Logistix Solutions LLC

Logistix Solutions LLC’s software platforms help hundreds of companies in the United States and worldwide find order in the chaos of large distribution and logistics networks. Established in 2006, the company provides supply chain network design and transportation optimization software solutions that help professionals analyze and optimize their logistics operations.

Logistix Solutions’ line of Logix^® software applications is used by manufacturers, retailers, distributors, private fleets and logistics service providers including Fortune 500 as well as fast-growing, mid-tier companies. Many Logix users are consultants retained to help manufacturers improve their operations.

“Our software and services help manufacturers and other companies create supply chain and transportation solutions that save money, time, man-hours, fuel costs, vehicle resources and driver expenses,” President Robert Camozzo says. “We offer software and consulting services that often reduce supply chain and distribution costs on the order of 30 percent,” he adds.

A Strategic Approach
Logistix Solutions’ software differs from transportation management or similar systems by taking a strategic approach to complex problems. “We look at things from the 40,000-foot level rather than street level,” Camozzo says. “Instead of managing routes when they’ve already hit the streets, we look at how you should set up a high performance distribution network in the first place.”

The company’s software tools can help companies determine the ideal number and location of manufacturing, distribution, warehouse and pooling facilities they should have in place. In addition, Logistix Solutions’ applications can address optimum driver schedules and routing, warehousing capacity issues and supplier selection.

“Optimization is a balance between competing factors like transportation, warehousing, production, sourcing, inventory, lead time and even risk,” Camozzo says. “Our solutions cut through the chaos to provide answers to often very complex problems. The so-called obvious choice is not always the best alternative when you take into account all of these complex and often divergent factors.

“The most gratifying comment I hear [from clients] is ‘I never thought about that solution, but now this makes perfect sense,” he adds.

A feature that is unique to Logistix Solutions’ software is its Proximity Radar View application, which shows users how much it would cost to not have plants and distribution centers in optimum locations. “The Radar View instantly shows where you are currently located, where the optimum site is located and, even more importantly, how much it costs as you move away from the optimum in each direction,” Camozzo says. It’s the ah-ha moment in all our presentations.”

Immediate Savings

A large national home improvement and construction industry supplier that ships products from overseas as well as from a manufacturing plant on the East Coast recently benefited from Logistix Solutions’ platform. The distribution optimization project took between eight and 10 weeks, which Camozzo says is the average for larger projects.

“[The supplier’s] expansion, mergers and the daily effort to maintain product availability resulted in a chaotic flow of products at a very high cost,” Logistix Solutions says. “[Our software] first optimized flows through the current network of distribution facilities and then optimized the number of facilities to reduce inventory costs and an overly complex process.

“Changes were quickly put in place and savings were immediate, at approximately 30 percent,” the company adds. “Next, we modeled hundreds of scenarios and combinations resulting in a hub-and-spoke distribution network with major and satellite distribution centers, optimized port of entry and supplier-direct shipments. This transformation would require a two- to three-year implementation plan while current facilities come off-lease and are replaced with optimally located facilities, new technology is implemented and financial systems are improved to track expected savings of several million dollars annually.”

Nearly all of the manufacturers that use Logistix Solutions’ software are running into the same issues while trying to balance both inbound supply and manufacturing operations and outbound delivery operations simultaneously. “We often hear questions like ‘what does my optimum distribution network look like if I increase [or decrease] my overseas production or bring in products from alternative ports of entry,’ or ‘what if I ship products directly from the supplier to some of my customers?’” Camozzo says. “These are often complex issues that cut across the entire supply chain and are not easily addressed by spreadsheets solutions that only reflect what you want to see or logistics service providers that may be primarily focused on the delivery side.”

“We nearly always see an interest in modeling e-commerce or omni-channel distribution and the impact on the current or future-state distribution network,” he adds. “No one wants to be stuck with a distribution network that’s not responsive to e-commerce challenges, whether that’s faster customer fulfillment times or changes in how distribution centers operate and the inventory they carry.”

Ease of Use

Logistix Solutions software is available by subscription. The system is typically downloaded onto a client’s system and updated every two weeks.

The software is easy to use and install. “We offer enterprise-level software without the enterprise price and without the burden associated with acquiring and implementing expensive and overly complicated technology products,” Camozzo says. “In the time it takes to go through the procurement cycle, you would have been able to download our software, create the first models, solve your pressing issues and produce optimum results with high quality maps, reports and charts for presentation to senior staff.”

Logistix Solutions software can typically be used to create a model mirroring the current distribution network within a few weeks. “Often, our users are able to quickly model improvements in their supply chain – such as inventory, product flows or distribution networks – that produce immediate savings and improvements in customer service,” he adds. “Our user interfaces and our product development are all geared toward reducing complexity, creating new insights, focusing on problem areas and ultimately creating solutions that address and highlight targets of greatest opportunity.”

The advantage of being an “on-demand” application allows Logistix Solutions to continuously develop new features and applications for its software. Recently, the system added the ability to perform simulations using probabilistic demand functions. “Once the baseline model is set up and validated, it’s very gratifying to simply push a button and optimize a solution from scratch or simulate future patterns in demand or changes in the marketplace and see how that might impact operations down the road,” Camozzo says. “[Users] can see what might happen or how they could set up manufacturing and distribution if they could start from scratch or see into the future.”