RaceTrac has partnered with Blue Yonder, a digital supply chain company, to transform its warehousing operations and transportation modeling capabilities. The retailer will implement Blue Yonder Warehouse Management, Labor Management, and Transportation Modeling solutions to support future company expansion.
- RaceTrac is No. 17 on CSP’s 2024 Top 40 update to the 2023 Top 202 ranking of convenience store chains by store count. Watch for the full 2024 Top 202 in June.
Blue Yonder, Scottsdale, Arizona, is RaceTrac’s supply chain solutions provider for category management. The project will be implemented by warehouse management, labor management and transportation management company Open Sky Group, Blue Yonder’s partner.
Atlanta-based RaceTrac has growth and expansion plans for new markets, with a focus on its largest travel center format. RaceTrac’s current execution-focused solutions were not able to meet these future growth plans.
“We needed a solution that would allow us to not only improve our basic system functionality but allow us to meet the needs of our growing business,” said Daniel Vasseur, executive director of merchandise supply chain at RaceTrac. “After evaluating several vendors, we knew Blue Yonder was the right supply chain solutions provider as they could truly provide the end-to-end capabilities that we needed to digitally transform our operations and allow us to grow as our business and customer needs changed. Having worked with them for more than 20 years in the category management space, we are looking forward to implementing these—and future—solutions with them.”
With Blue Yonder, RaceTrac will be able to:
- Support store growth and geographic expansion initiatives.
- Automate supply chain execution processes, synchronize warehouse execution and optimize labor retention.
- Quickly onboard and embed advancements in automation to further streamline operations.
- Provide early visibility to demand and corresponding labor requirements to realize a more balanced and consistent operational experience, as well as improve labor standards and incentive pay.
- Enhance the balance between carriers and private fleet, determine the appropriate size and deployment of private fleet, optimize fleet routing and lay the foundation for continuous optimization while extending its transportation network.
The Blue Yonder solutions will enable RaceTrac to gain more flexibility, real-time responsiveness and prescriptive mobile workflows to manage complex warehouse operations, as well as unlocking opportunities for greater efficiency, performance and cost reductions across the warehouse, the company said. At the same time, RaceTrac can manage labor to drive employee engagement and performance to enhance business results. With Blue Yonder Transportation Modeling, RaceTrac can reduce transportation costs and minimize distances and carbon footprint by optimizing their carrier-private fleet mix, fleet size, deployment and routing.
“We are excited to assist RaceTrac with their Blue Yonder Warehouse and Labor Management solutions implementation in four warehouses across the southern U.S.,” said Eric McPherson, vice president of client services at Open Sky Group. “These solutions are going to increase their warehouse efficiency and give them a competitive advantage in a challenging supply chain landscape.”
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