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Risk Solutions: The Power of Focus

posted by TrueNorth Transportation on Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Focusing on 'The Right' Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) Can Turn Your Enterprise's Big Data into Big Understanding.

Most transportation companies face a similar set of risks: get and keep great drivers, ensure they’re operating safely, attract a strong customer base, keep the trucks moving profitably, manage the fixed and variable costs, and avoid surprise visits from federal & state agencies. The natural tendency is to react to these challenges as they come while still managing to keep the company focused on its purpose… to transport goods. Further, most companies struggle to get beyond reactive and rarely achieve a proactive state addressing risks head on or even predictively. 

TrueNorth has responded to this challenge with SYiNERGY: a system based approach aligning a transportation company’s operations, finance and risk teams. SYiNERGY first solves the complicated, yet common problem company’s face of silo’d operating structures. We know connecting people cross divisionally allows for more collaboration and higher degrees of successful strategic planning and execution. Next, we also recognize that what is measured can be managed. However, evolving beyond traditional metrics of macro (company-wide) and micro (individual) measurements is critical. Research has shown measuring groups though comprehensive business indicators accelerate learning and change management. Through SYiNERGY KPIs we provide a clear picture of a company’s resource imbalances and cost drivers. As we identify these risks we can more effectively deploy focused resources, training and communication strategies that turn the confusion of big data into focused big understanding. Finally, once the new infrastructure is in place, SYiNERGY takes the business into the future and begins to address risks before they escalate into threats. This customized and comprehensive process provides consulting, team meeting facilitation, data collection, analytics and ongoing training/communication to ensure the whole company is engaged for a lasting impact and high ROI. 

SYiNERGY’s Cultural Impact… TrueNorth’s key objectives are to build processes, procedures, and controls that are scalable and sustainable, that’s why we’ve developed a system whereby safety, compliance, operations, and recruiting are indefinitely connected. Using data analytics at its core, the SYiNERGY platform appoints cross-functional, multi-level stakeholders within the enterprise to become members of The SYiNERGY Council. The council develops the key performance indicators and goals that ultimately drive the business forward. These indicators are created in iNERGY, TrueNorth’s proprietary business intelligence tool and dashboards are generated for easy, ongoing access to real-time data. The council meets regularly to discuss progress and strategies for continual improvement. 

Evidence: Our clients are experiencing success with the SYiNERGY platform

Case Study #1: One SYiNERGY client, with 800 ICs, 250 company drivers and 60 terminal locations, utilized the platform from November 2013 to February 2015 when it was acquired. Over this period of time the company experienced reductions in the following key performance indicators. 

Case Study #2: Another client, with 450 ICs and 15 terminal locations, began using the platform in July 2015 and continues to use it today. The company had grown 500% in 4 years and was facing the challenge of an operations heavy, safety and compliance light organization and knew there was an opportunity to re-balance. Over the first 12 months the company experienced reductions in the following key performance indicators.

With their SYiNERGY infrastructure built (SYiNERGY Council, KPIs, Communication & Training Team, etc.) this client is now moving to the next stage of their evolution leveraging their analytics to get proactive and predictive! 

“As a Risk Management and Insurance Broker serving the transportation industry, we know most companies know what they’re trying to solve, but often need help figuring out how to most effectively solve it and need support helping their people understand why it matters in their individual roles. Companies typically don’t lack effort, but can be hamstrung by legacy processes and procedures. We believe that through SYiNERGY, we’ve created a platform that allows a company to focus on actions that drive results. If you fix your systems and processes, you can fix your culture.” – Bill Zenk, Senior Transportation Specialist 

**Risk Solutions: The Power of Focus was written for and originally published in the August edition of ATA's Business of Trucking. Access the electronic copy at this link.