Case Study: Sealy's Sustainable Partnership

  Energy   Energy and Utilities  

When it comes to performance measurement, Sealy, one of North America's largest bedding manufacturers, isn't sleeping on the job.

Every one of the company's projects-from small-scale efforts to major global deployments-has dedicated scorecards, deadlines and quantifiable expectations. "We measure everything," says Jim Packer, vice president of supply chain management at Sealy, located in Trinity, North Carolina, USA. "We are very disciplined."

So, when Sealy's parent company, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR), partnered with the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) to improve the sustainability of its companies, the bedding giant seemed like a natural test case.

In late 2008, Sealy and EDF added environmental metrics aimed at tracking the effectiveness of the mattress manufacturer's initiative to reduce fuel and energy consumption in response to rising costs. Speed monitors and UPS tracking software were installed in the company's trucking fleet to monitor fuel usage and distance covered. The information collected was then used to optimize delivery routes, select vendors based on their proximity to Sealy plants and consolidate transportation in North America.

A team leader was assigned to the initiative, and the company established baselines and scorecards to measure incremental project results.

Within three …

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