Kinaxis and 4flow collaborate to reduce transportation spend and emissions

OTTAWA — Kinaxis® Inc. and 4flow, a provider of supply chain optimization services – including consulting, software and managed services, announced the availability of a new Kinaxis RapidResponse® application designed to drive efficiency and significantly reduce freight spend and CO2 emissions.

Kinaxis Transportation Load Optimizer by 4flow gives Kinaxis customers a more accurate view of their rail, ocean, air and truck load transportation costs by considering transportation variables such as carrier rates and inventory costs to create optimal loads based on supply, demand and market indicators. It supports improved material handling processes with integration into RapidResponse sales and operations planning (S&OP) workflows and what-next scenarios. Using optimization algorithms based on real-world constraints, including freight rates and actual transportation capacities, users are provided with actionable planning results. The application reduces transportation spend and increases capacity utilization by optimizing shipment scheduling to consolidate orders and create fuller, more efficient loads.

“We opened up our RapidResponse platform to allow supply chain innovators like 4flow to develop applications to give our customers new functionality and choice and gain more efficiency in their end-to-end supply chain,” said Andrew McDonald, Chief Product Officer, Kinaxis. “As our partner and an established leader in transportation planning and optimization we’re excited to have certified 4flow’s first application on RapidResponse. It is a perfect example of how Kinaxis customers can gain additional value from their RapidResponse implementation, while helping to maintain a sustainable supply chain – something that is critical in today’s business environment.”

Kinaxis RapidResponse is a cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform purpose-built for planning, and leverages patented in-memory database technology. Combined with Kinaxis’ concurrent planning technique, RapidResponse helps global manufacturers build agile and resilient supply chains.

“Building on the RapidResponse platform lets us leverage our innovative planning algorithms to create an application that seamlessly connects supply chain planning and transportation optimization,” said Kai Althoff, CEO, 4flow. “We are pleased to be working with Kinaxis to combine the power of concurrent planning with transportation and load building optimization to help customers save money, gain efficiencies and meet sustainability objectives.”