Michael Foods operates a complex transportation network serving customers across the food industry. For Jim Carver, Senior Director of Supply Chain, the goal was to move beyond traditional transportation reporting and build a more data-driven decision framework across the business.
With nearly 30 years of supply chain experience, Jim recognized the need for better visibility into how transportation performance impacts both service and cost. Michael Foods needed a clearer understanding of lane competitiveness, customer service performance, and the true cost to serve each customer.
By implementing GoodShip, the team gained a centralized platform that connects transportation data across the network. Today, Michael Foods uses GoodShip to analyze lane performance, identify service gaps earlier, and deliver clear, shareable insights that inform decisions across both operations and leadership.
Michael Foods needed a better way to connect transportation performance with broader business decisions.
The team wanted to move toward a fully data-driven approach that could clearly show how service performance and transportation costs affect customer relationships and overall profitability. However, gathering and analyzing this information across the network required significant manual effort.
Leadership needed deeper insight into two critical areas: how their lanes compared to the market and what the true cost-to-serve looked like at the customer level. Without a centralized view, it was difficult to consistently communicate these insights across the organization or respond quickly to changing market conditions.
Michael Foods needed a platform that could bring together transportation data, highlight risks and opportunities, and present insights in a way that could be easily shared across the business.
Michael Foods selected GoodShip because it provided a more holistic view of their transportation network and delivered insights in a clear, actionable format.
The platform enables the team to evaluate lane-level competitiveness against the market and identify potential exposure areas before procurement cycles begin. This allows the team to proactively address pricing or carrier alignment issues rather than reacting after problems occur.
Another key capability is analyzing service performance and cost together at the customer level. By connecting these insights, the Michael Foods team can better understand how service failures impact cost and where adjustments are needed.
GoodShip is used across multiple levels of the organization. Planners use the platform to support RFP positioning, spot market decisions, and carrier performance analysis. Leadership uses the insights to evaluate strategic opportunities and align transportation strategy with broader business goals.
Since implementing GoodShip, Michael Foods has improved its ability to identify service issues early and respond more quickly to market conditions.
One of the most significant improvements has been the ability to detect service gaps before they escalate into larger operational problems. Instead of reacting to issues after they impact customers, the team can now identify risks early and adjust their network accordingly.
The platform has also improved agility when operating in the spot market. With clearer visibility into market conditions and lane competitiveness, the team can make faster and more informed pricing decisions.
GoodShip also enables Michael Foods to evaluate service performance and cost-to-serve metrics at the customer level. By reviewing this data regularly, the team can quickly adjust strategies to improve service outcomes while controlling transportation costs.
The introduction of Laney, GoodShip’s AI transportation analyst, has further accelerated the team’s workflow. Instead of manually compiling reports and analyzing large datasets, the team can ask Laney questions and receive structured insights within minutes.
Laney provides outputs that are presentation-ready, allowing leadership to spend less time preparing reports and more time acting on the insights.
Jim describes the GoodShip platform as concise, actionable, and service-oriented. These qualitiesreflect how the platform helps the Michael Foods team align transportation performance with customer service outcomes and business strategy.
For Michael Foods, GoodShip has become a critical tool for transforming transportation data into faster decisions, stronger service performance, and a clearer understanding of cost-to-serve across the network.
