The encyclopedia · Engineering & Operations · Operational decision · 2015-2017
Snider Tire redesigned its network and saved $2M a year
A mid-size tire dealer optimised plants-to-stores and customers-to-store routes; transportation costs fell 16%, about $2M a year.
Snider Tire
the move
Snider Tire, one of the largest US commercial tire and retreading dealers, served 4,700 customers through 23 stores and four plants, spending almost $12 million a year on transportation. Routes and flows had grown organically rather than being designed.
Working with researchers, the company redesigned the network in two stages, optimising plants-to-stores distribution first, then re-engineering customers-to-store truck routes, within a Lean Six Sigma framework that rooted out process problems before re-optimising.
Because store and plant managers were part of the development team, they understood and owned the new plans. The result was $2 million, or 16%, in annual transportation cost savings.
why it works
- Two-stage optimisation matched how decisions actually happen.
- Fix root causes first, then optimise on top of clean processes.
- Manager involvement turned the model into adopted practice.
- The savings were concrete: $2M or 16% of the transport bill.
what transfers
For a small, traditional firm, the model is only half the job; the other half is making the people who run the network co-authors of the change. Ownership turns optimiser output into actual savings.
what came after
The redesigned network stayed in place, and the case study appeared in Interfaces (2017) as an example of operations research inside a small traditional company.
references
- Snider Tire Optimizes Its Customers-Stores-Plants Transportation Network
- Snider Tire Optimizes Its Customers-Stores-Plants Transportation Network
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