Easy Metrics
Infusing Visibility into 3PL

A unique aspect of a best-of-breed 3PL labor management system (LMS) is the ability to be rolled out quickly and to easily manage the multiple data sources and configuration changes needed to maintain an effective solution. While the most immediate benefit is improvement in employee performance, the process also provides excellent visibility into the cost-to-serve by process, customer, and category. However, providing a solution that can work effectively in the extremely dynamic environment of a dedicated or multi-tenant 3PL is a whole new ball game.

Set against the backdrop of such observations is Easy Metrics. Its CEO, Dean Dorcas, was quick to recognize the need in the market for an efficient and flexible LMS and designed Easy Metrics to actualize this realization. Easy Metrics works seamlessly and integrates with multiple data sets to transform them into granular cost and performance intelligence about employees, processes, and customers or product categories.

Easy Metrics’ unique value proposition is based on four pillars—ease of implementation, maintainability, usability, and time to value. “Since it easily integrates with multiple timekeeping and WMS systems within a single facility and requires minimal IT resources, Easy Metrics enables a 3PL to have a system operational quickly and promises a rapid ROI,” says Dorcas.

On the maintainability side, the dynamic nature of 3PLs requires frequent changes to processes, facility layouts, data sources and logic configurations. Easy Metrics designed Logic Writer, its user interface mapping tool, to easily handle these types of ongoing changes without the time or cost that would be incurred if software engineers were needed to make the configuration changes.

Since it easily integrates with multiple timekeeping and WMS systems within a single facility and requires minimal IT resources, Easy Metrics enables a 3PL to have a system operational quickly and promises a rapid ROI

The combination of implementation, maintainability, and usability empowers Easy Metrics to help 3PLs optimize their labor spend quickly. Unlike traditional enterprise labor management systems, it is not unusual for an Easy Metrics customer to achieve a strong ROI within the first year.

In one such instance, Easy Metrics was instrumental in helping GENCO—a major 3PL service provider—when they were in need of detailed information to optimize their workforce and material handling equipment. Initially, GENCO was using lift trucks and the iWarehouse Fleet Management System supplied by Raymond, a strategic partner of Easy Metrics. Easy Metrics was able to combine the telematics data from iWarehouse with GENCO’s WMS and Timeclock data to give managers a new level of visibility. The integration of Easy Metrics and iWarehouse provided GENCO with a 360-degree view of everything going on in the facility—far beyond just material handling equipment.

Dorcas is aware that new data sources are becoming available that will provide additional insight into employee performance and has designed Easy Metrics to benefit from this explosion of data. For instance, a company may decide to roll out a wearable belt to help prevent workforce injuries. That data can then be used to include safe lifting practices as part of an employee’s performance score and pay-for-performance incentives.