/

Web development trucks along at J.B. Hunt

Deftly carrying a large load, IS takes client transport and logistics to the Net.

A retailer's warehouse manager needs to know when a big shipment is going to arrive so he can schedule enough workers to unload the goods pronto. The store's supplier wants to place an order to deliver a load. Another company's sales force needs to know the route and load of its dedicated fleet to target its daily pitches to clients who can help boost each truck's capacity utilization.

Sound like a logistics nightmare that ties up the phone lines? It's not. All the information is available with a few keystrokes thanks to Internet-based applications from J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc., a $1.7 billion transport and logistics company in Lowell, Ark.

Developed to streamline the shipping and receiving operations of its customers, the business's new Java- and HTML-enabled applications perform functions such as order entry, shipment tracking and real-time access to logistics data.

By reducing operations labor and phone and fax charges, the applications' results earned J.B. Hunt a cowinner designation in the 1997 Network World User Excellence Award competition.

Although each application is different, deployment barreled along like an 18-wheeler because the majority of Hunt's customers already had Internet access and secure browsers that support Secure Sockets Layer. Most of the applications access mainframe data via IBM's CICS Internet Connection gateway or Micro Focus, Inc.'s Micro Focus COBOL.

J.C. Penney pinpoints shipment ETAs

Hunt's IS staff got its first taste of Web-enabled application development in 1996. Retailer J.C. Penney Co., Inc., in May awarded Hunt logistics a contract to manage 70,000 shipments per year. The idea was to give warehouse workers throughout the country real-time access to the status of inbound shipments.

Already a tall order, the project's tight 60-day deadline made it even more challenging, says Tracy Black, director of application systems at Hunt. The system needed to be running by July, when the Christmas inventory shipment season peaks.

Hunt considered using electronic data interchange or direct-line PC connections to each J.C. Penney facility, but both options were too expensive, Black says. The Internet's low-cost, hardware independence and ease of use made it the top choice. The World Wide Web was even more attractive because personnel already had Internet access.

Hunt developed an HTML report that provides real-time tracking of loads bound for Penney's facilities. Carriers send EDI-based shipment status updates to Hunt's mainframe and an application running on an Internet Connection Server for OS/2 accesses that production DB/2 data. Any worker authorized to use the application can use a secured browser to access the Internet or extranet.

"The reports created awareness and visibility for inbound freight to be identified," says Brian Snyder, truckload purchasing manager for J.C. Penney in Plano, Texas. "It allows our receiving facilities to better utilize their resources by coordinating labor to process the inbound shipments."

The new planning tool helps facilities level the workload and expedites turnaround at the company's distribution facilities, Snyder says.

By deploying the application to one of its distributors, Black says Penney also boosted on-time deliveries thanks to increased visibility and real-time monitoring.

Along with keeping its client happy, Hunt gains another payback. Now that the logistics department's phones no longer ring with shipment status inquiries, Black says Hunt has been able to reallocate two operational support staff workers to focus on customer service and exception management. What's more, the Web-based report implementation has reduced Hunt's call center telephone charges.

Snyder is all for using the Internet to save time and realize a return on investment. "The easier it is for someone to handle our volume, the less it's going to cost us in the long run," he says.

J.C. Penney isn't the only company to benefit from the new application. IS has modularized the design and customized the interface for several other logistics accounts, including Miller Brewing Co.

Miller is starting to roll the shipment status report out to its distributors, and they're excited to use it, says Bob Leonard, senior transportation analyst for the Milwaukee-based brewer. "We are in the initial rollout stage, but once complete, this is going to be a valuable tool to convey information to our customers and get information from our carriers," he says.

Leonard believes the Internet is far more accessible, affordable and easier to use than EDI, and hesays it's an efficient way of making sure nobody is left in the dark.

Taking orders from everyone

As Hunt's logistics clients, J.C. Penney and Miller electronically send large volumes of data to Hunt, but the Internet is a more viable option for thousands of suppliers who need to transmit the data. They're in the process of rolling out Hunt's new Web-based remote order entry system to their suppliers and distributors. Several of Penney's vendors have been using the system since September, while the top 30 high-volume vendors began to go online throughout the fall and early winter.

The application automates the traditionally labor-intensive ordering process. Previously, whenever one of Penney's 6,000 vendors wanted to deliver loads to the retailer, it phoned Hunt's service representatives to place an order. Workers manually entered the orders into the system.

The new application enables suppliers to use a Java-based drop-down interface to place orders directly into Hunt's system. Built-in edits allow users to verify valid appointment times, fill in the required billing fields and check the status of submitted orders. And vendors no longer need to worry what hour of the day it is or whether they'll be able to get through via phone or fax, Snyder says.

Miller recently began rolling the application out to its distributors, and Leonard was looking forward to "being able to tune in and find out what's happening with the whole supply chain."

It will be a while before all the suppliers of Hunt's clients go on the Internet, but Black expects the application to greatly reduce the number of order entry clerks required. Black expects to be able to reduce operations staff labor by 8% once 30 of J.C. Penney's major vendors are brought online. These workers will be assigned to other tasks.

Keeping up with changing routes

Keeping the trucks full helps reduce transport costs, an obvious goal for any of Hunt's dedicated fleet customers. A large retail client that Hunt can't identify uses a new Java application that helps it adapt its sales efforts to boost capacity utilization in its 20 dedicated fleets.

Located at 20 different customer service centers, the retailer's sales representatives take orders for future and same-day deliveries. However, the Hunt engineers who dynamically build the daily delivery routes are located at corporate headquarters in Arkansas, making for some interesting logistics.

Route engineers previously faxed load plans to each center twice a day, but the utilization information for each truck wasn't timely enough to target sales to certain underutilized route segments and geographic areas. But that all changed when workers gained access to all updates as they occur, including new orders, changes and planned routes. The application shows each route's total stops, miles and the percentage of utilization.

Serving up statistics

If information is what they want, that's what Hunt's customers have got with a Java-based reporting tool that lets workers keep better track of shipments over time. Covering carrier performance attributes such as pickup failures, on-time deliveries and other data stockpiled in Hunt's mainframe, the application lets users choose various key indicators and dates to examine when they fire up their browsers.

Whereas Hunt previously issued monthly reports on paper, it took one to two weeks to get them into customers' hands, which made for less than current data. The Web changed all that. Now customers and Hunt's own logistics staff can see data from previous day's activities each morning via the Web, and on the first day of each month, full reports from the previous month are ready and waiting. This has enabled customers to identify shipping trends and act on problem areas much more quickly, not to mention customize reports to home in on key areas they're interested in. What's more, the application has greatly reduced Hunt's paper costs.

J.C. Penney, Miller and other J.B. Hunt customers also are benefiting from several additional Web-based applications, including order tracking and logistics for third-party carriers.

For instance, a Lotus Development Corp. Lotus Notes and Domino-based truckload order tracking system dubbed JOLT (J.B. Hunt Online Load Tender System) is expected to give order processing a jump-start when it's rolled out to non-EDI customers. Until recently, customer service representatives received 60% to 65% of the orders via fax.

Naturally, the need to handle the paper and enter orders into the computer system occasionally caused some lost documents, incomplete information and transcription errors. JOLT has already begun to speed order processing and reduce telecom expenses for the toll-free fax number, Black says.

Conquering challenges

Several customers initially worried about security, but Hunt demonstrated that the deployment offered minimum risk and maximum payoff. Extranets isolate Hunt's different customers while application-level security and customized screens restrict users' access to pertinent data. Hunt also distributes a document that outlines all of its security procedures, which include the use of secure browsers and encryption.

However, one large client was reluctant to give its employees Internet access. The company was afraid the Internet would impede productivity and workers would spend idle time surfing the Web. The problem was solved when the client implemented Netscape in kiosk mode, which blocked workers from accessing anything on the extranet other than the customer service applications.

Though most other Hunt customers have Internet access, that doesn't necessarily mean they have access in all locations, says J.C. Penney's Snyder. Now in the process of rolling out the order entry application to various hihg-volume suppliers, Snyder realizes that shipping docks and remote shipping locations may not yet be online. "Getting people to change the way they're doing something is always tricky," he says.

IS also encountered some development challenges. Although work went relatively smoothly, Black says the immaturity of Internet application development tools occasionally made things tough. Hunt's developers were used to robust, mature development tools, but the first crop of Internet development tools lacked the basic features they expected. "Our developers' productivity definitely dropped back a few levels," she says.

But Web-based application development is now routine for the group. These days, the developers have class libraries and can reuse a lot of code.

Java 1.1 programming is next on the drawing board. Hunt has narrowed its search for a long-term Java development tool to Borland International, Inc.'s JBuilder, IBM's Visual-Age for Java and Symantec Corp.'s Visual Cafe.

And Black's development group will no doubt be busy deploying these applications to additional customers and finding new ways to improve customer service.

Customer communications is just the beginning - next up is a carrier Internet suite in development. Scheduled to go into pilot by press time, the suite will let carriers enter real-time shipment status and receive load tenders and billing information from Hunt.

Internet technology will continue to play a major role in Hunt's strategy to provide value-added services for its customers, says Black. Many companies have provided information on the Web, but Hunt's focus is on using real business-to-business applications to integrate the total supply chain.