Organización Corona: Creating supply chain visibility to increase logistics efficiency and sustainability
Explore Organización Corona’s journey with SAP
For more than 140 years, Organización Corona has manufactured and exported goods around the globe. To optimize its worldwide logistics and transportation operations, the company implemented several innovative SAP solutions, including SAP Business Network for Logistics and SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition, transportation management.
| Industry | Region | Company Size |
| Industrial manufacturing | Bogotá, Colombia | 10,000 |
of third-party carriers on the network available within 24 hours.
increase in filled round trips for third-party carriers.
reduction of demurrage costs with improved loading and unloading.
General Manager, Logistics and Transport, Organización Corona
Transforming supply chain operations with unprecedented logistics visibility
Founded in 1881 in Bogotá, Colombia, Organización Corona manufactures and markets home, construction, industrial, agriculture, and energy products that are exported and sold in 45 countries around the world. The company has 29 manufacturing plants in Colombia, the United States, Central America, and Mexico, as well as more than 40 specialty retail operations in Colombia and Central America and a global supply office in China.
As a market leader, Corona embraces a standard of world-class innovation. The company recognized that it was time to apply that standard to its logistics and transportation operations by transforming outdated systems.
One of the key components of the company’s operations is a fleet of approximately 1,500 vehicles that are operated by Corona-employed and third-party drivers. Managing the fleet for on-time deliveries was a complex, challenging process because of manual and labor-intensive tasks that were often inefficient and resulted in bottlenecks, regulations and compliance irregularities, and delays from abrupt disruptions.
To better support customer demand, Corona wanted to integrate and optimize its logistics and transportation operations through a digital supply chain network that it called the “control tower.” The company envisioned a solution that would enable more proactive, visible, and consistent processes for demand planning, order management, route planning, carrier selection, shipment tracking, and freight settlement and audits.
As Ricardo Monsalve, general manager of logistics and transport for Corona, explains, “We recognized we needed a more innovative approach that gave us real-time visibility into our fleet’s operations so we could proactively track and monitor the movement of our shipments.”
From a technological perspective, Corona’s goals for the control tower implementation included:
Unifying transportation management processes by integrating core systems for freight planning, carrier selection, shipment execution, and tracking
Consolidating and analyzing spend data from various sources to identify cost-saving opportunities and implement strategies to optimize procurement and sourcing processes
Enabling intelligent decision-making by leveraging predictive data-analytics capabilities that drive actionable insights and the identification of optimal transportation routes and potential risks
Strengthening collaboration between transportation planners and carriers to enable real-time information exchanges, collaboration on procurement processes, and improved relationship management
Increasing customer satisfaction with accurate demand planning and ensuring timely and predictable deliveries
Improving compliance with complex customs regulations, import and export duties, trade policies, and regulatory requirements across different countries to reduce delays, decrease costs, and avoid potential issues
General Manager, Logistics and Transport, Organización Corona
Bringing innovation to unified logistics and transporting operations
Corona began the control tower initiative with a best-practice methodology for digital transformation that focused on key performance indicators, benchmarks, and metrics for continuous improvement. The company chose SAP solutions for the project based on discussion with industry and supply chain partners in the region. Leveraging consistent SAP technology along the supply chain would allow for easier integration of systems and processes for better collaboration between partnering organizations.
Corona launched the deployment using the SAP Business Network Freight Collaboration and SAP Business Network Global Track and Trace solutions, which are part of SAP Business Network for Logistics. The company also deployed SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition, transportation management and the SAP Integrated Business Planning (SAP IBP) for Supply Chain solution. Together, these solutions are improving transportation logistics by providing greater visibility, reducing costs, increasing profitability, and enhancing collaboration with carriers and suppliers through third-party integrations. In addition, SAP Business Network helps Corona integrate its logistics operations internally to enhance compliance and support informed decisions based on centralized data analytics. SAP IBP helps the company optimize its demand-planning processes, improve forecast accuracy, and align operations with market demand.
With the combination of SAP Business Network Freight Collaboration and SAP Business Network Global Track and Trace with SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition, transportation management, Corona has a more fluid native integration of logistics tools for planning and execution. The company’s overall solution landscape includes the SAP Extended Warehouse Management application that Corona previously implemented in a facility in Mexico.
Corona also implemented other solutions that are aligned with SAP Business Technology Platform. The SAP Fiori user experience provides Corona employees with a consumer-like user experience, mobile and remote device access, and customization and extensibility that support the company’s unique business requirements. SAP Cloud Identity Services provides Corona with a comprehensive identity and access management solution that enables enhanced security, usability, and manageability.
In addition, Corona deployed the SAP Analytics Cloud solution to get real-time logistics and carrier monitoring, planning, and reporting that support a data-driven approach to decision-making. The company implemented SAP Integration Suite, which acts as a central integration hub for Corona and enables comprehensive connectivity and process automation. It also provides connectivity between various SAP and third-party solutions, applications, data, and partners involved in cross-organizational processes.
Throughout the engagement, SAP Enterprise Support services helped Corona maximize the value of its SAP software investments and ensure the smooth operation of business processes. Teaming together with Corona, the SAP services experts helped the company leverage – on an as-needed basis – incident management, technical support, knowledge transfer, innovation, and remote supportability.
General Manager, Logistics and Transport, Organización Corona
Simplifying operations while reducing costs and improving satisfaction
With its new control tower solution, Corona has increased operational efficiencies and achieved real-time visibility and control while reducing cost savings, improving regulatory compliance, and driving better customer satisfaction.
The company has access to timely data-driven, situational awareness associated with its complex logistics and transportation processes that enables more-agile decision-making to avoid disruption or mitigate impact when disruption is unavoidable. Corona employees can effectively communicate and collaborate with customers and stakeholders while taking prompt action on issues, addressing exceptions effectively, and building greater relationships, satisfaction, and loyalty. With integrated systems and automated processes, they are empowered to perform more strategic work and take on value-added activities. They can also make more-accurate payments based on actual activities performed with reduced errors, and gain visibility into spend across different categories and business units to identify savings opportunities.
From a dedicated logistics perspective, Corona has optimized transportation planning, maximized truck use, reduced empty miles and dwell time, and improved load consolidation and backhaul optimization, which helps shorten lead times for its customers. Greater collaboration and communication with carriers, drivers, stakeholders, and customers, along with real-time visibility into shipment status, has led to improved coordination and efficiency across the supply chain. Corona has reduced the number of trucks used for shipments due to fewer vehicles that are empty or have only a partial load, which is not only decreasing the company’s costs but also reducing its dependence on greenhouse gas emissions of fossil fuels. As an example, the company has reduced the demurrage penalties for detaining trucks while loading and reloading by approximately 40%. Corona has also reduced fuel consumption and emissions, which positively impacts overall supply chain efficiency and sustainability.
“We now have better tracking and traceability capabilities,” Monsalve says, “with visibility into risks that allows us to proactively and strategically plan for contingencies and mitigate potential supply chain issues before they occur.” Monsalve added that the company can identify the most suitable carrier for each shipment based on predefined criteria such as cost, transit time, carrier capacities, carrier performance, delivery-time windows, and route optimization.
With fewer costly and time-consuming delays and disruptions, Corona’s customer satisfaction is increasing due to more predictable on-time and in-full deliveries. Moreover, Corona’s fleet drivers are happier, having a difficult yet essential part in the supply chain. By investing in the driver experience, Corona has been able to retain a sustainable employee and contingent workforce more easily, resulting in benefits such as overall cost control and customer loyalty.
General Manager, Logistics and Transport, Organización Corona