Corrugated Supplies Corporation (CSC) is a small Bedford Park, Illinois, manufacturer of made-to-order corrugated cardboard sheets for boxes, displays, and other custom packaging. CSC management has always been very forward-looking and the firm was an early leader in providing e-commerce services and customer access to its internal corporate systems to track their orders.

          CSC's business does not involve multiple components and products but rather a product that has many, many different configurations-trillions of product variations are theoretically possible. As a result, many CSC orders come with special instructions, such as requests for deep scores, customized logos to be printed, or specific shipping requirements. The orders are usually small with very short lead times, and more than half needing delivery within 24 hours. Moreover, the business is very competitive: There are approximately 700 corrugators in the United States alone.

          CSC uses a Web extranet for roughly 85 percent of the 600 orders it processes daily. Customers can either enter their order information into an online order form, or their purchase order systems can transmit the orders electronically to CSC without customers having to retype them into the Web site. CSC sends the customer an e-mail confirming the transaction.

          CSC's Web site provides capabilities for customizing orders. If a customer wants its corrugated sheets stamped with a company logo instead of CSC's, it can specify these requirements. Customers can use the Web to transmit changes to orders before completion by clicking on an "edit" icon next to the order, even if it's in the queue for a machine. Because this ordering system is integrated with CSC's inventory system, customers can immediately see whether an order can be fulfilled. Most orders can be turned around within 24 hours.

          The Web site incorporates shipping information, enabling the company to track all products as they come off the manufacturing line and are loaded into trailers or placed in a temporary inventory area. Customers can not only view the contents of the trailer but also the sequence in which items were loaded. This information helps customers direct the corrugated paper to the designated packaging machinery more quickly once it has been delivered, so they don't have to put the delivered paper in inventory and later try to locate it.

Sources: Howard Baldwin, "Thinking Big," Cisco IQ Magazine, First Quarter 2004; Wes Iversen, "Real-Time for Real Savings," Automation World, April 2004; and www.csclive.com, accessed August 26, 2004.