Chemical producer Akzo Nobel’s Surfactants business unit, a producer of cationic and specialty surfactants, has begun the process of automating its freight rating and audit/settlement process.
In this first phase of a two-phase transportation improvement initiative, ChemLogix, a provider of logistics solutions for the chemical industry, is using the Nistevo Network, an on-demand transportation management system, to automate shipment rating, prepay-and-add customer billing, freight cost accruals, and freight bill audit/settlement for Akzo Nobel Surfactants.
Shipment records are passed in real-time from Akzo Nobel’s SAP enterprise system to ChemLogix, where they are rated according to Akzo Nobel's carrier contracts for line haul expense and all planned accessorial charges. These rated costs are passed back to the SAP system for customer billing and freight cost accruals. ChemLogix then uses the Nistevo Network to automate the audit and settlement of freight invoices.
Additionally, Akzo Nobel Surfactants customer service is now using the web-hosted Nistevo Network to look up freight rates for customer quotes. This helps to ensure that accurate and current freight rates are used throughout the customer delivery process.
The new process has helped Akzo Nobel to automate and streamline a process that was previously touched by many individuals through phone calls and emails, explains Janet Crawford, commercial services manager, Akzo Nobel Surfactants. "The new process allows us to keep tight controls over freight accounting, from the point of the quote to the customer to the payment and auditing of freight bills."
In the second phase of this initiative, ChemLogix will deploy the Nistevo on-demand Network to automatically plan, execute and track Akzo's shipments for truckload, bulk and LTL freight.
