Con-Way Transportation Services Inc., an operating company of CNF Inc., has been awarded an Enterprise Value Award (EVA) by CIO magazine.

Due to the intense nature of the selection and judging, the award is recognized as one of the most sought after and prestigious recognitions within information technology.
Con-Way received the award in January for the company's automation of its linehaul system. Begun in 1998, development of the system took two years followed by two years of daily operational testing with fully qualified operations beginning in early 2002.
The automated system optimizes personnel, equipment and individual routes for the nighttime movement and timely relay of freight shipments in the United States and all of Canada. The system creates an automated less-than-truckload freight operations system. Con-Way says the system is based on historical performance, human intuitive skills and experience, and selected iterative processes, including linear programming. The company says the system is able to operate without changing Con-Way's basic business model of transit times and coverage. Each evening, the system takes in shipment data having tens of millions of alternate routing options and provides an optimum answer in seven minutes.
Dr. YaFeng Du, Con-Way's director of decision technology, is the architect of the project. "In seven minutes, linehaul dispatchers receive a routing plan for 95% of the day's shipments. This plan includes all personnel and equipment requirements plus optimum shipment routing guides, and allows the dispatchers to track and make adjustments to the plan via a Web interface," said Du.
The EVA judging process was a demanding one. In May 2002, more than 80 organizations entered their systems in the competition. By September, the field had been narrowed to 11 finalists. A CIO review board then conducted an onsite examination of the linehaul system. Trained researchers and high-level IT executives visited Ann Arbor, Mich. where they viewed the system in action and interviewed numerous Con-Way employees to confirm the enterprise value produced by the system. Con-Way's enterprise value claim included annual dollar savings of between $4 and $5 million and improved on-time delivery performance for its customers.