Courtney Davis, director of logistics for CoreTrust, details how domestic transportation leaders overcame challenges presented by the global supply chain crisis.

If anything, recent disruptions have caused the C-suite and others to focus more than ever on reducing expenses in the supply chain. Davis says the “natural gravitation” is to extract savings from the price of a commodity or service, but he prefers that people identify what he calls “hidden gem savings.”

Process improvement is one of these gems, he says. “With every solution comes a process. When you improve the process, you take steps out of it, and that's quantifiable.” For instance, labor can be utilized in other activities. “That’s a savings. You can help part of the operation to optimize the way they move product, and that can help an operation.”

Information availability is another gem. It helps internal and external customers. “On the internal side, it can help you level load your inventory. Having real-time, accurate fresh information helps you understand who's ordering, where they're ordering from and [how to] better place your inventory.” Externally, data availability means customers receive product faster. Consequently, they are likely to buy more and use your company more, Davis says.

A third gem is adhering to strategy. “When you start making tactical knee-jerk reactions to stimuli in the supply chain environment, you lose your consistency. It creates confusion within your organization. So creating a long-term strategy is the best policy. I like to call it strategic mediocracy. If you look at anything, like investing or anything that utilizes a longer-term strategy in order to optimize whatever you're working on, if you stay consistent within the top three, not number one all the time, over a period of time, you always end up on top. That strategy works well throughout business as well.”