shorter waiting times for trucks
Reduction of delivery peaks
FTE hours saved
When people say discounter in Switzerland, they mean Denner. In 2021, more than 117 million customers stocked up on goods for their daily needs at the stores of Switzerland's largest food discounter. Denner's assortment consists of around 3000 products, which are delivered to the 840 stores from five regional distribution centers. One of these centers is located in Schmitten. The 15 ramps at inbound handle around 400 trucks a week from the forwarding companies commissioned by the suppliers with non-refrigerated goods.
A announcement of deliveries was rare - with the result that it was sometimes difficult to keep track of which supplier would arrive when with which goods. In conjunction with the lack of shunting space on the west side of the warehouse, which was built in 1982, there were therefore regular delivery peaks that could actually be avoided, especially in the afternoons, and long traffic jams on the ramps.
Together with TradeLink, the goal was to bring order to the logistics processes in the Schmitten distribution centre: to smooth out delivery peaks and better distribute deliveries throughout the day, to give employees a better forecast of deliveries and to eliminate the need for email coordination with suppliers and carriers.
Emons, a globally operating company in the transport and logistics sector with over 121 locations and 3700 employees, stands for services in the fields of transport, contract logistics, air and sea freight, customs, rail freight and digital logistics. Represented in 16 countries, Emons serves over 7000 customers and operates a transport network comprising more than 30 partner companies.
In 2022, Emons identified goods-in transparency as one of its top priorities for digitizing contract logistics. After a market screening and trade-offs between internal solution development in its own Emons | DIGITAL incubator and an external service procurement, Emons came across TradeLink. The first talks immediately revealed the same understanding with regard to digitalization in logistics and opened the discussion around joint synergies. In November 2022, both sides decided to launch a collaborative initiative to jointly drive logistics collaboration. After all, this is how both companies complement each other in their business areas and expertise.
This includes, in particular, the exchange of know-how between logistics, forwarding and digitization experts for achieving better efficiency and transparency over the movement of goods at all Emons locations, as well as improving digital collaboration with all customers and stakeholders in the supply chain.
Tilo Hergarten
Head Marketing & Digitalization | Emons
"This is a necessary collaboration between traditional and new companies in the logistics industry and beyond. This collaborative approach brings together many benefits and promises data-driven advancement of products and services on both sides."
The first, operational focus was on the introduction of the TradeLink platform at two different locations. The two warehouse locations in Markgröningen and Thurnau were selected. Both sites are typical multi-user warehouses, but with different starting points in terms of processes. Markgröningen already had an existing notification obligation for all suppliers, while Thurnau operated as a new site without a notification process.
The start with these two locations combined different advantages. Each local warehouse logistics has its own processes and peculiarities, so one forced the direct comparability in a more complex initial situation. In addition to the common denominator, the measurement basis for recognizing the added value was created. On the other hand, Emons thus reduced the operational costs for the project management.
Under the leadership of Julian Bausch, Logistics Manager Markgröningen, the platform solution was rolled out at both sites. In the first step, we started by setting up the site and created user accounts. This can be realized within 24 hours and lays the foundation for a successful roll-out.
In the first joint workshop, we started to define a common goal and a success plan. In doing so, we defined the clients' key delivery partners and agreed on a fixed deadline by which they should be live. Operational goals included increasing the number of pre-delivery documents by 40% by June 2023, halving truck wait times by April 2023, and reducing peaks in deliveries.
In the second step, we focused on internal adaptation. In a one-hour training session with all key operational staff, all stakeholders were introduced to the platform and how easy it is to use. This was recorded to be shared later within the organization. The key users also took on the role of trainers to pass on the knowledge internally.
In the third step, we created a communication plan for the joint partner onboarding starting in the second week. One responsible person per site was named for the roll-out and processes and milestones were agreed with TradeLink. The top 20 partners were invited within 2 weeks. Templates for the approach were personalized and sent out, followed by the appropriate invitations. We monitored the success of the invitations in a regular check-in.
With the rapid partner go-live, the platform could already be used operationally without any problems with the most important supply partners from the 4th week. From now on, open topics and observations will be discussed in regular check-ins until we reach the routine phase, in which a comparison with the initial objective follows every 3-6 months and new objectives are defined.
Julian Bausch
Logistics Manager Markgröningen | Emons
"Thanks to the support of the project participants from Thurnau and Markgröningen, the involved delivery partners as well as the TradeLink team, above all Lucian Berkmüller, we were always one step ahead of the defined success plan. As a result, we were able to implement a delivery reconciliation solution at our Thurnau site for the first time in record time and completely replace the previously used tool with TradeLink at the Markgröningen logistics center at an early stage."
Thanks to the successful and efficient project management, all relevant delivery partners in Markgröningen were connected to the TradeLink platform in less than 8 weeks. This quickly led to the desired reduction in internal inquiries about delivery information and the processing time for each incoming and outgoing goods.
In Thurnau, all relevant supply partners were also connected in the same time despite the lack of notification processes. In addition, a successful notification system for supply partners was introduced for the first time, which improved capacity utilization and smoothed out delivery peaks.
Danny Paulik
Logistics Manager Thurnau | Emons
"Even in the first workshop, you could sense that everyone involved wanted to go in the same direction. TradeLink and Emons benefited from each other's know-how and practical relevance. In the end, this was also the basis for the rapid implementation.
Despite increasing order volumes at the site, waiting times per ramp contact were significantly minimized and processes streamlined. The tool's ease of use across virtually the entire transport chain met with a very high level of acceptance among suppliers, freight carriers and our customers."
The implementation of the TradeLink platform also provided real-time visibility into the current delivery, yard, and ramp situation, as well as increased availability of digital delivery documents prior to delivery.
Tracking and reporting of delivery quality has been improved and the processing time in inbound and outbound has been reduced by 30 minutes per day per site. In addition to the operational improvement, more than 10 potentials for improving coordination in the logistics centers were identified, one of which has already been implemented on the TradeLink platform.
At the Thurnau site, the partner roll-out for Emons customers in Hall B will now follow. An important step here is the introduction of a mandatory document upload for all partners before the actual announcement. This will make it possible to holistically increase transparency in advance and achieve valuable time savings in work preparation. In addition, one will now be able to measure and compare important key figures such as the measurement and optimization of the processing time in inbound for each delivery.
At the Markgröningen site, the focus is on the onboarding of clients. They are given their own view for transparency on incoming and outgoing goods at the outsourced logistics location. From now on, important key figures such as the aforementioned processing time will also be measured and optimized here for the first time at inbound .
As soon as empties management is available on the TradeLink platform, we plan to digitally simplify and automate this process as well.
The successful roll-out at the first two sites can be chalked up as a successful first step towards a uniform toolbox and the path to structured logistics data around delivery movements at Emons. In addition to the optimization and coverage of further use cases at both pilot sites, a rapid roll-out at the other Emons sites is planned.
The fact that cooperation does not have to end at Sites was shown, among other things, by the extensive double interview with DVZ in April 2023, which addressed how logistics companies and startups can work together without threatening each other at the same time. We were much more pleased about the joint panel appearance at the Emons Demo Days in Cologne in the same month.
The initiative continues to thrive on regular exchanges and workshops between the two sides in order to build on what has already been achieved and identify and promote further mutual potential. We support each other not only in finding ideas, but also in implementing them through the targeted exchange of information.
Before working with TradeLink, Patrick Spiegel, the project manager at Denner, had tested and compared various software solutions in his search for a digital notification system - including TradeLink. It was not only the software that convinced him, but also the team behind it. While other software providers seemed to be happy to ignore customer requests and feedback or put them on the back burner, Denner was quickly impressed by TradeLink: It was not only the close support that stood out positively, but also how quickly the platform was continuously developed .
In order to understand the complex logistics processes at Denner in detail, TradeLink CEO Frederic Krahforst, together with Roll-Out Manager Anne Listemann and Product Manager Daniel Kappler, even travelled to Denner in Switzerland. The message got through to Denner: TradeLink is really interested in its customers' logistics processes and understands their problems!
After the first meeting, things already started moving: Three selected suppliers and their forwarding agents were invited, and as early as April, not only was a flyer with yard rules and a presentation of the new "Priority Lane" distributed, but the first notifications of incoming goods were also processed via the TradeLink platform.
When project manager Patrick Spiegel 's concerns that suppliers would not accept the platform were allayed after a short time, other suppliers and their forwarders came on board. During this time and afterwards, the TradeLink team supported all processes and reacted proactively and quickly to feedback from Denner. For example, Roman Ulrich, head of incoming goods , was particularly pleased with the list view of the notification information, which was developed according to his feedback: "My compliments, it's really great, that's how I always imagined it.
In the meantime, all notification processes at inbound are handled via the platform, and most of the external delivery partners also already book their appointments via TradeLink. TradeLink was so well received everywhere that Denner employees as well as suppliers and their forwarders frequently wanted to know when TradeLink would also be rolled out at the other Denner distribution centers!
The fact that TradeLink is the opposite of paperwork is also shown by the measurable successes: Thanks to the platform, delivery peaks have been reduced by 95 percent, as deliveries are now evenly distributed throughout the day and the week. Truck waiting times at yard have been reduced by around 70 percent, with each truck waiting an average of just three minutes to be unloaded.
The accuracy of the time window to the actual arrival time has improved by 84 percent to seven minutes. Overtime is now more or less a thing of the past at the Schmitten distribution center, as the optimally timed processes mean that around 2,000 fewer FTE hours are required per year. In the end, even Denner's IT department was pleasantly surprised that no additional IT resources had to be taken up for the project!
Wherever the previously analogue supply chain management is digitised, there are initially concerns as to whether all employees and suppliers will follow suit and accept the software tools. This was also the case at Denner, but after the first tests with our intuitive platform, the initial scepticism quickly turned into enthusiasm.
By the way, it was not only the employees in Schmitten who liked it: The suppliers also found TradeLink so convincing that they wanted to know when it would be rolled out to the remaining locations.
Asked, done: TradeLink was implemented in the inbound implemented in the Denner distribution centers in Frauenfeld, Dietlikon, Lyss and Mägenwil. The distribution centers in Frauenfeld and Dietlikon are already connected to the platform, while the distribution centers in Lyss and Mägenwil are in the middle of rolloutprocess.
Thanks to the experience gained in Schmitten, the TradeLink implementation went faster and faster from site to site, although the setup and tasks were quite different in each case.
The medium-term goal of the collaboration between TradeLink and Denner is to further develop the platform together. For example, all logistics processes from inbound to outbound are to be brought onto the platform in order to map complete information flows . In addition, direct communication with drivers via TradeLink is to be made possible in the future.
One of Denner AG's five distribution centres is located in Schmitten. Since 1982, the 3000 products in the range have been distributed from here throughout western Switzerland. Unclear information on delivery dates led to delivery peaks as well as long standing and waiting times, especially at the goods receiving ramps on the west side.
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Emons, a global transport and logistics company with 121+ locations and 3700+ employees, provides services in transport, logistics, customs and more.
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TradeLink digitizes and streamlines logistics processes at TRAVECO.
Calculate here how much savings you can realise with TradeLink based on your weekly transport volume.
