At its annual xChange user conference in May 2017, Nulogy revealed the winners of its PackStar Awards, which recognize companies that have leveraged Nulogy’s technology to improve business performance and drive growth. Nulogy’s cloud-based solutions facilitate order execution, interconnectivity, and data intelligence for value-added contract packagers and brand owners. The 2017 winners include:
- Leader of the Pack Award – Verst Group Logistics: Verst, which offers integrated logistics, warehousing, transportation, and contract packaging services from 18 U.S. locations, has used Nulogy PackManager since 2009. This year, the company’s cross-functional Verst Pack Pioneers team rolled out integration projects that employ EDI (electronic data interchange) for automated, daily operational reports to customers and a software interface for real-time financial accounting collaboration. These projects are expected to result in greater capacity and business growth without the need for additional labor resources.
- Outstanding Agility Award – Summit Container: Summit, with two divisions serving custom protective packaging and contract packaging services for electronics, automotive, and consumer goods companies, was challenged by a lack of customer forecasts. Implementing PackManager company-wide in a Lean, continuous-improvement mode helped Summit improve its just-in-time environment, optimizing production and reducing waste by $2 million. Summit’s on-time in-full (OTIF) rate has also risen from 80% to 99.7%.
- Strategic Partner Award – ARI Packaging/Nestlé Purina Petcare: Nestlé Purina Petcare and ARI created a strategic, collaborative partnership by marshaling the people, systems, and resources to achieve a better understanding of workflows, and a system with the scalability, flexibility, and visibility required to operate at peak efficiency. In the most rapid EDI integration of this type that Nestlé Purina Petcare had ever experienced, the partners eliminated spreadsheets and manual data entry into the brand’s SAP system, automated real-time inventory adjustments, and sped time-to-market to the brand’s retail customers by up to three days.
- Quality Excellence Award – Marsden Packaging: When a major global food brand gave all suppliers three months to conform with new data-upload requirements in its SAP system, Marsden Packaging, a U.K.-based specialty co-packer, was the first to comply and did so in one week. Marsden’s use of Nulogy’s QCloud led to a 50% reduction in time spent on quality checks and data preparation. This solution, along with PackManager, helped the company improve product traceability, boost production efficiency, and realize significant business growth.
- Most Valuable Personnel Award – Christin Riegel, MSL Packaging & Fulfillment: In her tenure with MSL, Riegel has been promoted from Administrative Assistant to Director of Operations, and won top management kudos for identifying the limitations of trying to manage co-pack operations with a warehouse management system. Her leadership during implementation and rollout of PackManager led to significant improvements in quality assurance, production efficiency, and a more highly productive workforce.
- Most Valuable Personnel Award – Wayne Jurgielewicz, Advanced Logistics and Fulfillment (ALF): Management at ALF nominated Jurgielewicz for an award for his leadership in training, workplace collaboration, and continuous improvement. This included trend analysis to identify gaps and inefficiencies in production, to improve labor allocations, and to assemble Lean teams to reduce waste and boost employee engagement. The company reports these efforts have led to a 15% reduction in labor, totaling a savings of nearly $1 million in 2016.
“This year’s award recipients truly reflect what it takes to become the leading suppliers in their customers’ supply chains,” saysd Nulogy CEO Jason Tham. “As leading brands face greater retailer requirements for late-stage customization, they are asking suppliers for greater agility, quality assurance, and collaboration. The customers that we’re recognizing have leveraged technology to overcome the challenges, and by doing so, they have expanded their businesses.”
