Con-way Inc. is an industry leader in transportation and logistics, delivering services through its primary operating companies of Con-way Freight, Con-way Truckload, and Menlo Logistics. These operating units provide high-performance, day-definite, less-than-truckload (LTL), full truckload, and intermodal freight transportation; logistics, warehousing, and supply chain management services; and trailer manufacturing.
The primary goal of Con-way’s integration strategy was to provide the core business with real-time analytics and automated decision-making. “The risk in our business is not having real-time visibility,” says Maja Tibbling, principal enterprise architect. “Our key metric is operating ratio: cost over revenue. If we’re running trucks that are empty, we’re getting no revenue, only cost. We need to optimize drivers, trailers, routes, and the miles we travel continuously as conditions change.
“If we have a major weather event, we still need to know how to get critical shipments delivered, perhaps food that may even be needed because of the storm. We need to know immediately if a truck is in danger of not getting to its destination, which routes are still available, exactly what the perimeter of that weather event is. Business continuity and real-time information are absolutely critical.”
Con-way had laid the groundwork; all mission-critical events were flowing in, but now it needed better understanding of those events. “The only way of understanding is by bringing it together. You have to correlate and aggregate those events over time to get a long-term understanding of what’s going on,” says Tibbling.
