Case Studies > Matthews International Automates Manual Processes to Gain Visibility with BluJay Solutions

Matthews International Automates Manual Processes to Gain Visibility with BluJay Solutions

Customer Company Size

Large Corporate

Region

America
Asia
Europe

Country

United States

Product

BluJay Transportation Management
WebSettle®

Tech Stack

Transportation Management System (TMS)
WebSettle®

Implementation Scale

Enterprise-wide Deployment

Impact Metrics

Cost Savings
Productivity Improvements
Customer Satisfaction

Technology Category

Functional Applications - Fleet Management Systems (FMS)
Functional Applications - Transportation Management Systems (TMS)
Analytics & Modeling - Predictive Analytics

Applicable Functions

Logistics & Transportation
Business Operation

Use Cases

Fleet Management
Track & Trace of Assets
Predictive Maintenance

Services

System Integration
Software Design & Engineering Services

About The Customer

For more than a century and a half, Matthews International has been a leader in memorialization products. As the premier designer, manufacturer, and marketer of memorialization products, Matthews is proud to provide cemeteries and funeral homes with products of unrivaled excellence and superior craftsmanship. The organization has a large hub-and-spoke network consisting of 70 DCs, four consolidation centers, and multiple plants across North America, Europe, and Asia. Matthews International is headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA, employing over 5,700 people in nearly two dozen countries on four continents.

The Challenge

Although Matthews International is a 160-year-old company with a mature supply chain, transportation operations were extremely manual. All carrier invoicing required paper tracking of transportation costs and time-consuming paper processes. When their average days to pay would climb, higher premiums were paid, driving costs above average. With little visibility into transportation, Matthews struggled to maintain a master database with lane-specific details, which reduced the opportunity to bid their freight and control the tendering process. Matthews International’s core network of carriers was very slim, relying primarily on a small set of regional carriers and brokers to carry their freight. As processes were manual with few carrier options, the company had difficulty maintaining consistency in accessorials and associated charges from the carrier community. Matthews also maintained a small private fleet that handled their freight, but making the decision between internal and external resources was determined more by opinion than through data analysis. Matthews realized that with a very segmented and decentralized supply chain, their transportation operations would continue to be disjointed, leading to high costs and less effective use of their transportation network. Matthews International needed to select a transportation management system that could centralize control of transportation execution, bring all transportation onto a single instance platform for all users, and provide a scalable solution to handle new acquisitions, customers, and lanes.

The Solution

Matthews International identified the need for a centralized network with deep visibility into their transportation operations. The centralized function allowed users at any location to access the same platform, with the same data, with the ability to see the entire transportation network. This visibility allows Matthews to more effectively plan and execute on their transportation strategy, leading to cost savings. With the use of WebSettle® functionality, paper invoices are no longer required by the transportation team. Matthews was able to reduce manual invoices by 80 percent, reducing the associated work hours and discrepancies that come from manual processes. Whereas they once dealt with paper invoices, Matthews now handles payment in an invoice-less system, providing Matthews the visibility to baseline accessorial costs in order to reduce them over time. BluJay’s Transportation Management also provides Matthews with a deep set of routing guides. As part of the BluJay Global Trade Network, Matthews International now leverages the ability to connect with thousands of carriers, providing third, fourth, and fifth options on their lanes, assuring that no load gets missed and that rates are competitively compared.

Operational Impact

Matthews International can now focus on their transportation strategy like never before. As the company looks to their transportation as the enabler of supply chain excellence, they have identified a transportation roadmap including projects to drive further waste out of the supply chain. From routing guide compliance to optimizing their network, Matthews will leverage the data intelligence and scalability of the BluJay Solutions Transportation Network.
With BluJay Solutions’ TMS, Matthews International has the ability to make data-driven decisions around their private fleet and create better utilization scenarios for their premium lanes. As specialized lanes or customers occur in their network, the company can leverage industry benchmarks and procurement solutions to provide the transportation solution for their needs. With a larger set of core carriers and trading partners, Matthews International can further scale their transportation strategy as their business grows.
The benefits Matthews International continues to receive from BluJay Solutions include quick ROI and deep visibility into their transportation spend, a single-instance, multi-tenant platform to make data-driven decisions, and an agile and dynamic solution that enables future business growth.

Quantitative Benefit