PPG Selects Web-based Transportation System

ByDoug Bartholomew PPG Industries Inc. has signed a three-year, multimillion-dollar agreement with Logistics.com for a complete Web-based transportation management and execution system. The agreement covers network-wide, multimodal transportation management and execution to be coordinated from PPG's corporate transportation management center in Delaware, Ohio. PPG, an $8.6 billion manufacturer of coatings, glass, fiberglass, and chemicals based in Pittsburgh, is already using the initial portion of the system to handle order management, consolidation, routing, selection, tendering, tracking, and tracing of 2,200 to 4,000 loads per week. The manufacturer is using the entire suite of ASP-delivered OptiManage modules from Burlington, Mass.-based Logistics.com, including OptiManage Core for integrated Web-based transportation management and execution, OptiManage consolidator for optimizing order consolidation and route selection, and OptiManage Selector for optimizing the selection of transport providers. Finally, OptiManage Capacity Finder enables the shipper to rapidly secure capacity from preferred transport providers at existing contracted rates using a private transportation exchange. As part of the agreement, Logistics.com will manage PPG's relationships with more than 80 transportation firms, most of which already are connected to the software firm via the Web or EDI. "OptiManage provides full transportation management and execution visibility across all parties, including customers, suppliers, transport providers, and all internal groups such as transportation and logistics, corporate, and PPG facilities across North America," says James Carr, manager of the corporate transportation center for PPG. "Everyone is in the loop in realtime. This gives us the agility we need to turn transportation into a major competitive advantage."