Industry: Meat
There is a lot of savings potential in the truck fleet. Fleischhof Rasting, a production facility of EDEKA, has equipped its 80 vehicles with a new route optimization solution by CSB-System - and saves time and costs as a result.
“The logistics for delivering fresh meat and sausages to our customers every day is rather complex. In order to optimize deliveries while keeping the prices for the consumers at a minimum, we are using an integrated solution by CSBSystem. With the latest upgrade, we incorporated enterprise resource planning, material flows and logistics even more closely,” says Manfred Sebastian, Head of Business Administration.
Optimized routes and efficient reusables management
A glance at the figures reveals the optimization potential in logistics. On average, Rasting’s 80 drivers deliver to about 800 customers, partly driving on motorways, but often also on country and municipal roads, and distribute up to 4,800 roller containers or 15,000 E3 crates. “For us, this means lots of miles every day, and the delivery addresses and order quantities keep varying. Any small detours of the individual drivers overall easily add up to a few hours’ time and many liters of fuel as unnecessary costs every day,” Sebastian explains.
This is why complex algorithms calculate the optimal tours per truck and per route at Rasting. The implemented solution takes into account all relevant restrictions, such as time frames for delivering to the different customers, utilization of the vehicle capacities, vehicle types, availability of vehicles and drivers as well as legal provisions regarding driving times. Additionally, route optimization must consider reusables as well as collection and procurement orders.
Lower costs, higher transparency
The optimization calculation is based on the address master data, order data and vehicle master data from the ERP software by CSB-System. This integration makes direct processing in CSB enterprise resource planning possible and thus facilitates better planning and implementation of upstream process steps. For instance, picking today is precisely tuned to the calculated route and loading sequence. Orders that were prepared for picking in an earlier shift are included in planning just as well as customer orders ready for picking delivered by the vendors.
The optimized routes for the day are then automatically transmitted to mobile data entry devices, which connect to the electronic systems on board of the truck and to the navigation systems. The data entry devices also document the entire delivery, including unplanned stops and the relevant stopping reasons entered by the drivers. Using MDC devices optimizes reusables management too: In the past, this involved lots of paperwork while today, reusables are entered paperless and hence much faster. Throughout the route, a permanent online communication link is established to the host system in Meckenheim, so the control station can monitor at any time the current position of the vehicle, the reusable hand-overs and the temperature in the truck’s cargo compartment.
Routes can be better controlled
“We don’t have any unnecessary detours anymore, and in the last few months, we could substantially cut the motorway tolls due,” Manfred Sebastian says.
With the control functionalities integrated in the solution, he can track and control much better the drivers’ tours by comparing actual and expected data. In addition to evaluating driving and standing times, Sebastian can also evaluate the times a driver needs for the vehicle (refueling, oil checks, tire checks etc.). If requested, at the end of each route a software-aided analysis provides information on the deviations from the target specifications and the underlying reasons. “The investment in the new solution pays off every day because the quality of our logistical processes for the delivery of our products has increased considerably,” Sebastian says.
