Our customer, the US plant of a German automotive supplier, had decided to optimize their inbound supply chain to improve transit times and to reduce freight. So far, routings and carriers were selected on a daily, purely tactical basis without following any SCM concept or strategy. As long as sales were strong, freight optimization did not have high prioritization within the US organization. But with signs of declining sales on the horizon, our customer's executive team decided to streamline their inbound supply chain to be prepared for a potential recession and the associated pressure on costs reductions.