The new transport planning and billing system and the introduction of leogistics Rail solve five requirements in one fell swoop
One of Europe’s largest steel producers commissioned leogistics GmbH in 2019 to implement a new transport management system. The products supplied will be used for the automotive, electrical, domestic and manufacturing segments.
Steel Manufacturer Simplifies System Landscape
The motivation behind the tender was to introduce a dedicated system for transport planning and optimization, to simplify the complex system landscape, and to make rules and regulations traceable outside the IT system. A particular core requirement of the project was to optimize rail planning and execution and to integrate leogistics Rail.
In summary, the focus is on these five goals:
- COST SAVINGS – Optimization of freight costs, Reduction of process costs, Avoidance of additional costs (e.g. deadfreight, suboptimal carriers)
- QUALITY IMPROVEMENT – Better adherence to arrival dates, Overall utilization of freight space capacities
- REACTION TO IMPONDERABLES – Volatility of customer requirements, Manufacturing uncertainty, Deviations in transport route (e.g. low water, wagon shortage)
- INDEPENDENCE FROM SERVICE PROVIDERS – Ensure flexibility of service providers, Sovereignty over own system
- MANAGEMENT BY EXCEPTION – Focus on exceptions, Time for process improvements
leogistics divided the overall project into subprojects and worked according to the proven leoprojects methodology. By applying leoprojects, it was possible to structure the process, identify and counteract risks at an early stage, and provide a valid statement on compliance with the agreed costs and schedule.
Fit For The Digital Future Of The Plant Railway With The Help Of SAP TM And leogistics Rail
When introducing the new solution, leogistics started with the planning requirements and executions of the rail transports. They optimized the wagon planning, the loading and the shunting orders. In the future, the plant railroad integrated into the system will be able to plan and schedule shunting orders to serve the loading points.
Rail transport companies (RUs) are also connected to the system via interfaces such as EDI integration (Electronic Data Interchange), enabling optimal dispatching. To meet new challenges in the digitization of operational rail processes, process mapping gaps must be closed on the IT side.
Other focal points of the project are the processing of customer call-offs, the integration of warehouse systems and the response to volatile changes in production planning.
Thus it will be possible to react quickly to the constantly changing data from production and sales. In the future, customer call-offs will be taken into account on an ad-hoc basis and storage bin information will be integrated into the system.
