Core to Quetica’s capabilities is our experience using demand-based supply chain network design and optimization modeling to help public agencies and private companies optimize their networks and maximize their efficiency. Quetica has developed unique data products that integrate private sector shipping information, such as equipment type and service costs, with public sector data, such as the Freight Analysis Framework. This unique approach allows Quetica to identify multimodal projects that reduce overall supply chain costs and support economic competitiveness. This cutting-edge, data-driven approach supports the direction toward increasing the use of public-private partnerships to solve critical freight transportation needs.
Private sector supply chains depend heavily on the public elements of the transportation network. The highway system is the primary freight mode, but also provides connectivity to other, often privately owned and/or operated, freight modes such as rail and barge. Since changes to public transportation networks are largely outside the control of private companies, supply chains must be designed around these constraints. In addition, the scope of supply chain network design and optimization strategies of commercial businesses is typically limited to only their own private company data. Private organizations do not have the benefit of insights gained from examining broader commodity movements across multiple companies, across a region, or across a state.
Until recently, state and local transportation agencies have not incorporated optimization models into their catalog of management tools. However, in a first-of-its-kind project for the Iowa DOT, Quetica applied these private sector optimization best practices to the public freight network in Iowa. The resulting freight optimization study demonstrated how strategic network investments could lower costs for shippers, reduce highway infrastructure wear and present an attractive business case for unmet service needs in the state. Today, Quetica works with Departments of Transportation (DOT), Economic Development agencies, Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) and other state and local government agencies to perform Freight Network Optimization studies and develop corresponding tools that provide public agencies with strategic supply chain information that help prioritize investments, identify economic development opportunities for business expansion or relocation, as well as secure grant funding for development.