Delivering Over $7.5M Annual Savings Through Global FCL Procurement Optimization

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SERVICES PROVIDED

The Challenge

An American manufacturer of specialty chemicals had an annual global FCL ocean freight spend of approximately USD 27 million. The customer sought to standardize global procurement following a recent acquisition that added new divisions.

Their primary objectives were to lower costs, both on freight rates and surcharges, and to improve service reliability by consolidating shipments through a condensed carrier base. The customer’s FCL shipments included standard and refrigerated containers, as well as unique hazardous products requiring specialized routing and a mix of carrier options.

While the customer aimed for an improved multi-carrier solution that differed from their status quo, they lacked the internal resources to manage the analytics and bid management necessary to achieve their goals.

The Solution

BNS recommended running a comprehensive multi-carrier bidding event using a web-based procurement platform to manage all carrier communication, bidding, and scenario analysis.

BNS managed the project end-to-end, including data collection, dataset cleansing, bidding event execution, detailed analysis, and final scenario reporting.

Key actions included:

Cleansing the customer dataset and transforming it into a working analysis.

Building a bidding sheet tailored to the customer’s global shipping profile.

Conducting a multi-round bidding event, including aggressive Round 2 targets to maximize savings.

Performing detailed shipment analyses after each round, including Best Case, As-Is, Suggested, and Customizable Scenario results based on client needs and recommendations.

Enabling the customer to create customized scenarios aligned with their operational and financial goals.

Issuing carrier awards based on the final selected scenario.

The Results

At the conclusion of the bidding event, BNS presented a range of standard and custom savings scenarios. The customer achieved potential annual savings exceeding USD 7.5 million. The process also provided the customer with the ability to analyze and select highly customized scenarios to meet their operational and financial goals. By consolidating their carrier base and optimizing routing for specialized and hazardous shipments, the customer also achieved improved service reliability.