Iowa DOT director wants to improve supply chain for business

Iowa Department of Transportation Director Paul Trombino laid out a vision for his agency that links transportation investment with economic development during a visit Wednesday to Eastern Iowa.

Trombino, as the keynote speaker at the Marion Economic Development Co. annual business luncheon, said the DOT and Iowa Economic Development Authority are working closely on an effort to optimize Iowa's supply chain design.

'We were interested in being able to prioritize investment opportunities ... for an optimized freight transportation network to lower transportation cost for Iowa businesses and promote business growth because of the advantages we have,” Trombino said.

During the event, MEDCO also honored Marion Process Solutions as innovator of the year and marked the transition from outgoing chairman Tom Barnes, of Barnes Manufacturing, to new chairman Ray Brown, of the Esco Group.

The state agencies are collecting data on the movement of goods across the state, including how much is moving, what commodities are moving, and where it's coming from.

'What we have done is built a supply chain essentially over the state,” Trombino said. 'We now have data, close to 8 million lines of data on the freight movement of every commodity that moves in the state.”

About 21 percent of the gross state product is spent on transportation, compared with 8 percent or 9 percent in some states. In an optimized system, given the commodities shipped in Iowa, 14 percent would go to transportation, which Trombino said is not realistic. However, driving the percentage down to 17 percent or 18 percent or preventing it from increasing could be a goal, he said.

He said businesses can use the data to make choices about shipping strategies to lower costs. It's also an archive of information that can help decision-makers visualize value when it comes to investment.

'My belief is our business is transportation economics,” Trombino said.