Speeding up service in West Texas

Leaders at Summit Industrial Park (SIP), located just outside of Odessa, Texas, were looking for a better way to track inventory and improve operations in the fast-paced oil and gas market. SIP is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sumitomo Corp. of Americas (SCOA)—a Fortune 500 global trading and business investment company—that distributes oil country tubular goods (OCTG), primarily casing and tubing used for oil and gas extraction. The company provides last-mile logistics for those products to oil and gas companies in the region, and real-time inventory tracking is essential to keeping operations running smoothly and efficiently, according to company leaders.

That’s why they turned to supply chain technology firm Made4net, whose warehouse management system (WMS) provides third-party logistics service (3PL) capabilities, including inventory tracking and asset management functions. Made4net’s WarehouseExpert WMS is integrated with SIP’s proprietary enterprise resource planning (ERP) system as well as its track and trace system, allowing the company to track and invoice shipments for multiple clients faster than ever before.

“Made4net’s platform and functionality fits well with our vision for technological alignment and seamless integration with our ERP, order management, and other solutions for managing multiple owners of goods and accurately tracking inventory history,” SIP’s general manager, Michael Thomas, said in a statement describing the project, which was completed earlier this year.

A SPEEDY IMPLEMENTATION

SIP began operations this year, following more than a year of construction that started amid the market uncertainty and volatility of late 2020 and was later hampered by record-low temperatures and electrical grid issues in the region during the winter of 2021. Those issues intensified demand for an inventory management solution that would streamline operations and could be up and running quickly. The Made4net solution manages receiving, inventory management, and shipping of pipe and related materials at the yard, and also tracks and manages SIP’s perpetual inventory. The project implementation was complete in three months, and on the first day of operation this past January, SIP beat its record for the highest number of trucks shipped out of the facility, according to both companies. 

Employees access the system on mobile tablets in the yard, utilizing e-signature capabilities to capture signatures in real time, speeding up the overall process. Special features include a real-time tally process that allows users to record the exact length of each pipe leaving the yard. 

Such details allow SIP to serve customers and manage its own business more accurately and efficiently.

“Made4net solutions have strong third-party logistics features, including multi-owner management, that are important to Summit Industrial Park, and we are glad to partner with them on this important project,” Duff Davidson, Made4net CEO, said in the statement describing the project. “Companies like SIP are realizing the benefit of Made4net’s adaptable platform and powerful supply chain solutions that are feature-rich, deploy faster, and are flexible to adjust as the business evolves.”