process: The previously inefficient and error-prone manual scheduling process was automated, eliminating errors and streamlining operations.
• 98%+ Carrier Appointment Scheduling Adoption: By integrating advanced scheduling technology, Asahi Kasei achieved an impressive adoption rate of over 98% among carriers, providing unparalleled visibility into pickup and delivery schedules.
• Right-Sizing Staffing: Enabled by accurate scheduling data, the shipping and receiving team could right-size staffing levels on a day-to-day basis, optimizing workforce efficiency.
• Effective Load Pre-Staging: Leveraging technology, Asahi Kasei improved load pre-staging, enhancing labor productivity and reducing time spent on preparation.
• Significant Reduction in Loading Times: The integration of dock scheduling technology led to an impressive reduction in loading times and gate-to-gate transit, improving overall operational efficiency by up to 80%.
• Enhanced Perfect Order Rate: With streamlined processes, Asahi Kasei achieved a higher perfect order rate, elevating customer satisfaction and positioning themselves as the supplier of choice in the automotive supply chain.

Asahi Kasei's success story is a testament to the transformative power of innovation in logistics. By combining technology with strategic process changes, they not only overcame operational challenges but set a new standard for efficiency and customer satisfaction in the automotive supply chain.

Curious to hear from Asahi Kasei on how they achieved these remarkable results? Click here to access the recorded webinar to gain valuable insights into the integration of dock scheduling technology and process changes that revolutionized their operations.