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Pival International Inc.
A Partnership Approach
Flexibility, agility, adaptability, custom solutions: such are the advantages of Pival International, a warehouse company
specialized mainly in the automotive world and industrial products with facilities in Ontario and Quebec.
P
ival International is a good example
of creativity and determination in
logistics. Its success story started in
2003 when Mario La Barbera,
President of Logistique Acurail Inc., began
working with Daniel Goyette, President of
C.A.T. Inc., to pool their expertise in railway,
intermodal and road transportation. The new
company, called Pival International, stands
for ‘‘Partners In Value Added Logistics." Its
mission is to offer multimodal solutions with
dedicated, custom logistics. Recognizing his
success at C.A.T., La Barbera decided to
recruit Bernard Yergeau as Vice-President,
Finance and Administration, to help in the
development of custom logistics solutions.
Since its creation, Pival has successfully provided custom solutions for storage, inventory
and distribution of raw materials and finished
products. Today, Pival has more than 70
employees in three warehouses, with a fourth
currently under construction. Among its
clients it counts large companies such as GM,
Bridgestone-Firestone, Goodyear, Pirelli,
Continental, Kruger and Alcoa.
The Pival International team at the groundbreaking of the new Oshawa logistics centre. We see Bernard
Yergeau, Vice-President, Finance, and third from left, the President, Mario La Barbera.
BIG PROJECTS FOR GM OSHAWA
Building on the success of its warehouses
in Trois-Rivières, Valleyfield and Ajax, Pival
is developing its biggest project yet, an integrated logistics centre in Oshawa. When completed, this centre of 41 acres will offer warehouse and crossdocking services to GM and
other users, with 22 indoor positions for rail
cars, 154 loading docks and more than
600,000 square feet of storage space. More
than 700 trucks per day will deliver merchandise that will then be delivered to GM in production sequence. Pival is little known in
Quebec and most of Ontario, but is well
known at the three Oshawa GM plants, which
produce 3,600 vehicles per day. According to
La Barbera, ‘‘Our partnership approach is what
makes us successful."
Pival has two distribution centres in
Quebec, in Trois-Rivières and Valleyfield, and
another in Ajax, Ontario, located about 20
kilometres from Oshawa, the Canadian automotive capital.
American automaker, General Motors. The
warehouse is 26 feet in height, allowing vertical space for five pallets. The distribution
centre has a specific mission: to provide GM
with tires of all kinds based on deliveries
made directly to the Ajax warehouse, by the
automaker's suppliers. Yergeau explains: ‘‘GM
and Pival have worked in partnership to
develop this custom solution that GM wanted
to implement for a long time.
‘‘The automaker notified all its suppliers to
deliver to us. For our part, we guarantee GM
just-in-time delivery to meet requirements of
their production line. Every day, 17,000 tires
arrive at the centre while just as many leave
it. Just-in-time allows GM to reduce management costs with a group of suppliers and keep
their production line active. The cost of production downtime is enormous. We usually
receive GM's order the night before the shipment, but our processes allow multiple daily
deliveries," says Yergeau.
AJAX
In Ajax, the heart of the Canadian automotive industry, Pival operates a warehouse
of 128,000 square feet for a big North
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NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006 VOL. 9 NO. 6
VALLEYFIELD
Another Pival warehouse is located in
Valleyfield. It covers 256,000 square feet and
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contains tires, zinc and other industrial products. Pival's creativity here is also the key to
its competitive success. “Goodyear produces
its winter tires in Valleyfield,” Yergeau
explains. “When the winter tires were produced, Goodyear distributed them to different
warehouses throughout North America. In the
fall, tires were brought back to warehouses in
Montreal and Toronto for delivery to customers, from several storage locations ranging from Maryland to as far as Texas. It is
easy to imagine the astronomical costs of
shipments of this scope. Customer service suffered, and delivery lead times could stretch to
as long as ten days." Pival suggested to
Goodyear that they create a distribution centre in Valleyfield, to keep all winter tires on
the premises and deliver them from the new
warehouse. Result: delivery lead time reduced
to two days. Tires are stored in trailers
between two seasons. ‘‘Replenishment is thus
possible without being limited to a fixed area
of the warehouse," says Yergeau, who in addition to filling the role of Vice-President is
responsible for managing the centre.
And he adds: ‘‘We have greatly improved
our clients sales by making their supply chain
WAREHOUSE
President of Pival International Mario La Barbera
shows a photo of the start of work in Oshawa. He is
accompanied by Bernard Yergeau, Vice-President,
Finance.
more effective. Our custom solution for tire
manufacturers has eliminated stock-outs. In
addition, sales have climbed because we have
adapted the logistics to the specific needs of
the client."
PORT OF TROIS-RIVIÈRES
The facilities in Trois-Rivières are used, in
particular, for Kruger. According to La
Barbera, ‘‘The warehouse serves the Kruger
mills in Wayagamack, Trois-Rivières and
Bromptonville. Kruger maintained three warehouses that were the responsibility of each
mill. We recommended a single warehouse in
Trois-Rivières that would receive the pulp
from the three mills, and would thus produce
considerable savings in costs. Our temperature-controlled warehouse of 80,000 square
feet is amply sufficient for the task. Pival
itself manages the pulp inventory between the
three mills for Kruger. We deliver on demand
just-in-time."
Management of the warehouse is assigned
to Acurail, a division of Pival. La Barbera continues: ‘‘At the Port of Trois-Rivières, we put
rail into service to offer a transshipment service for local companies not served by rail."
TRANSPORT COMMITTEE OF
VAUDREUIL-SOULANGE
Pival is very involved in its region. Mario
La Barbera is even president of the Transport
Committee of Vaudreuil-Soulange. La Barbera
believes that the next big project will be at
Coteau-du-Lac where Canadian Tire is building its biggest distribution centre to serve
eastern Canada. Pival is a partner in the
development of the Coteau-du-Lac industrial
park, with the owner Alta. According to La
Barbera, ‘‘Vaudreuil-Soulange would like to
welcome other logistics companies, and Pival
has been working closely with the CLD, the
RCM, industries, CN and various levels of
governments to promote the region." Pival
possesses more than a million square feet to
realize turnkey projects.
CUSTOM DESIGN
On the other hand, Yergeau does not see
his service as a public warehouse. ‘‘We work
exclusively on custom projects that correspond to a particular requirement. At Pival,
our service begins with a detailed analysis of
the supply chain. We analyze the flow of
goods and we propose a strategy to optimize
processes, end-to-end. Organizations experiencing strong growth can avoid relocation or
expansion of their facilities by taking advantage of our services to manage inputs/outputs,
while using the space freed for new production. Effective control of inventories, and
elimination of inefficiencies, combined with a
strategy of just-in-time deliveries form the
foundation of our competitive advantages." n
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NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006 VOL. 9 NO. 6
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