Best-in-class companies all have one thing in common – they effectively manage logistics to minimize costs and maximize delivery performance in support of their businesses. PLG’s team of logistics industry veterans has the experience and latest market knowledge to support your rail, truck, barge and steamship movements, whether your challenges are strategic, operational, or supporting technologies.
Every business function needs a periodic, objective “check-up”, especially one with numerous service providers, alternatives and opportunities for improvement. Our consultants can provide immediate guidance in diagnosing the bottlenecks and breakdowns in your logistics operations and provide practical recommendations that can improve your business with short- and long-term solutions.
Sustained improvement requires a game plan – understanding your company’s current supply chain performance compared to industry peers and “best-in-class” targets, and then developing cost-effective improvement plans that will boost both financial and operational results. PLG’s experienced team will independently analyze your company data, perform competitive analysis utilizing industry information, and work with you to develop a common-sense, improvement road map.
Today’s global companies operate as a vast, complex logistical network, impacting suppliers, factories, distribution centers and customers. These networks need to be reassessed periodically for potential cost reduction and efficiency improvements in transportation movements, distribution expense, inventory levels and service improvements. PLG uses high-performance analytical tools and years of industry experience to evaluate client logistics networks and make practical recommendations for game-changing performance improvements.
We support clients in all areas of logistics procurement strategy development, supplier selection, negotiations and contract implementation. PLG’s team includes former executives of Fortune 200 shippers and major transportation providers, bringing both perspectives in support of quality relationships between our clients and their service providers. Our major focus areas include transportation rates, equipment leasing and transloading services.
Major technological innovations are changing the face of logistics, from RFID tagging to electronic on-board recording hardware and transportation management systems. PLG Consulting has its fingers on the pulse of the new logistics technology frontier and an understanding of how best to practically leverage these new technologies to operate your logistics networks most effectively.
We take an integrated approach to site selection, incorporating core business strategies with logistics optimization, incentives strategy and contract negotiations. PLG’s broad capabilities also include an engineering team that can partner with your plant/facility team to insure a complimentary logistics infrastructure design that minimizes capital costs while maximizing operational efficiency and ensuring multiple transportation carrier access.
Today’s global supply chains require that the logistics operations run flawlessly and minimize total delivered cost. PLG brings its team of industry veterans to quickly assess, investigate options and make improvements to our client’s logistics processes that directly improve everyday performance. As well, PLG’s experience can help clients design a best-in-class logistics operational plan for a new business, manufacturing facility or product line.
Whether by rail, barge, pipeline, vessel or truck, PLG’s team of experienced modal transportation experts can ensure that your company’s transportation needs are met effectively and efficiently. We’ll help implement a plan to optimize your transportation cost and processes, PLG can support your team every step of the way.
Efficient distribution of materials and/or products is a critical link in every company’s value chain. Our team can perform a distribution network analysis and optimization modeling for manufacturer with complex network of hundreds of OD pairs and thousands of SKUs. Utilizing purpose-specific network modeling software to determine highest/best efficiency of routes and inventory locations, we will take into account the “real world” considerations of sunk costs and critical supplier and customer relationships. Similarly, PLG’s experts regularly tackle bulk material transloading and terminaling challenges in order to improve or optimize our Client’s supply chain.
Industrial companies can spend large amounts of capital each year on their rail, truck or marine fleets. PLG’s veteran team can help mold and implement your fleet asset strategy based on our experience and industry network. Fleet size modeling is a critical portion of your strategy and the PLG team utilizes real world experience to assess and improve your model.
Environment, Health, Safety, and Security concerns are critical to the success of any organization. Every company has a goal of zero work accidents and injuries. Over 50% of U.S. companies do not have a plan for crisis management and are often reactive instead of being proactive. The CEO will ultimately be accountable for safeguarding the health, safety and environment of the employees and contractors, visitors at sites, customers and the communities in which they conduct business. PLG’s experts work with clients to design and implement a comprehensive logistics safety management system for the ultimate safe and efficient daily operation of your business.
PLG’s engineering team offers design services in all aspects of transportation and logistics infrastructure for nearly every type of bulk commodities. Our industrial rail engineering expertise, our strong working relationships with Class I and short line rail carriers, and rail operational experience insure that your solution is efficient, effective and supports your business objectives. No engineered logistics solution is ever delivered without a corresponding operating plan. We also provide conceptual and detailed engineering through construction management services with civil, mechanical and electrical engineering experts on our team. These capabilities combine with our site selection expertise to offer a one-stop solution for clients with new or expanding facilities.
At PLG, we can manage and/or participate in your site selection process, evaluating candidate sites’ suitability, cost-effectiveness and ability to support your business objectives. We develop conceptual logistics designs and operating plans, either as a stand-alone effort or in conjunction with your facility engineers, and also provide high-level estimates for planning purposes. Our team can also make sure that all regulatory restrictions are known and properly handled.
Developing a successful rail-served industrial park requires a well-thought and commercially-advantageous master plan. With PLG Consulting, your planning team will include experts in rail design, carrier interface process and negotiations. Our team can provide rail conceptuals, serving carrier interface, engineering design documents, rail construction services, contract review and commercial negotiations – whatever you need from a rail perspective to make your project a success.
Finding the right equipment for a job takes an expert eye and the know-how to design and craft custom pieces to exacting specifications. PLG’s expert engineers can help assure that your equipment design, fabrication, and installation are completed without compromising quality or cost competitiveness.
Our engineering team is available to provide a wide range of construction services, such as bid process management, construction oversight and/or observation, materials testing, contractor management, inspections, contract compliance, and more.
Optimized logistics facility design is the crucial first step to long-term, successful operations — a wrong decision can lead to costly complications that are arduous to correct. PLG brings a combined team of engineering, operational and commercial veterans that prevent such mistakes with their industry knowledge and collaborative view of all project objectives.
From the start, your fully customized logistics architecture and infrastructure layout will fulfill regulatory requirements, accommodate transportation demands, support safe operating performance and reach completion on schedule. We guide clients through the entire process, from master site planning to construction management, with specific considerations for rail engineering, material handling, bulk liquids (including hazmat) and mechanical/electrical design. PLG’s logistics experts are recognized for creating operationally efficient designs, with proper execution of all commercial negotiations and agreements. In the past several years, our team has completed projects as varied as crude by rail terminals, frac sand transload facilities, resin plants, petrochemical facilities, project cargo distribution sites and dry bulk storage facilities.
Quite often, rail facilities are designed without consideration given to operations planning or rail carrier requirements. This type of misstep can lead to inefficient rail car movements, lost capacity, sub-optimal commercial terms and poor logistics for both for the shipper and the serving railroad. PLG’s veteran rail team can insure that your rail infrastructure project is planned and executed to maximum commercial and operational performance, and that your rail carrier relationship is a positive one.
We offer complete design services for bulk materials handling systems. Depending on your particular application, our team of engineers has expertise in the engineering, design, manufacturing and management of custom designed bulk material handling systems. Our conceptual and functional engineering designs are developed with thorough consideration of representative powder and bulk solids flow characteristics to guarantee that material is moving through your system where you want it, with minimum dust, spillage, downtime and maintenance.
PLG offers a complete range of engineering and design services to support your petrochemical project needs with services including process design, process piping, mechanical and electrical engineering. Whether you are a terminal company, refiner, pipeline company, transporter, or manufacturer we can work with you to design a logistics solution that moves your product efficiently. Our team has expertise in rail, truck, pipeline and barge and can design a plan for new construction or maximize your existing infrastructure to function safely and more effectively.
Product storage is an important but often overlooked aspect of many facility projects. PLG can help you determine the volume and quantity of structures, laydown areas and required storage-related equipment for your product storage needs. As well, our engineers can design and build complex storage systems for dry bulk or liquid materials.
Successful businesses compete upon the strength, agility and cost effectiveness of their global supply chain. We help our clients recognize all elements of their respective supply chains from the supplier to the first tier customer of their value stream, and all connections between. PLG offers a broad spectrum and depth of service and functional expertise powered by a diverse team of Fortune 100 level and proven supply chain executives spanning multiple industries and markets. While delivered results are clearly a critical measure of our client success, PLG prides itself upon our proven reputation for partnering with our clients and many times receives the feedback of “works well with our team”. We look forward to exploring opportunities to help transform your global supply chain into a competitive advantage.
PLG values partnering with our clients to reduce cost, accelerating product and service cycle time and increasing cash flow. Your success in these areas is our mission. As a trusted agent, PLG provides comprehensive solutions that quickly transform your end-to-end global supply chain into a competitive advantage.
The ISC-A is PLG’s exclusive, supply chain analysis and optimization tool that inspects the key aspects of our client’s end-to-end supply chain, analyzes opportunities to apply industry best practices and provides implementation plans. The ISC-A focuses on quickly understanding the current people, processes and systems involved with their supply chain. The ISC-A reveals opportunities for our clients to exploit their inherent supply chain strengths while addressing the root cause issues that constrain their performance.
Waste is the enemy of customer value. Process variation drives rework that drains precious working capital. A business culture that lacks the DNA to ingrain these values in their day-to-day operations deprives employees from discovering sustainable continuous improvement opportunities. The CI experts at PLG help our clients deploy Lean tools to minimize waste, Six Sigma tools to reduce variation and can craft a unique Operating System for your business to institutionalize a culture of Continuous Improvement.
While industry recognizes many quality standards, the PLG team has the expertise and experience in designing processes and controls that minimize the risk of injecting defects while promoting corporate cultures that do not tolerate imperfection. Consumers demand nothing less than reliable products delivered on time, and brand loyalty is difficult to achieve let alone maintain. Our clients engage PLG for their executive level veteran supply chain team that can help expose improvement opportunities for this “price of admission” journey for our clients.
S&OP should be the core, integrated business management process that aligns the business by balancing demand and supply for the entire enterprise on a monthly basis while keeping an eye on the strategic plan. While the supply chain team is usually the S&OP process leader, the process is cross-functional in nature and must be owned by the senior executive of the business. PLG brings to your team proven supply chain executives with multiple S&OP deployment experiences across a variety of industries. We can help you to quickly improve your S&OP processes that prevent you from making large investments into automating a weak S&OP process.
Most organizations spend 60 to 70% of their cost of goods sold on materials, components and services. Without a documented sourcing strategy and a robust sourcing process, the opportunity to be a cost leader in your industry is greatly diminished. PLG’s strategic sourcing experts can quickly work with your organization to formulate strategic plans for your major spend areas and suppliers. In parallel, PLG can immediately assess and strengthen your sourcing process enabling consistent execution of your sourcing strategy.
Technology providers offer a wealth of potential systems solutions to increase value and performance. However, if the underlying processes are not robust or have data integrity issues, no amount of systems investment will yield productive results. The experts at PLG help protect our clients from wasting information technology dollars by guiding them through the source selection and deployment process. PLG does not partner with technology solution providers and instead remains unbiased and objective to represent the best interests of our clients in their technology solutions.
With our extensive industry experience in multiple industrial markets, PLG offers comprehensive methods engineered to maximize the operating efficiency of your Supply Chain practice areas. Our expert supply chain professionals possess the breadth and depth of skills and experience to guide our clients to internal and external functional improvements. These proven solutions address all internal Supply Chain functions as well as ensuring cross-functional integration enabling improved and repeatable performance to customers and shareholders.
Too many businesses fail from reasonably executing a flawed plan only to degrade customer and supplier confidence. To mitigate risk they may hold inventory or delay shipment, both of which drive waste throughout the supply chain. PLG assures that the tactical demand and supply planning and execution processes are properly responding to the outputs of the S&OP process, consequently enabling maximum operating efficiency for your global supply chain.
The combination of direct and indirect material spend typically represents the majority of business expenses and the greatest opportunity for a company to quickly improve their cost structure. Procurement is the overarching function that describes the activities and processes to acquire goods and services. Given the impact and complexity of the procurement function, PLG’s expert resources partner with our client’s teams to quickly find new ways to cut cost while improving execution performance.
No organization can meet customer expectations by “inspecting quality” into built product. PLG has the industry experience and expertise to design processes and controls that help prevent defect escapes. Further, we value partnering with our clients to help instill this value into the DNA of their corporate culture creating a perpetual awareness of continuous improvement opportunities.
Just as PLG assists our clients to define clear, concise and objectively measurable customer definitions of “critical to quality” requirements so can the industry experts at PLG help our clients communicate and manage those to their external supply base. Ranging from approving exceptional suppliers to delegated source inspection, assisting the development of promising suppliers to this level of credibility and providing process improvement expertise to those demonstrating the desire to continuously improve PLG provides expert resource to help develop critical suppliers for our clients.
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