Technological Advancements Improve Supply Chain Performance

In today’s digital age, there is a wealth of tools to help a business grow. New technological advancements arrive often and evolve fast.

The Big Picture

Logistics companies that find and develop better tools will improve supply chain performance. Savage does this in two major ways:

1. We develop supply chain software that can help Customers and Team Members better manage essential goods and services.
2. We invest in hardware that makes use of the latest technological advancements.

The Vision and Legacy of Savage, set down by our founders, drives us to always be asking, “is there a better way to do this?” Adopting and adapting such solutions makes improving supply chain performance possible.

IT and the Need for Technological Advancements

Optimizing a business’ supply chain means addressing needs on both the front lines and the backend. This is done when:

• Team Members manage industrial facilities and products safely and efficiently on site. This protects our Customers’ interests and ensures they get the most bang for their buck.
• Team Members in support roles, such as maintenance, repair, and IT, make sure that progress is never held back by the tools that we are using.
• By harnessing technological advancements, we can expect, detect, and deal with problems before they cripple productivity.

“It’s our goal to deliver technology solutions for our customers and team members that are safe, easy to use, fast, and scalable,” says Matt Warner, Senior Director of Software Engineering at Savage. “We’ve implemented new processes and monitoring solutions to improve our response to system outages. We’ve also improved our tracking and reporting of outages so we can ensure we are decreasing their frequency and severity.”

It’s important to remember:

• Improving IT’s response time to crises is only one benefit of new and/or improved technology.
• Technological advancements also foster transparency with our Customers. Project statuses and updates are no longer a mystery.

Building Better Supply Chain Software

One of Savage’s top priorities is to use software development to improve supply chain performance. The challenge, explains Warner, is providing timely solutions.

“We are implementing new technical tools to shorten and stabilize our software development cycles,” Warner said. “These changes include migrating to cloud-based services to better enable our applications to handle growing business needs, and taking advantage of ready-to-use components that in the past we would have had to build from scratch.”

This new development style means our technical solutions have more speed and stability. This new supply chain software adds essential support to Customers and Team Members in the field by supplementing other mission-critical equipment.

Improving Supply Chain Performance Through Smart Procurement

Of course, technological advancements don’t exist solely in the realm of IT and software. Our operations are propelled by the equipment on in the field. Finding the most appropriate tools means keeping a weathered eye out for the latest in industrial technology. This is a task around which Tyler Flynn, Savage’s Director of Mobile Equipment and Projects, has built a team.

“As part of our culture, we look to be better tomorrow than we are today,” Flynn said. “We constantly ask our supply chain partners about technology advancements, especially as it relates to safety improvements, efficiency in fuel consumption and performance, and uptime.”

Some of these improvements, like lane departure correction and collision avoidance, now come standard in Savage’s truck tractors as upgrades within the basic model package. Other advancements are developed specifically with Savage’s needs in mind. “When we identify needs,” Flynn continues, “we collaborate with our suppliers to incorporate design changes or technology additions to meet our specialized requirements.”

By keeping up productive relationships with our suppliers, Savage has been able to develop and pilot many technological advancements, ultimately improving supply chain performance. This is happening even now.

“As a current project we are working to understand the application of battery electric vehicles in the HD space while simultaneously considering how hydrogen fuel cell technology will enter the market at scale,” Flynn said. “We have plans to pilot both new offerings in the near future.”

Whether through supply chain software or physical equipment, Savage will find a way to improve supply chain performance. Thanks to knowledgeable Team Members like Matt Warner, Tyler Flynn, and their teams, new solutions are being found all the time.