Progress Rail, A Caterpillar Company (Infor LN)
Eliminate Manual Data Entry with a Single Source of Truth
“30% or 3 hours of each planner’s daily workload is eliminated due to automation in SourceDay’s PO Collaboration solution. Removing manual tasks allows our people to focus on strategic value for our organizations.”
-Supply Chain Team, Progress Rail
A Decentralized Approach Carried Risk
In 2022, Progress Rail doubled-down on their procurement transformation! With over 100 US facilities and dozens more internationally, their growth had been hindered by a lack of visibility to Purchase Order (PO) changes, schedules and order acknowledgments. The manual approach was time-consuming, error-prone, and made visibility impossible.
“The old process existed for a very long time, and it brought considerable risk…Since we provided the schedules by facility, we relied on our suppliers to stitch the schedules together for a holistic view. If this was done incorrectly, it would expose us to missed deliveries and thus impact our customer satisfaction.”
- Supply Chain Team, Progress Rail
The Impetus for Change
With no order acknowledgment solution for the business, buyers and planners were buried in emails and spreadsheets as they chased order acknowledgments one-by-one. The suppliers experienced the same pains. They lacked a single view of the schedule for all plants. Instead, suppliers received weekly snapshots (with no live data), and they had to review each spreadsheet individually by facility.
The Right Solution
For several years, Progress Rail searched for a PO collaboration tool to eliminate error-prone spreadsheets and bring suppliers and buyers into one solution.
“We knew we were behind the times when it came to purchase order collaboration. We knew that order acknowledgments were a key factor in on-time delivery performance. We needed a solution.”
- Supply Chain Team at Progress Rail, A Caterpillar company
“The SourceDay team has been absolutely phenomenal. They are all incredibly attentive to our requests and ensure we achieve success. The people and their willingness to help are definitely one of the benefits of working with SourceDay. Absolutely top notch.”
- Supply Chain Team, Progress Rail
Automation leads to hours saved and a speedy PO process
Before
- Inaccurate Data
Weekly spreadsheet “snapshots” pieced together from different facilities. - Outdated Processes for PO Management
40% of a planner’s day is spent on long clerical processes (acknowledgments, approvals, PO changes, etc.). - Manual Communication
Email was the primary communication tool. Notes, acknowledgment requests, and changes had no paper trail or visibility. Messages were often missed. - Tedious Messaging Methods
Messages to suppliers were sent one-at-a-time. Getting an update from all suppliers about the coming month required a full day of work just to send the email, not including the hours spent following up.
After
- Increase in Data Accuracy
Real-time PO collaboration from one platform. - More Time to Work Strategically
Planner’s daily workload is reduced by 30%, which means they can work strategically on supplier relationships, rather than clerically. - Automated Communication
Organized communication means pricing changes, date changes, notes can be seen by everyone. No more communications lost in someone’s inbox. - Improved Supplier Collaboration
SourceDay’s Radar feature shows planners everything scheduled to come in, and gives them the option to contact multiple suppliers about updates with just a few clicks.
BENEFITS
Centralizing the Approach
It was time to make a change and in 2019 the digital transformation project driven by the CEO and CIO began. With SourceDay, Progress Rail brought together buyers, planners, suppliers, and all other stakeholders into one shared view. A single view across 100+ locations and multiple ERP’s (SAP, Infor) was no easy task, but delivered amazing results.
For the first time, procurement could manage by exception, focusing their time on the most critical POs that require more attention rather than weeding through endless spreadsheets. And the team now had easy access to clear supplier responsiveness and performance metrics.
Implementation was simple, and in a matter of weeks, Progress Rail’s procurement team was up and running with SourceDay. Ongoing support from Customer Success has been clutch as they ensured we partnered to achieve high adoption internally with buyers and externally with suppliers.
Solutions
Real-Time Supplier Communication provides A Single Source of Truth
Instead of multiple views and weekly snapshots of static data; all data is available from a single view in real-time. They more efficiently manage the company’s schedules, and all communication is trackable from one place, all the time. As a result, Progress Rail’s suppliers have reduced their workloads and increased their performance.
“Over 90% of suppliers adopted SourceDay. Real-time communication benefits all stakeholders to manage PO changes, schedules, customer expectations and much more . The supplier side is where we’ve realized significant benefits.” — Supply Chain Team at Progress Rail, A Caterpillar company
RESULTS
How Progress Rail Uses SourceDay to Save Time and Improve Communication
Buyers and planners at Progress Rail are saving precious time, working with 100% accurate data, and delivering on strategic relationships with their suppliers—all through SourceDay’s single collaborative platform. Communication that once required an entire day of work now takes 15 minutes or less. Their processes are streamlined, their suppliers are performing better than ever, and their data is always accurate. For Progress Rail, SourceDay has reduced the heavy lifting and brought everyone together.
Who We Are
SourceDay
SourceDay provides PO Collaboration solutions to manufacturers, distributors, retailers and supply chains all over the world. We do more than save time and money; we transform procurement’s value proposition within the company.
Progress Rail, A Caterpillar Company (Infor LN)
Progress Rail offers diesel-electric EMD locomotives and aftermarket parts for all commercial railroads, including freight, intercity passenger, commuter, switching industrial, and mining applications. More than 65,000 EMD powered locomotives have been delivered to more than 75 countries. Progress Rail is also one of the largest global suppliers of new and reconditioned freight cars and components for Class I railroads, shortlines, freight car manufacturers, and private car owners.
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