Hanson Professional Services Inc.'s targeted and unique services provide operational efficiency and cost improvements for any manufacturing plant's internal logistics, such as material handling, storage, rail and truck operations, and carrier connections and interactions. Honing internal logistics can provide high rates of return on investments. These can range from simple changes in operational practices to changes in civil infrastructure.
"As the manufacturing base continues to grow in the Gulf Coast region, the requirement to move the increased volume of products being produced becomes critical," said Hanson Industry Market Principal Dave Thomson. "Highways, railroads, inland marine systems and pipelines are experiencing growing pains in the Gulf Coast. Manufacturing plants experience congestion due to increased shipments and transportation carrier capacity. The cost for transportation ranges from 8 percent to 11 percent of the final price a customer pays. Small improvements in freight costs can have major impacts on the profitability, or market share, of an individual production unit."
Hanson has developed a proprietary set of tools to analyze and identify areas of improvement for the movement of product into, within and out of manufacturing plants. The company refers to this area of expertise as Inside Site Logistics (ISL). Hanson's focus is to understand how the product is loaded or unloaded into transportation vehicles and moved in and out of manufacturing plants, in order to refine the operations to be as efficient as possible. If these changes do not achieve the full results needed, Hanson provides options to modify the physical infrastructure.
ISL includes the analysis (operational, financial and markets), planning, design and construction of different types of transportation infrastructure for trucking, rail, barge and pipeline.
"We also have performance metrics that can be measured to identify how changes in the process or transportation infrastructure will create a negative or positive effect," said Hanson Vice President and Project Principal Clay Scott. "We understand that producing product is the major focus of a manufacturing plant. Getting raw materials into the process plants and finished goods out to market are components that are sometimes overlooked in the big picture. With new production units constantly being added to plants, upgrades and optimization to the legacy logistics setup are often overlooked."
ISL contains tools developed by Hanson as a result of the company's broad range of experience gained from transportation operations, commercial transportation management and engineering. Some of these tools include the analysis of rail-switch movements, streamlined flowcharts of generic logistics processes for different products, time analysis of specific loading or cleaning operations, and material handling alternatives.
Since 1954, clients have known Hanson as a trusted partner that is committed to their success and capable of handling challenging projects. From planning and design to construction and completion, Hanson takes a hands-on approach to each project with a clear focus on goals, budget and timeline. The firm has offices nationwide, including in Houston, Corpus Christi, Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin and Brownsville, Texas, to serve clients throughout the Gulf Coast region.
For more information, visit www.hanson-inc.com or call (346) 297-1726.
