Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/993011
commercial carrier journal | june 2018 43 INNOVATORS CRESTWOOD TRANSPORTATION Kansas City, Mo. tools that enable management to identify exceptions quickly and take corrective actions. An enterprise approach For Crestwood, the re-engineering pro- cess began midstream by deploying an enterprise system to standardize business processes and centralize the scheduling, dispatch and billing functions. Crestwood also deployed an inte- grated load optimizer to automate regional planning decisions and a fuel and route optimizer to provide drivers with plans. New management tools also help monitor actual performance against those plans. e load, fuel and route optimizers have made it so "we are not dependent on institutional knowledge," Meares says. "Our loads are built and planned based on heuristics and algorithms to maxi- mize capacity." Besides standardizing business processes, the company deployed data warehouse and business intelligence tools to give downstream users real-time in- formation "to make good decisions that drive the business forward," he says. e downstream tools assimilate financial and operational data and pro- vide real-time visibility of profitability for every order by lane, commodity and customer. With the real-time profitability tools, users can determine instantly what adjustments are needed to increase margins by lane, commodity and cus- Crestwood Transportation re-engineers technologies to drive efficiency, safety BY AARON HUFF C rude oil prices sank during the fourth quarter of 2014 as global output exceed- ed demand. ese events led Crestwood Transportation in a new direction. Before this period, the Kansas City, Mo.-based carrier had acquired a num- ber of small regional carriers amid surging growth. However, the carriers operated without a common technology platform and performance metrics. In the face of lower energy prices, the company decided to re-engineer its business systems "from tip to tail" to drive greater efficiency, profitability and safety, says Jason Meares, senior manager of Logistics Systems. Moving upstream Today, Crestwood Transportation operates an integrated nationwide fleet of 350 trucks that distribute natural gas liquids, crude oil, condensate and water products for Crestwood Equity Partners LP and its customers. Crestwood Equity Partners LP, based in Houston, is a master limited partnership that owns and operates assets in the midstream energy sector, primarily in the Marcellus Shale, Bakken Shale, Delaware Permian Basin, PRB Niobrara Shale, Barnett Shale and Fayetteville Shale. Like the petroleum industry, Crestwood Transportation's business systems are transforming crude data into information using upstream, midstream and down- stream components. Most of these systems have been implemented in the last three years to give users at all levels the information they need to make real-time decisions. In the upstream, Crestwood uses telematics, Internet of ings devices and mobile applications to collect real-time data from assets in the field. e technology has expanded the volume and richness of data significantly. Midstream is where data processing takes place. Crestwood has deployed new en- terprise platforms and integrated applications that optimize load planning, scheduling and routing. ese systems automate processes in the quote-to-cash cycle for loads. e downstream technologies make information visible and accessible to users. Crestwood has deployed new data warehousing and business intelligence The Kansas City, Mo.-based carrier upgrades its technology from top to bottom to drive greater efficiency, profitability and safety.