Leading North American Industrial Components Manufacturer Cuts $200K+ in Freight Costs with AI Agents

Cold forging operations crippled by disconnected freight management systems

The company's freight operations were struggling under the weight of disconnected systems that couldn't handle their specialized cold forging and aluminum extrusion supply chains across different industry segments. Their incumbent TMS provided basic trucking functionality but completely failed to integrate ocean shipments from Asian suppliers, rail movements for heavy aluminum products, and air freight for urgent cold-forged components. 

Freight procurement was particularly challenging because cold forgings and aluminum extrusions require different handling, packaging, and transportation considerations across ocean, rail, and ground modes. The team dedicated 8-12 hours to quarterly procurement events, but the TMS couldn't evaluate carriers based on their expertise with heavy industrial products or their ability to handle temperature-sensitive elastomers during ocean transit. Rate management was completely fragmented, ocean rates from Asian suppliers were managed in spreadsheets, while domestic trucking rates were stored in the TMS, making it impossible to calculate total landed costs for their industrial customers. 

The most critical operational challenge involved their VP of Logistics personally coordinating with consolidation agents across origin points in Asia to identify LCL opportunities for aluminum extrusions and tube products. This manual intervention was necessary because the incumbent TMS couldn't analyze shipment patterns across its 1,200 annual ocean containers to identify consolidation possibilities. Without intelligent load planning for their heavy industrial products, they were missing substantial cost-saving opportunities, particularly for their high-volume aluminum extrusion shipments to appliance manufacturers. 

Rail transportation was completely outside the system's capabilities. Teams manually coordinated with rail carriers for oversized shipments, tracked rail cars through spreadsheets, and had zero visibility into potential delays that could disrupt production schedules for their automotive and commercial equipment customers. The lack of integrated rail planning meant they often defaulted to more expensive trucking options even when rail would have been more cost-effective for their heavy industrial products. 

Air freight operations for urgent components and specialty elastomers were equally problematic. When customers needed expedited delivery of critical components, the team manually contacted air freight forwarders, negotiated rates without historical benchmarks, and tracked shipments through separate systems. This reactive approach to air freight management resulted in premium pricing and missed opportunities for volume discounts on their regular emergency shipments. 

Invoice processing across all transportation modes created substantial complexity due to the specialized nature of their products. Ocean carriers billed differently for aluminum extrusions versus cold forgings based on weight and handling requirements. Rail invoices included complex tariff structures for oversized loads and specialized railcar types. Air freight bills varied significantly based on the urgency and packaging requirements for different elastomer products. This complexity, combined with disconnected rate validation across modes, resulted in frequent overpayments and duplicate charges that accumulated to over $200K annually. 

We were essentially running three separate freight operations: ocean for our Asian aluminum suppliers, rail for heavy forgings, and trucking for finished products, instead of one integrated supply chain. Our system couldn't even tell us if we had space available in an ocean container when a rail shipment got delayed. 

– Director of Transportation

How Pi delivered $200K+ in freight savings with autonomous logistics

The transformation centered on deploying Pi, Pando's AI agent for logistics, to autonomize and optimize their complex multi-modal operations. Pi addressed each operational bottleneck systematically, creating measurable improvements across ocean, rail, air, and ground transportation modes. 

Autonomous multi-modal procurement event management 

Pi, donning the role of an AI freight procurement specialist, revolutionized their quarterly procurement events by autonomously managing bids across ocean, rail, trucking, and air freight simultaneously. The AI agent analyzed historical shipping patterns for aluminum extrusions and cold forgings to create optimized lane bundles that carriers could bid on competitively. Pi's scenario planning capabilities enabled the team to evaluate different modal combinations and consolidation strategies autonomously, reducing procurement event time from 8-12 hours to under 2 hours while achieving better rate outcomes. 

Pi completely transformed our procurement process. Instead of managing separate events for ocean, rail, and trucking, we now have one intelligent system that optimizes across all modes and finds consolidation opportunities we never would have discovered manually.

– Freight Procurement manager

Autonomous consolidation opportunity discovery 

Pi, as an AI transportation expert, leveraged its load optimization capabilities to eliminate the need for manual VP intervention in Asian consolidation decisions. The AI agent continuously analyzes shipment patterns to autonomously identify LCL consolidation opportunities across Asian origin points. Pi's recommendations integrate with freight forwarder systems to present optimized consolidation options that reduce per-unit shipping costs while maintaining delivery commitments to their industry customers. 

Real-time multi-modal shipment visibility platform 

Pi provides unified visibility across their 1,200 annual ocean shipments, rail movements, and ground transportation through integrated carrier connections. The AI agent automatically tracks milestone updates for ocean containers and trucks delivering finished products to OEMs. This comprehensive visibility enables production planning teams to proactively adjust manufacturing schedules based on accurate inbound material ETAs. 

Autonomous invoice audit across transportation modes 

Pi, as an AI freight audit & pay specialist, utilized its autonomous audit capabilities to handle the complexity of multi-modal invoice processing, from ocean freight bills to rail tariffs to trucking invoices. The AI agent performs 4-way matching that validates rates against contracts, shipment details, and delivery confirmations across all transportation modes. Pi's anomaly detection identifies billing discrepancies specific to each mode, such as incorrect ocean detention charges or rail fuel surcharges, achieving 98% exception-free invoice processing. 

Pi catches billing errors across ocean, rail, and trucking that our manual process missed, and we've eliminated over $200K in annual overpayments that were bleeding our freight budget.

– Manager, Global Freight Finance 

Dynamic rate management for complex freight products 

Pi maintains digitized contracts for all transportation modes, automatically updating rates across different carriers and lanes. The AI agent provides real-time rate comparisons for modal selection decisions, enabling logistics teams to choose the most cost-effective transportation option for each shipment type while meeting industry delivery requirements. 

Predictive analytics for multi-modal performance optimization 

Pi's analytics capabilities identify performance patterns across ocean, rail, and ground transportation that weren't visible through manual analysis. The AI agent predicts potential delays based on seasonal factors, carrier performance history, and route-specific challenges, enabling proactive communication with OEM customers about delivery schedules. Pi's sustainability tracking provides comprehensive CO2 emissions reporting across all transportation modes, supporting environmental initiatives for their industry segments. 

Autonomous compliance management for global operations 

Pi ensures adherence to international shipping regulations, customs requirements, and industry standards across their global operations. The AI agent autonomously validates documentation for aluminum extrusions and cold forgings moving through customs, tracks compliance with OEM delivery requirements, and maintains audit trails for all transportation modes. 

The transformation delivered exceptional results that exceeded all expectations. The elimination of $200K in annual freight leakages provided immediate cost savings, while the 90% productivity improvement freed logistics teams to focus on strategic supplier relationships rather than manual operational tasks. The 25% reduction in detention and demurrage penalties came from Pi’s proactive shipment monitoring and automated carrier communications. 

Most significantly, Pi converted their freight operation from a reactive cost center into a proactive value driver for their automotive and appliance industry customers. The VP no longer needs to personally coordinate asian consolidation opportunities, and the logistics team can now provide accurate delivery commitments backed by real-time visibility across all transportation modes. 

Pi has positioned the industrial parts manufacturer as a logistics leader within the manufacturing sector, enabling them to maintain their zero-defect, 100% on-time delivery commitments while significantly reducing operational costs and administrative overhead.