Rx for container management.

Do you suffer from any of these symptoms:

* Stress from managing containers;

* disappearing containers;

* supply chain bottlenecks;

* lack of supply chain visibility;

* high maintenance and replacement costs;

* poor container utilization;

* excessive use of one-way disposable packaging;

* pressure from customers to eliminate corrugated and wood packaging; or

* too much focus away from your core manufacturing function?

A new mobile assessment management solution from TrenStar offers relief. For an all-inclusive per-use fee, TrenStar will:

* Buy qualified container fleets for cash;

* replace the use of corrugated or wooden containers with best-of-the-industry returnable aluminum containers;

* eliminate a non-core capital expenditure;

* ensure predictable and measurable container expense;

* take over the hassle and expense of managing a non-core activity;

* maintain complete visibility of containers and their contents through the supply chain;

* leverage the financial gains of pooling standardized, resuable containers; and

* get you back to work.

Feel like you again

Synthetic rubber producers have lost sight of core activities, and in so doing have lost time and resources better devoted to the manufacture of product. Container management is costly and distracting, and producers are feeling the pain. Most have no way to identify the location of containers at any point in the supply chain, have no way to understand where bottlenecks are occurring, have no way to track containers or to link contents to containers - and containers in sites - for higher levels of quality control, and lack capital to buy additional containers to replace the use of corrugated or wooden ones. For these reasons and others, the typical producer has wanted to outsource the ownership and management of existing and future container requirements. Nobody has offered this service until now.

The first outsourced container, or asset-management, logistics services and supply chain technology solution is now offered. Now producers can actually sell to the firm their existing container fleets for cash and at the same time replace corrugated or wooden containers with TrenStar-owned aluminum containers. Financing of containers is part of this all-inclusive container management solution that includes the supply of containers, real-time data capture and reporting tracking technology, return logistics and repair and maintenance services, all for a per-use lee. A typical customer could expect significant yearly savings from the change in costs related to packaging methods and the increased control over this portion of the supply chain. Savings have the potential to grow to 2.5 percent of total sales.

No waiting

Producers that outsource mobile asset management immediately see improvements in their financial health. The right mobile asset management solution can deliver significant value, often paying for itself on the first day. This unique business model featuring the per-use fee makes it cost effective for clients to convert.

This solution is of particular value to customers for its cost predictability. Everything is included in the per-use fee, and quickly customers will know how many "uses" to expect in a given time frame. As unpredictable as the traditional cost of container management has been, the price has always ended with a bunch of zeroes, including zero visibility, zero accountability and zero reliability. This new business model, that includes logistics services to optimize inventory, reduce cycle time and prevent losses, is a fetching proposition. The costs of this solution are reliable and predictable, returning ROI (return on inventory) on the first day. No annual capital drains are required to buy new mobile assets. The supply chain becomes optimized. Operating costs and service levels improve, and producers are free to focus on core competencies.

Another spoonful of sugar for this industry is that TrenStar's recent partnership with O-T-D, a preferred aluminum container supplier to major synthetic rubber producers for more than 30 years, allows TrenStar to manage an outstanding aluminum container. TrenStar and O-T-D partnered to eliminate the barriers to geographical expansions, to support the increased rate of replacement of scrapped or out-of-date containers and to support corrugate and wood container elimination. TrenStar's management services coupled with O-T-D's container, worth 14 times as much as a one-way corrugated or wooden one, will always be less expensive for the customer than the customer's current method of container management.

Modern medicine

Answers are provided for the demand placed on companies in asset-intensive industries to transition over to and improve the management of returnable mobile assets so that they can respond to environmental and other legislation, government regulations, globalization, security concerns and other external pressures. In this industry, for instance, driving the shift from corrugated and wooden containers to aluminum are end user requirements concerning contamination, disposal and safe handling. This program's container tracking technologies record content and lot information for each container, helping to ensure the integrity, safety and visibility of the asset base as it moves from location to location. Logistics services ensure that said movement is optimized.

Logistics are inventory in motion, and the visibility of that inventory and what is happening to it are two of the biggest black holes in business. A mobile asset management solution underpinned by the latest tracking technologies captures critical data points in the supply chain and sheds light on the opportunities to meet and exceed customer needs, while providing the data to optimize inventories.

Optimum inventory is the amount that allows a company to deliver an acceptable service level at an acceptable cost. Unfortunately, it is usually easier to add inventory and the associated costs of containing and moving it than it is to calculate and manage optimum inventory because of the complexity and lack of visibility of the supply chain.

Data collection technologies, including RFID (in wider use in other industries), make container movement visible, opening up a window into the supply chain. AMR Research asserts in a recent report that companies that take a more simplified and focused approach to the use of RFID technology incur much less risk in implementation, receive tangible value and build capabilities that give them significant differentiation from their competitors. Customers get all of the benefits of RFID or other data collection systems without any of the risk or up front cost. This mobile asset management solution is focused on making each asset available for use as quickly as possible, thereby promoting supply chain efficiency. Customers stand out as an example to the industry of how paying for efficiency pays off.

Walk-ins welcome

Though they are building up steam, end user requirements concerning contamination, disposal and safe handling are not new and neither is the reality that container management is being handled poorly throughout the industry. Producers have been aching to outsource the problems of management and ownership of their containers and looking for help with the transition over to aluminum. Now they have a remedy. Initially, this new business model results in the optimization of mobile assets for an individual company. The ultimate goal, though, is industry asset pooling, meaning that common, uniform mobile assets are shared among several customers in the same industry. Asset pooling offers the sourcing of common, non-competitive activities and assets of multiple companies from a single provider who can do it for a lower average cost, and as a result supply chain optimization for an entire industry becomes possible.

Companies wanting to divest ownership of assets and the management process in exchange for value-added financing, services and information can expect significant improvements in things like overall accuracy, efficiency, operating costs and service levels. The cost of mobile asset management becomes based on an efficient outsourced operation where there is a shared risk and reward, and pooling as a viable industry initiative would only increase total efficiency. The prescription for container control, visibility and management problems is this outsourced mobile asset management solution.