Maintenance organizations are currently being squeezed from two sides: tightening budgets from the difficult economy on one side, and the increasing workloads required to sustain aging assets as capital projects are delayed or abandoned on the other. Business conditions require executives in operations to reduce costs. This Insight provides suggestions for re-examining and optimizing business processes and infrastructure costs to achieve savings without compromising capability.

Logistics executives face many transportation-related challenges: volatile fuel prices, capacity constraints, road congestion, driver shortage, hours-of-service and safety regulations, sustainability initiatives, new taxes and fees (e.g., carbon emissions tax? vehicle miles travelled fee?), and the list goes on. This reality has led many shippers and carriers to focus on ways to improve the productivity of their transportation operations. Some have invested in technology, others have innovated their operations in other ways.