Case Study
Institutional Knowledge Pairs with Sophisticated Technology for a Modernized Supply Chain
Founded in 1995, Foremost Farms is owned by hundreds of Midwest dairy farm members located across seven Midwest states. With its headquarters in Middleton, Wisc., plus eight manufacturing plants operating 365/24/7, their supply chain needs to function optimally to deliver profitability and ensure customers’ needs are met. Foremost Farms has found that Ever.Ag’s sophisticated tools and experienced counsel were just the “ticket” to streamline their supply chain and enhance efficiency.
“The experiences and the tools that Ever.Ag provided – not just the technology and software, but also the consulting based on their experience – helped expedite our journey forward in a motivated and planful way.”
-Darin Hanson
SVP, Milk Supply Chain & Risk Management at Foremost Farms USA
The Ever.Ag Solutions
From rolling out a robust set of KPIs for dispatch managed services to creating hauler scorecards and optimizing milk assignments to implementing quarterly business reviews and other mechanisms for driving decision processes, Ever.Ag helped Foremost Farms refine and improve its supply chain and realize significant savings.
Among the software solutions Ever.Ag brought to Foremost Farms were:
Dispatch
Payroll Managed Services
Key phases of the supply chain transformation included:
Benchmarking and Optimization for Plant-to-Plant hauling:
- Focused on reducing high transportation costs and consolidating logistics.
- Introduced real-time dispatch optimization and hauler scorecards.
Trust and Foundation Building:
- Delivered sizable savings for plant-to-plant hauling costs while establishing trust for deeper collaboration.
Cross-Functional Leadership:
- Established a transformation leadership team spanning finance, IT, plant operations, sales and member relations to drive savings capture.
End-to-End Supply Chain Integration:
- Expanded to milk dispatch, invoicing, and plant logistics.
- Consolidated the technology platform to accelerate the flow and capture of supply chain data, enabling process efficiencies and empowering leadership.
- Applied advanced transportation optimization analytics to identify and quantify savings opportunities.
Operational Efficiency Gains:
- Enhanced accuracy, streamlined logistics, and solidified Foremost’s competitive position.
Results
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- Cost Reduction: Plant freight costs dropped by more than 30 percent, saving millions.
- Efficiency Gains: Integrated systems reduced bottlenecks and increased productivity.
- Smarter Decisions: Real-time KPIs enabled faster, data-driven decision-making.
- Flexibility & Agility: Modern pay structure developed competitive, yet sustainable rates with milk haulers.
- Member Alignment: New hauling contribution structure to deliver fairness and accuracy across members and incentivized farm investment to drive hauling efficiency.
- Leadership Transformation: Foremost emerged as an innovative, competitive leader.
- Expansion: Foremost plans to roll-out Ever.Ag’s Mobile Manifest, Producer Payroll in the near future.
“The key benefit of an interconnected supply chain is that all the different pieces are now talking to each other. It’s a seamless data flow from one to another, with Ever.Ag’s EDL team being the glue that brings them together.”
-Darin Hanson