Successfully Into The Future Thanks To Restructuring Of Site Logistics And Freight Cost Accounting
Fresh food places high demands on logistical processes. In order to cope with the growing transport volume on its premises, Migros Ostschweiz has commissioned leogistics GmbH to digitalize its site logistics. This includes freight cost accounting as well as yard logistics for trucks and the company’s own railroad. The solution: a transport management system that restructures the processes for the road and rail modes of transport. After three days of day and night process monitoring and in-depth analysis, the leogistics team was able to create a shared vision of tomorrow’s automated site logistics.
For efficient mapping of vehicle movements on the site, leogistics Yard was first integrated with route planning, RFID vehicle recognition at the gates, and the existing track-and-trace system for automated recognition of arrival or departure. From the route planning, the placement requirements for the preloading are now generated, which are distributed to the plant traffic and the truck drivers by a rule-based and automated allocation. The positioning requirements are displayed in the driver’s cab via tablet or smartphone and executed by the driving personnel.
MIGROS
The Migros Ost- schweiz cooperative, headquartered in Gossau, is the third largest of the ten cooperatives in terms of sales and the largest in terms of area. It serves around 110 supermarkets, 50 Migros restaurants and takeaways, and other locations up to three times a day with ultra-fresh, fresh, food, and nonfood products.
Within the allocation, splits of the gate groups for the plant transport drivers can be taken into account. Furthermore, the allocation works autonomously and no longer requires a dispatcher to allocate the parking requirements. The dispatcher can follow the progress of the preloading via activity monitor or via the visualization of the gate occupancy.
Thanks to track-and-trace integration, logins and departures from the area take place without a driver having to use his hands (“hands-free”). This is because, in addition to increasing efficiency through end-to-end system support, intuitive usability via a tool that is as attractive as possible for employees was also an important goal. The high level of user-friendliness led to a calming of internal communication and it is noticeable that employees enjoy working with the new tool.
leogistics Rail Digitalizes Transport Management For The Rail Mode Of Transport
Thanks to the leogistics Rail solution, wagon deliveries and shunting movements are now displayed in a digital track plan. For optimal notification of inbound wagon shipments, the executing rail transport companies (RUs) have been connected to the yard management and transmit information on international wagon shipments with the destination Migros Ostschweiz. The system also plans the deliveries of rail cars from the Gossau transfer station to the individual plant sidings based on the criteria of loading, supplier or rail car number.
The execution of the shunting operation is documented by means of apps. The main focus was on autonomous dispatching of the wagons and the shunting personnel directly “at the track” – without a central dispatcher. Empty wagons are either returned directly to the RU or deposited in the track area for reloading, with active monitoring of wagon service life. In outbound traffic, the system takes over the digital planning and booking of wagon shipments after loading.
Freight Cost Invoicing And Accounting Without Media Discontinuity
Thanks to the new transport management system, Migros Ostschweiz was able to streamline many processes. At the same time, sources of error due to media discontinuities were reduced. When Migros acts as a transport service provider, the process is now integrated and connected from the orders in SAP Transportation Management to the debit-side postings in SAP FI/CO. Credit-side settlement with third-party carriers has also been optimized and digitalized: Instead of waiting for their invoices and checking them manually, settlement with the service providers is now based on SAP Transportation Management data using the “credit memo procedure”. This means that the focus is no longer on checking incoming invoices, which further strengthens the basis of trust between third-party carriers and Migros.
By introducing the area management software, transparency and a simplification of the plant logistics were achieved above all. After all, approx. 670 vehicle movements are carried out per day by approx. 230 drivers and the plant traffic (approx. 440). The average positioning time by plant traffic is now three minutes. The training time for employees in plant traffic has been drastically reduced by the new tools. Working conditions and thus employee satisfaction have been improved or increased by a reduction in the noise level in the driver’s cab due to the reduced radio traffic. As a result, the previous hectic pace has given way to a quieter and thus thoroughly more pleasant operating process.
A Glimpse Of The Future
In the future, a door/dock appointment scheduling system is to be integrated into the Migros Ostschweiz system landscape. On the one hand, this will improve the control of goods delivery and empty container pickup, and on the other hand, it will optimize personnel deployment planning. In addition, integration with SAP Extended Warehouse Management is planned in order to control storage and retrieval more efficiently. In the area of railroad processing, the documentation of shunting movements is to be carried out using RFID sensors on railroad cars.
"The focus for us was on the integrative interaction of all modes of transport at the Gossau site by means of an integrative software solution. Thanks to the consulting services provided by leogistics and the use of leogistics Yard, leogistics Rail and leogistics Truck, we can now plan, process and transparently monitor the entire handling process (trucks, trailers, rail cars, swap bodies and plant transport vehicles) on a daily basis - and all this on a mobile and absolutely paperless basis. This means that an important building block in digitalization across the entire supply chain has been successfully implemented."
