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Transcript of Manufacturing and Logistics IT - October 2012
The European magazine promoting the effective use of IT in supply chain applications
www.logisticsit.comFor the latest news and to subscribe to theManufacturing and Logistics IT weekly newsletter visit
OCTO
BER
2012
The European magazine promoting the effective use of IT in supply chain applications
Special Report: TRANSPORTATION MANAGEMENT
Consultancy special feature: JULIAN NIBLETT INTERVIEW
Also in this issue:Four pillars of demand forecasting excellence
Getting delivery right first time, on timeCreating the ‘green’ automated warehouse
Driving greater efficiencies
www.logility.com Worldwide Headquarters: 800-762-5207EMEA Headquarters: +44 (0) 121 629 7866
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Leading companies around the world rely on Logility to achieve dramatic
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with Logility Voyager Solutions.
October 2012 3ITMANUFACTURING&LOGISTICS
In this edition of Manufacturing & Logistics IT we have compiled a special report onthe topic of Transportation Management, concentrating on current trends anddiscussion points concerning technology and services within this sector. And,continuing the theme, the following list of questions might be worth putting toprospective solution providers if you are a logistics service company looking tosource the very best Transportation Management solution (TMS). Kewill maintainsthat when it comes to a TMS, the best fit and the right choice depends very muchon the type of business you operate. Therefore, there are some marked differencesdepending on the scale and nature of your activities. In theory, the same issuesaffect all businesses involved in the movement and management of goods. Howeverthere can be distinct differences between moving goods around for one companyand moving goods for many; especially if you offer value-added services. So, on tothe questions that Kewill recommends you put to any prospective systems provider:
How much experience do you specifically have of working with logistics serviceproviders?: Many TMS vendors may have an impressive roster of large blue-chipsand recognised FMCG brands as customers, or divisions of well-known logisticscompanies, but might not all have supplied solutions that cover the full range ofoperations of an international LSP. There are some significant differences in therequirements of logistics companies that are fundamental to their success. As well asdelivering a service to strict SLAs in a competitive market, they are also likely to beliaising with more links in the supply chain, for example networks and multi-modaltransport partners, handling freight groupage, offering value added services such askitting, packing and/or ticketing. Kewill suggests that you check that your vendorreally understands the differences between the business models, and what theymean in practice.
How will your TMS adapt as our business grows?: If you’re an LSP looking for onesolution for your whole network, you’ll need to ensure it is flexible enough to suit yourwhole business now, and scalable enough to expand and adapt with your businessin the future. For example, if you already do, or plan to, operate in different countries,Kewill maintains that you need to ensure it is feasible for you to operate on onecentral system for visibility and not one system per country.
Can your TMS be customised to suit our business?: Do you operate in differencelanguages/with different currencies? If you don’t now, then might you in the future?According to Kewill, it is important to ensure your chosen TMS will allow you theflexibility you need and that you can make necessary changes without requiringchanges or development to the product itself.
How quickly will your TMS allow us to set up new customers?: For many logisticsservice providers, the speed at which they can set up new customers, or alterarrangements for existing customers (for example adding a new route, brand ordesignated warehouse area), can represent the difference between winning andlosing a contract. How easy is it to do this with the TMS you are considering? Canyour operational staff be trained easily to do this, for example by configuring/re-configuring workflows?
Other questions worth asking include: what degree of customer visibility will the TMSenable; how will the TMS handle billing; how will the TMS handle customscompliance; which delivery models do you offer; how quickly can I expect to realisebenefits from the TMS; and does the solutions vendor understand good practiceprocess for a LSP? It all adds up to ensuring you have the best visibility possible asto which solution is right for your organisation as it is now, and as it might be in thenear future after its forward-looking objectives have been met. Happy hunting.
Steering towards Transportation Management excellence
Ed HoldenEditor
October 2012 ITMANUFACTURING&LOGISTICS
October 20124 ITMANUFACTURING&LOGISTICS
Manufacturing and Logistics IT October 2012The European magazine promoting the effectiveuse of IT in supply chain applications
Editor:
Ed Holden
Contributors:
Karin Bursa, Logility Mark Garritt, ByBox
Advertising:
Alex Prodromou
Publisher:
Dean Taylor
Designer:
Ian Curtis, First Sight Graphics
Production:
Carole Chiesa
Circulation:
Sarah Schofield
IT Manager:
Peter West
Accounts:
Carolyn Pither
Published by:
B2B Publishing LtdLatimer House189 High Street, Potters Bar, Herts EN6 5DA, UKTel: +44 (0) 1707 664200Fax: +44 (0) 1707 664800
Email (publishing):[email protected] (editorial): [email protected] by: The Magazine PrintingCompany plc, www.magprint.co.uk
No part of this publication may be reproduced in anyform without written permission from the publishers.No liability is accepted for any action arising fromthe contents of this publication; readers are advisedto check any manufacturerʼs or supplierʼs claim forproducts. The publishers do not endorse opinionsexpressed in any article by an outside contributor.While every care is taken over photographs andillustrations, which are returned when requested,no liability can be assumed by the publishers forthe loss of such materials.
ISSN:1463-1172
October 2012ITMANUFACTURING&LOGISTICS
CONTENTSConsultancy Focus
5 Julian Niblett interview
Special Technology Report8 Transportation Management
Manufacturing 15 Frank & Pignard chooses QAD Enterprise Applications
Infor announces Cloud offering for equipment industry m-hance launches integrated enterprise social networking solution for SMEs Gartner: worldwide Cloud services market to surpass $109 billion in 2012Frost & Sullivan predicts growth for the global industrial computers marketWorldwide SaaS Market: USA leading with 60 per cent market share
Planning 20 Preactor provides the right Advanced Planning & Scheduling remedy for UPL
Logility: Four pillars of demand forecasting excellence
Printing & Labelling 24 Zebra Technologies: Fighting counterfeiting in pharmaceutical and healthcare
Toshiba TEC launches low-cost premium B-EX4T2
Automatic Data Capture 27 Handheldʼs Algiz 10X rugged tablet built for outdoor use
Box Technologies introduces the Cielo Series of EPoS terminals Getac rugged handheld offers multiple functions
Voice 31 HighJump extends SCM software with highly customisable Voice solution
Pedigree Wholesale gets delivery right first time, on time with Accord Voice WMS
WMS 34 MACS system delivers high-efficiency while retaining small company values
Vanderlande: Creating the ʻgreenʼ automated warehouse Snapfulfil: WMS software in the Cloud, or is it just ʻVapourwareʼ?
Transportation Management 40 ByBox protects patient confidentiality while streamlining supply chain process
Paragon software helps Glanbia cut 106,000 km from delivery routes Cargolux accelerates its eCargo ambitions with Champ tmWare enables rapid growth for County Logistics PTV: Driving greater efficiencies
Supply Chain 48 Gartner ranks top European Supply Chain organisations for 2012
Lord Digby Jones opens new Supply Chain Academy
Interview Consultancy Focus
October 2012 5ITMANUFACTURING&LOGISTICSwww.logisticsit.com
For any business – whether it be a
bank, logistics company,
manufacturer or retailer – the main
focus should always be on ensuring
optimum business and operational
efficiency, simplicity, accuracy and cost-
effectiveness, while also ensuring customer
service remains a non-negotiable. And all
these benefits can be better deployed
through regular open discussion at all levels
within a business, coupled with an enterprise
mobility regime tailored to the company’s
specific needs. This is the view of Julian
Niblett, director of operational consultancy
InsideOps, a man who as recently as May this
year was at the forefront of enterprise mobility
development at leading health & beauty and
pharmacy retailer, Boots, as its head of
operation development.
Niblett also believes it is important for any
business to be confident that any major new
technology-based acquisition will create genuine
value through the investment. “This is even more
important in the current economic climate,” he
said. “In retail, for example, when the consumer
marketplace puts increasing pressure on
retailers in tough times it is critical to come up
with productive new ways not only to drive the
efficiency and success of in-store operations, but
also throughout the company’s whole supply
chain. When a company is enjoying top-line
sales growth its operation functions may not
receive so much scrutiny from the accounts
department, but when the market climate
changes for the worsts and cost becomes
another lever to retain profit growth then there will
be a greater focus on what can be done to
deliver greater efficiencies and ensure customers
receive the very best service in order to drive
more sales and bolster the bottom line.”
Multiple processes
So how can IT systems leverage such
operational and business advantages? “I think
the key is in making a number of every-day
processes more efficient, more accurate, quicker
and more automated wherever possible,” said
Niblett. “In the case of the retail market,
particularly with regard to some of the bigger
players, a whole host of daily processes have to
be undertaken in store; everything from credit
claiming, booking in goods, returns, recalls,
dealing with faulty goods, crosschecking, date
checking, stock counting and the list goes on.
There are also a lot of administrative tasks to
keep on top of, and one of the things that I was
involved in during my time at Boots was putting
in place the technological means whereby many
of the daily tasks could be automated to a large
extent. This helped to speed up a number of our
processes as well as streamline in-store tasks
and reduce errors.”
Niblett explained that one way to streamline in-
store processes within retail is to pre-populate
information in electronic form rather than rely on
a manual paper-based system. “One thing IT
can do is make a number or complex and
repetitive tasks simpler and more accurate,” he
said. “For example, in order to ensure goods are
dispatched to the right warehouse enterprise
mobility on handheld devices means operators
can be ‘walked through’ which labels go with
which items, and which items or packages need
to be scanned to determine its exact intended
location. If the wrong label is scanned the
Manufacturing & Logistics IT spokewith Julian Niblett, director of operationalconsultancy InsideOps, about howenterprise mobility can enhance businessand operational performance.
Julian Niblett: Sharing knowledge.
Improving efficiencythrough enterprise mobility
Consultancy Focus Interview
October 20126 ITMANUFACTURING&LOGISTICS www.logisticsit.com
operator won’t be able to proceed. So it’s taking
what used to be a very complex process and
put it in the hands of people working in a large
number of locations and make it simple. You
can’t really go far wrong.” Without enterprise
mobility retailers can rack-up considerable
unnecessary cost by having to re-send items
from the wrong warehouse to the right one.
Getting it right first time is a major cost saver.”
Niblett pointed out that this was something he
and his team put in place at Boots, as well as
conducting its own developments both for its
store Point of Sale (POS) system, taking an IBM
GSA product and modifying it in-house and for
store stock applications, again using enterprise
mobility. “Generally speaking, if a company buys
an off-the-shelf solution – whether it be POS,
eCommerce, ERP, Forecasting, CRM, Planning &
Scheduling, etc. – it will perform some of the
basic functions required, but it won’t cover
certain things that are very particular to its
everyday business or operational activities,” he
said. “This is particularly true of some of the
larger retailer organisations. In these instances
having on hand either in-house expertise or
experience and knowhow from an external party
can make all the difference in lifting the solution
to the optimum level of functionality required.”
However, Niblett adds that one potential
outcome of undertaking more substantial
customisation of a proprietary system is that
upgrading it to the vendor’s latest version may
not be such a straightforward task. “I think the
key thing is to bear in mind is when sourcing
new IT systems, or when looking at your
existing solution set with a view to improving its
performance, first decide what aspects of the
system’s functionality you would really like to
be removed or tailored more to your specific
requirements,” he said. “And as part of this
process it is worth thinking carefully about what
processes could be automated in order to
reduce every-day complexities and speed up
your operations. The example I gave regarding
the pre-populating of data on handheld
devices again stands as a good example.”
Greater automation
Niblett worked at Boots for 13 years in a
number of different roles, gaining in-depth,
hands-on knowledge of how one of the very
top UK retailers and its supply chain operates
on a national basis. With regard to his seven
years spent as Boots’ head of retail operations
development, Niblett reflects that helping to
bring enterprise mobility into the stores could
be highlighted as one of his most successful
achievements. We installed enterprise mobility
in all of our larger stores nationwide, which
equates to around 70 per cent of annual
turnover, although it was deemed unnecessary
and financially impractical for the smaller
pharmacy outlets,” he explained. As part of this
enterprise mobility regime, Niblett explained
that he and his team put in place self-checkout
kiosks and contactless payment in many of the
stores. He believes both these technologies will
become increasingly popular with retail
customers over the next few years. “So, with
these initiatives together with the greater level
of automation afforded by enterprise mobility,
…you’ve got to take a very earlyview on what’s the big theme for theyear; something you can really focusyour teams on and gain their fullcommitment and confidence in.”
“
Boots has everything firmly covered; from how
stock is managed, how it is received, how it is
maintained, how it is returned, and how
payment is taken in store – the complete
solution,” he said.
As a general rule of thumb, Niblett considers that
anyone with responsibilities for operations
development needs to be mindful of not trying to
be too clever and keeping the IT solutions
infrastructure as simple as possible. “As an
analogy, if you think about how many apps you
may have on your iPhone and how many you
actually need and use regularly, then you can
immediately appreciate that in the world of
enterprise mobility there is a danger of buying
and installing too much functionality; functionality
that is not necessary and just adds to your
outlay,” he said. Niblett added that the more
complexity in the system the more likely there will
be other constraints, such as the need to train
staff to use new solutions they’re not familiar with
– again translating into extra unwelcome time
and expenditure. Also, Niblett believes the more
projects that are put in place the less managers
will be able to cope with getting the best out of
them, or even managing them at all. “So you’ve
got to take a very early view on what’s the big
theme for the year; something you can really
focus your teams on and gain their full
commitment and confidence in,” he said.
Another big challenge for larger players in the
retail sector, as well as others, is how to decide
what to invest in. “Within these organisations
there is often a host of projects all vying for
corporate budget,” he said. “So each
department really needs to focus on the projects
they think will secure funding from the finance
department. Without all parties truly believing in a
project’s feasibility everyone is at risk of wasting
a lot of their valuable time.”
The future
In terms of developing and future trends in
enterprise mobility, Niblett cites staff’s handheld
devices running stock applications with chip
and pin. “This has become quite difficult,
particularly with regard to US solutions vendors,
to understand there is a European need for a
mobile device that takes payment,” he said. “So
one of the things an increasing number of retail
and hospitality companies will likely look at
more carefully is how they can introduce a more
mobile way of staff taking payment in store
using enterprise mobility. So, one of the
opportunities is for companies to provide
greater convenience and care for their
customers through more personal transactions
and less of the more traditional till-based
approach. Enterprise mobility can really
revolutionise where payment is taken and how
convenient the payment experience can
become for customers. For example, with a
more mobile payment methodology, customers
in a pharmacy wouldn’t need to queue at the till
in the traditional manner; instead they would
only need to interact with a single member of
staff to purchase their medication etc. This also
introduces a lot more flexibility into the everyday
operations of the outlet, as well as saving cost.”
With a wealth of operations management
experience behind him, Niblett established his
own consultancy earlier this year. Called
InsideOps, it offers customers in sectors such
as retail, manufacturing and logistics a range
of consultancy services related to securing
greater operational excellence. “The whole
purpose of InsideOps is to provide valuable,
informed advice as to how best to improve a
company’s processes right through the supply
chain – from store operations right through the
supply chain,” said Niblett. “I’ve spent most of
my working life setting out to make processes
simpler and more cost- and time-effective,
and I am now enthusiastic about sharing this
knowhow with a range of organisations in
different sectors.” He added that one of the
keys to success in retail is having a sound
operating platform. “The operation is the
engine room of the business and if it works
effectively, the company can focus all its time
and energy on the customer. InsideOps can
help bring companies the focus, support and
answers they need; no matter how big or
small the change.
Niblett concluded: “It’s all about knowing what
type of systems really deliver benefits for
certain types of companies, as well as
knowing just how much technology is required
to do the job. There can be many pitfalls in
the world of retail, manufacturing and
logistics, and it’s important to know the best
and quickest routes to making your whole
end-to-end supply chain as efficient as
possible.” n
Interview Consultancy Focus
October 2012 7ITMANUFACTURING&LOGISTICSwww.logisticsit.com
It’s all about knowing what typeof systems really deliver benefits forcertain types of companies, as wellas knowing just how muchtechnology is required to do the job.”
“
Today’s transportation managers
have to juggle a number of
mission-critical disciplines. On
the one hand they need to
ensure they are providing goods
in a timely manner to their end customers.
And on the other, they need to seek to make
their internal efficiencies as optimal as
possible in order to keep costs to a
minimum, while also ensuring their drivers
are kept safe and keeping their carbon
footprint as light as possible. In order to
achieve all these objectives, logistics
professionals are increasingly relying on
Transportation Management solutions
comprising a rich array of functionality. So
what are the current trends and talking
points within this fast-changing technology
space? Shaun Coughlin, managing director
of tmWare, has observed that in recent
years there has been an increased level of
expectation among customers and end
users, driven on by the availability of
information at their finger-tips. For example,
he points out that smartphone technology
has meant that people are never out of
touch and can gain immediate access to a
wealth of social interaction and business
communication. He adds that this naturally
filters through to what is expected from
suppliers and the information they should
make available in a timely and web-based
manner.
Competitive pricing According to Coughlin, one of the drivers for
this technology has been the pressure on the
logistics operators to provide this information
but still retain a competitive pricing structure.
“With the average rugged in cab device
costing around £1000+, it is simply not an
option for many logistics companies,” he said.
“With 85 per cent of the UK adult population
(Ofcom), owning a mobile phone, there is a
ready-made platform for deploying real-time
solutions. SMS POD technology means that a
driver can send a text with details of the
successful or failed delivery together with a
name of who received the consignment. The
system will use the time and date of the text
to stamp the POD, thus enabling the customer
to have instant visibility of delivery information
and the logistics operator can release their
invoice to the customer. Text alerts and
updates can also be sent directly to the
customer as well.” Conversely, Coughlin
considers that there is an increased move
towards the use of subcontracting to improve
transport efficiencies. “In this case it is not
always possible to deploy your in-cab
hardware to these drivers and therefore SMS
POD enables the logistics operator to retain
the same levels of service regardless of the
transport used,” he said.
As a Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions-
provider improving communication between
shipper and carrier in their transport
processes, Transporeon maintains that
TThhee rroouuttee ttooooppttiimmuumm eeffffiicciieennccyy
Manufacturing & Logistics IT spoke with a number of vendors within theTransportation Management systems and services market about recent
technological advances, how logistics professionals are benefiting from theirsolutions, the changing legal landscape and possible future trends.
October 20128 ITMANUFACTURING&LOGISTICS www.logisticsit.com
Special technology report Transportation management
October 2012 9ITMANUFACTURING&LOGISTICSwww.logisticsit.com
Special technology report Transportation management
Transportation
Management is, and
will continue to be,
increasingly driven
by new technologies,
such as those within
the mobile arena.
“The nature of
logistics mobility and
therefore the current
success of intelligent
mobile devices will
open new, value-
added services to manage modern supply
chains,” said Gitte Willemsens, marketing &
customer care at Transporeon. In terms of the
main driver for these trends Willemsens has
no hesitation in saying that at the customer’s
end this is, and will always be, time-saving
and money making. “Time is money, and new
technologies give millions of possibilities,” she
said. “Everything that can be automated
should be done this way. An example is that
our shipper customers can have their loads
automatically sent out via the Transporeon
platform: directly out of their ERP-system to
their contract based carrier. In this way, time
won’t be wasted calling the carrier and
sending them the transport information via fax
or e-mail. Personnel can be reduced in this
way, or, even better, the dispatchers can use
this time to work on a more strategic level, or
to spend more time on exception handling.”
Additionally, on the environmental front,
Willemsens reflects that new laws concerning
CO2 calculation are increasing the need for
system functionality that can facilitate this
requirement.
The SaaS effectFabrice Maquignon, CEO at Transwide,
believes that SaaS is probably becoming the
leading way to deliver Transportation
Management systems. However, he adds that
only a few companies are true SaaS (single
instance multi-tenant) or have a significant
network. “End-to-end connectivity between
partners never has been so important as
today,” he said. “Clients are in need of
accurate data at any
time to ensure
efficiency of their
business. Finally,
advanced
optimisation
capabilities and
optimisation
algorithms become crucial for significant cost
savings and gaining competitive edge.”
In terms of the motivating forces for these
developments, Maquignon comments that
customers have been trying to find the best
compromise between costs and service
capability. He adds that the ability to source
new providers is key, as is the ability to
optimise existing capacities and manage
inbound as well as outbound flows.
Maquignon also maintains that optimisation of
loads or assets is a critical component with a
short lead-time to ROI. At the same time, he
points out that Transwide customers see a
growing need for global implementation due
to the fact that an increasing number of the
company’s clients have operations on multiple
continents.
James De Roo, business development
manager UK at PTV Group, considers that
one of the main talking points in the world of
logistics at the moment is whether
Transportation Management solutions should
be hosted in-house or in the Cloud. “A large
number of Transportation Management
solution providers have developed Cloud-
based solutions, and
this can be a highly
attractive deployment
model when
considering the
benefits to the end
customer,” he said.
“For example, there is
no need for lengthy implementation on
premise. There is also little or no up-front
capital expenditure required, and no need for
regular upgrades – users just pay a
subscription fee. PTV provides components
for these Cloud-based solutions within our
xServer toolbox.” However, de Roo adds that
there are also a number of end users that
prefer not to opt for Cloud-based solutions.
“For example, Government agencies might
require on premise solutions because of
perceived security issues surround more
open source models,” he explained.
de Roo points out that there are compliance
and regulation issues concerning CO2
emissions that are often talked about within
the transportation industry, and that this
debate may be one of the key drivers for the
increased level of interest in Transportation
Management solutions. “We don’t know for
sure how these might change in the short or
medium term, and how reporting
requirements might change,” he said. “Also,
we’re not sure whether logistics companies
will also need to report third-party emissions.
Nevertheless, these are all issues the UK
Government is currently considering.” The
Freight Transport Association (FTA) is working
on carbon reduction schemes with the
Government and with the transport industry.
Shaun Coughlin,managing director,
tmWare.
With 85 per cent of the UK adultpopulation (Ofcom), owning a mobilephone, there is a ready-made platformfor deploying real time solutions.”
– Shaun Coughlin, tmWare.
“
Special technology report Transportation management
de Roo adds that there is also the question of
road congestion and other traffic issues, and
how transportation professionals can better
prepare for ad hoc situations in order to
remain compliant while also saving time and
cost. “This is where our xServer component
toolbox comes in,” he said. “They can help
give transportation companies an edge over
their competitors by allowing them to integrate
state-of-the-art geographic and logistic
functions into their own software. Our
xServers provide the technology behind our
products in the form of efficient software
components. By integrating these
components into their own applications or in
their company network transportation
management solution providers, or the
logistics professionals themselves, can
quickly and easily extend their range of
functions.”
Collaboration Ronald Buijsse, director global marketing at
Ortec, cites real-time traffic information for
route planning as a recent innovation. He also
points to collaboration between shippers and
carriers to track and trace orders and share
planning facilities. He explains that there is
currently a successful project in Western
Europe where carriers have access to the
planning system of a shipper, to schedule the
trips that have been appointed to them by the
shipper. Buijsse also considers that mobility is
an opportunity; quickly Apps are being
launched, with tailored views on supply chain
Key Performance Indicators. Additionally, he
believes greater collaboration between
carriers will be required from shippers. This
for example, may result in a change from
several one-pick-one (not full)-drop trips into
multipicks-single (full truck)-drop trips, to
avoid inefficient trips and reduce the number
of trucks waiting at the dock for delivering.
In terms of drivers for change, Buijsse
believes end-user requirements regarding
Transportation Management systems and
their broadening logistics operations are
changing. For example, he observes that
there is a need for higher customer service
levels and greater efficiencies in leaner
economic times, as well as ‘blue-skies’
thinking on the part of vendors and their R&D
activities. Additionally, Buijsse maintains that,
for solutions vendors, it is important for them
to focus on satisfying their logistics customers
to ensure they retain their business, especially
in these tough times. Buijsse believes there is
therefore a need on the part of solution
providers to focus less on cost cutting.
Additionally, he observes that receivers of
goods are increasingly demanding to be kept
informed regarding delivery status in a real-
time basis online.
Integration In terms of the
relationship between
the more field-based
Transportation
Management systems
and the back-office
systems they
integrate with,
Willemsens points out
that some 50 per
cent of Transporeon’s
The nature of logistics mobility and therefore the current success ofintelligent mobile devices will open new, value-added services to managemodern supply chains.”
– Gitte Willemsens, Transporeon.
“
Gitte Willemsens,marketing & customer
care, Transporeon.
www.logisticsit.comOctober 201210 ITMANUFACTURING&LOGISTICS
October 2012 11ITMANUFACTURING&LOGISTICSwww.logisticsit.com
Special technology report Transportation management
shipper customers work with SAP. “These
shippers are already used to the SAP
environment and do not want to use extra
applications to, for example, route their
transports,” she said. “That’s why we have
built an SAP add-on. This has numerous
advantages for all parties: the IT-department
is more than happy as they do not have to
build interfaces, the end-user is happy as he
does not have to switch
screens and get used
to a new system, and
the logistics manager
is happy as long as he
can save costs once
the system is up and
running.”
Coughlin believes it is
inevitable that the availability and reliability of
wireless communication infrastructures will
broaden the possibilities for integration and
use. “Until recent years the use of a mobile
network to communicate operational
transaction both from within the
warehouse/yard and out in the field would not
be viable,” he remarked. “Now, the use of
mobile networks is becoming an increasingly
popular way to run an operation that would be
traditionally done using WiFi infrastructure.
Mobile tariffs have become so cost-effective
to run that it is often a
better alternative to the
capital outlay involved with
wireless access points and
router hardware. It also
means the devices are not
limited to the range of the
WiFi network, so can be
utilised over a larger area
and over multiple sites.”
de Roo considers that the
logistics market definitely
wants more of a turnkey
solution. “There have been
major improvements made
over the past few years,
but there still seems to be
a lot of stumbling blocks
out there where a lot of
different pieces of the
puzzle aren’t joining up as
well as they could,” he said. “So, it’s about
getting all the data together in a more
seamless way with less data silos.”
Buijsse’s view is that the client/server is still
key, while web user interfaces are next on the
agenda for light users. Maquignon believes
the ability to interface systems efficiently has
always been critical. He points out that for a
company like
Transwide this has
always been native on
the platform. “Building
solutions on a single
communication
platform is critical for
seamless operations,”
he said. “There is a lot
of hype about mobile
application and we start to see more of those
deployed on board trucks.”
Legal matters And have changes in transportation legislation
influenced the development of Transportation
Management systems over the past year or
so? According to Buijsse the answer is in the
affirmative. “Yes, working time regulations are
now included more often in route planning,”
he said, adding: “An eco-tax will be
implemented in
France in mid-2013,
which will force
shippers to pay
additional taxes for
the usage of certain
roads, and to place
GPS equipment in
their trucks.”
Willemsens believes
that green logistics
and the need for
CO2 calculations is something that might
have influenced the development of Transport
Management systems further. “The fact that
everything needs to be ‘green’ these days
and shippers and carriers need to have
calculations based on this might have pushed
developments on this topic,” she said. On a
global level, Willemsens considers that the
new eco-tax in France will have impact on
some Transportation Management systems.
Maquignon observes that the main changes
are related to security in international
transportation and in the Carrier Safety Act
the USA. In Europe, meanwhile, the French
eco-tax will have a major impact on the
transportation industry, in his view. “Transwide
is prepared because our solutions already
have the ability to manage accessorial,” he
said. “Moreover, our costs computation
capabilities are very strong. All in all, new
regulations are usually strong drivers for TMS
investment.”
DifferentiationAnd what of some of the key points of
differentiation within the Transportation
Management solutions arena? Maquignon
considers that one differentiator is
functionality-driven; namely the ability to
deliver on all processes – from sourcing to
planning to execution to costs auditing to
reporting & analysis. “Only a few
Transportation Management systems have the
ability to execute with some functional depth
in all areas especially today,” he said. “The
ability to run transport planning through a
good optimisation process warrants fast ROI.
Transportation Management systems need to
be versatile and allow customers to work
Fabrice Maquignon,CEO, Transwide.
We see that the case for OnDemand is growing stronger as itallows greater flexibility, cheaperimplementation and allowscustomers to evolve their processesmore easily.”
– Fabrice Maquignon, Transwide.
“
jointly with 3PLs and 4PLs directly with
carriers, or manage their own fleet when
necessary.” In terms of technology-driven
differences, Maquignon maintains that it is still
a case of On Demand TMS vs. ASP TMS vs.
On-premise TMS. “We see that the case for
On Demand is growing stronger as it allows
greater flexibility, cheaper implementation and
allows customers to evolve their processes
more easily,” he remarked. “In the end it is not
just the ‘pay as you go’ model which is
attractive but the faster ROI, lower risk and
lower maintenance cost.”
And in terms of service differences,
Maquignon comments that when looking for a
Transportation Management solution one
should look at both the level of support that
will be provided as well as at how one’s
providers will be supported.
On the road to futuredevelopment
And with a view to future developments and
trends Coughlin points out that tmWare is
looking at utilising smartphone technology in
particular; to further enable more functions
and features of the system to be available
through this medium. He adds that, whether it
is a case a manager logging in to his
dashboard to get a quick overview of
operational status while he is out and about,
or fully featured apps that enable
transactional operations to be performed, this
is an exciting area. According to Coughlin it
affords much potential for genuine benefit to
the end user rather than just a fad like RFID.
“RFID is great concept but how many people
actually use it?” he remarked.
In de Roo’s view, the Cloud will definitely
continue to become more popular. He also
maintains that the continuing integration of
Transportation Management functionality with
mobile devices and more general centralised
integration of data will become increasingly
prevalent. “It seems to me that we are going
back to the old mainframe type solutions;
rather than allowing much of the
transportation-related data to be held in silos,”
he said. “There is certainly a strong desire for
all this information to be pulled back into a
more centralised data hub.”
de Roo added that one of the biggest areas
of focus within the transportation management
arena is driver performance, and solutions
that can help logistics companies to better
track driver performance. “This will
undoubtedly become even more important in
the future,” he said. “One reason for this is the
desire to ensure
driving time is best
utilised, thus saving
on fuel. Also,
companies want their
drivers to drive as
safely and
responsibly as
possible, therefore
reducing vehicle
wear and tear as well
as having fewer
accidents. This last
point can also, of
course, have a
bearing on the
October 201212 ITMANUFACTURING&LOGISTICS www.logisticsit.com
Special technology report Transportation management
It seems to me that we are going back to the old mainframe typesolutions; rather than allowing much of the transportation-related data tobe held in silos. There is certainly a strong desire for all this information tobe pulled back into a more centralised data hub.”
– James De Roo, PTV Group.
“
James De Roo,business development
manager UK, PTV Group.
October 2012 13ITMANUFACTURING&LOGISTICS
Special technology report Transportation management
www.logisticsit.com
The following case studies illustrate
how Transportation Management
solutions are delivering real benefits
to a range of logistics operators:
Transporeon case study –Procurus
With Transporeon working with drinks
manufacturer Bacardi across Europe, a UK link
was the logical next step. Over the past year
Transporeon has provided its transport
assignment system to specialist 4PL provider
Procurus, logistics partner for Bacardi, the
world’s largest privately- and family-owned spirits
provider. Procurus has staff embedded in
Bacardi operations, handling all movements
around the Continent. Transporeon’s UK key
account manager, Charlie Pesti, worked closely
with Graeme Connor, Procurus’ business
development manager and his colleagues, to
establish a 4PL solution to the demands of
distributing Bacardi products around Britain.
Connor inherited the plan to link with
Transporeon when he took up his post with
Procurus in August 2011. Procurus is using
Transporeon’s No-Touch Order module. The
module has a range of major features. Among
those particularly attractive to Procurus is the
automated transport allocation, based on
defined criteria with no need for manual
intervention, with transport planners freed to
concentrate on exceptions. Procurus is also
using Transporeon’s Time Slot Management
module, which ensures that loading and
unloading slots can be booked online, carriers
can be tracked on route and can quickly get on
their way again after arrival. The system will be
used too for monitoring and checking security
information, which is required in moving high
value products such as alcohol. Procurus and its
carriers are now benefitting from reduced time,
efforts, costs and increased productivity as well
as reduced empty miles.
Transwide case study –Ontex
Ontex is a European provider of hygienic
disposables (such as nappies and wipes,
feminine hygiene and adult incontinence) for the
private label sector. Utilising 11 manufacturing
facilities, these facilities are strategically located
to enable the business to provide timely
deliveries of all products to customers. Ontex
recognises that delivering the product in time is
a key feature for its customers and as a result it
has developed a high quality supply chain
organisation to ensure the highest levels of
customer service. By using the Transwide
communication hub, Ontex is able to manage
and monitor the inbound and outbound traffic at
20 locations, including transport booking, load
planning and full track & trace visibility once the
shipment has left the Ontex premises. Most of
the data flows are currently automated through
electronic bi-directional messaging exchange.
The key benefits of Transwide include time
efficiencies in transport ordering process. This
allows Ontex more time to focus on its service
performance and customer satisfaction. Another
benefit is better planning and managing of
human & mechanical resources. This includes:
• 10 per cent increase in quantity loaded with
insurance premiums
a logistics company
has to pay.”
According to de
Roo, the further
reduction of vehicles’
carbon footprint may
also become an
even greater
requirement in the
near future. “So,
looking at the broad
picture,
transportation management solutions are
increasingly required to save time and cost as
well as ensure greater environmental
responsibility as well as optimum safety on
the road,” he stated. “And, of course,
achieving such overall cost savings can mean
the ROI in logistics companies’ transportation
management solution can be achieved within
a compellingly short timeline.”
Buijsse believes tailor-made reporting,
possibly via Apps on mobile devices, will
become more prevalent. Additionally, he
considers that there could be an upcoming
dearth of drivers, which may force shippers to
move partially back from rented fleet to
private or dedicated fleets, to secure short
term carrier availability.
Changing demands With regard to the end user, how might their
business or operational requirements change
over the coming year or two? Buijsse points to
backhauling, the avoidance of sub-
optimisation and the inclusion of workforce
scheduling within system functionality,
together with the use of more parameters, to
make planning as realistic as possible.
According to Maquignon, the regulatory
environment may provide more constraints
and drive a growth in intermodal
transportation. He also considers that high oil
prices will surely revive initiatives for
collaborative logistics; hence driving the need
for Transportation Management solutions that
are fully capable of letting partners share
environments. Regardless of what the future
holds, there can be no doubt that today’s
state-of-the-art Transportation Management
systems are reaping major time, cost, safety
and environmental benefits for logistics
professionals, not to mention their invaluable
benefits in keeping businesses on the right
side of legal compliance.
Ronald Buijsse,director global
marketing, Ortec.
An eco-tax will be implemented in France in mid-2013, which will forceshippers to pay additional taxes for the usage of certain roads, and to placeGPS equipment in their trucks.”
– Ronald Buijsse, Ortec.
“
Transportation Management in action
the same operational resources.
• 10 per cent increase in on-time delivery.
• Over 50 per cent decrease of waiting times.
Additionally, track & trace functionality allows a
very fast response time to customers and
improves exceptions management and issue
resolution. This results in reduced complaints
from customer on delivery delays. Also, carrier
acceptance has guaranteed full project ROI;
none of the carriers have refused to use
Transwide. And 95 per cent of carriers book time
slots at pick-up locations and comply with their
own commitments, leading to a substantial
reduction of demurrage costs. The remaining
issues are tackled through continuous
improvement and based on pro-active exception
management.
tmWare case study – SeaCargo
Sea Cargo, a North Sea shipping company
based at Immingham docks, uses tmWare to
receive cargo in, manage and plan orders out.
A lot of the transport work is subcontracted
out, which means it is not possible to supply
each subcontractor with an in-cab device.
Therefore, tmWare’s POD SMS provides a
platform for maintaining the real time
communication of successful deliveries. Steve
Lingard, IT development manager at Sea
Cargo commented: "Not being an operator of
a large fleet of vehicles Sea Cargo relies on
subcontracted haulage. The solution to send
POD information over SMS allows these
subcontractors to maintain reliable and up to
date communication directly with our transport
applications. As every haulier already has a
mobile phone there is zero investment
required from the subcontractor and allows
Sea Cargo to operate as if having an in-house
haulage department using expensive in-cab
hardware. We also see the use of smart
phones to greatly increase over the coming
years which will allow even more innovation
and functionality in this area.”
PTV case study – IsotrakBritish company Isotrak specialises in field of
telematics and transportation software. Product
manager Jon Hannah is responsible for
assembling products that meet the customers’
goals and expectations for their business. “To
this end we provide software innovations that
drive Isotrak‘s offerings forward,” said Hannah.
Mapping performance was one of the features
that Isotrak wanted to improve: “The
performance was too slow when customers
wanted to view the current position of their
vehicles or analyse routes generated earlier in
the day,” Hannah explained. In addition,
customers had seen the advent of Google and
Bing mapping. “Therefore, our customers felt
features like aerial mapping would be useful,”
Hannah continued. “They also wanted to
introduce polygon geofences as an improvement
on circular ones, enabling them to better define
the areas within which they search for
addresses.” A research project was undertaken
by the Development Team to find out how to
integrate aerial mapping and polygons into the
software via OpenLayers. Isotrak chose PTV
xServers to optimise its software solution. PTV
xServers are powerful modules that enable users
to easily integrate geographical and logistical
functions into their client server architecture.
Detailed NAVTEQ data ensures precise
geocoding and map display as well as accurate
routing & tracking. Hannah commented: “The
components contain many functions which we
can use for our software. And we truly
appreciate the partnership approach taken by
the PTV team which will serve us well on projects
going forward.” Due to the PTV xServers Isotrak
was able to not only solve the initial problems,
including mapping, the provision of aerial
mapping, enhanced geographic search and the
integration of OpenLayers for map overlays, but
also provide the new Route Sequence Planning
functionality. It includes valuable information on
vehicle profiles, dynamic vehicle rerouting, HGV-
specific restrictions and Traffic Patterns. Users of
the software, both internal and external, got to
grips with the software extremely quickly.
Ortec – TNT case study The Franz Edelman Award was presented to
TNT Express as the company – together with a
team, including Ortec, and by using Ortec tools
– saved over 200 Mln euro in the past 5 years on
networking and routing optimisation projects.
Ortec – Walmart studyEarlier this year Walmart announced an
improvement in the efficiency of its private fleet
by almost 69 per cent last year compared to its
2005 baseline. Part of these savings has been
realised by the company-wide implementation of
the Ortec Vehicle Routing and Ortec Load
Building solutions. An excerpt from the Walmart
report reads: “Throughout our network, we
delivered 65 million more cases, while driving 28
million fewer miles, by increasing pallets per
trailer and better managing routes. The heavier
loads have minimal impact on our fuel-efficient
equipment, which includes an average tractor
age of three years and the addition of more than
13,000 skirted trailers. Our network efficiency
improvement equates to avoiding nearly 41,000
metric tons of CO2 emissions, the equivalent of
taking about 7900 cars off the road.” n
October 201214 ITMANUFACTURING&LOGISTICS www.logisticsit.com
Special technology report Transportation management
October 2012 15ITMANUFACTURING&LOGISTICS
Success story \\\ Manufacturing \\\
www.logisticsit.com
Frank & Pignard provides a variety
of power steering and engine
injection parts for major automotive
original equipment manufacturers
(OEMs). Founded in 1929, the
company operates three production plants
located in Thyez, France. As a QAD customer
since 1999, Frank & Pignard relies on QAD
Enterprise Applications to efficiently manage
its business.
With the automotive market recovering, and
ambitious plans for growth in place, the
company identified an opportunity to leverage
additional new functionality by upgrading to
the latest Enterprise Edition of QAD Enterprise
Applications.
Customer focus “We needed to enhance our system to
provide our customers the level of support
they require,” explained René Pierre
Chemama – CIO, Frank & Pignard SAS. “By
upgrading to QAD’s latest edition of
Enterprise Applications we have ensured that
we can continue to provide the best service
for our existing customers as well as attract
new clients.”
A critical customer driven change for the
company was the complete redesign of their
existing EDI platform. As part of the upgrade,
Frank & Pignard has standardised all EDI
communication with its car manufacturer
clients using the QAD EDI solution which is
expected to have a direct impact on supply
chain efficiency.
Fast implementation
The project was delivered by a combined
team comprised of personnel from QAD,
Sopra Group, and Frank & Pignard. QAD’s
deployment methodology was used to
standardise on best practices and minimise
the need for customisations. The
implementation of the latest Enterprise Edition
at all sites was achieved in less than five
months.
Another key deliverable from the upgrade was
the new functionality contained within the
QAD Enterprise Financials suite. The
company’s finance team implemented a
shared services structure across their
European operations to drive efficiencies and
gain competitive advantage. QAD’s built-in
Operational Metrics allow the company to
closely monitor its key performance
indicators, and rapidly take action if needed.
“We are focused on delivering enterprise
applications that help our customers become
more effective enterprises,” said Steve
Gardner EMEA vice president, sales and
marketing, QAD. “Moreover we continue to
work closely with our global customers to help
ensure they are evolving their usage of QAD
technology, upgrade innovation and services
to gain optimal benefit and speed time to
value.” n
Frank & Pignard chooses QADEnterprise Applications
We needed to enhance our system to provide our customers the levelof support they require. By upgrading to QAD’s latest edition of EnterpriseApplications we have ensured that we can continue to provide the bestservice for our existing customers as well as attract new clients.”
– René Pierre Chemama, Frank & Pignard SAS.
“
QAD Inc., provider of enterprise business software and services for global manufacturingcompanies, and its strategic alliance partner, Sopra Group, has announced that Frank &Pignard SAS, a wholly-owned division of Maike Group, has gone live with the latestedition of QAD Enterprise Applications.
About QAD at a glanceQAD is a provider of enterpriseapplications for global manufacturingcompanies specialising in automotive,consumer products, electronics, food andbeverage, industrial and life scienceproducts. QAD applications providecritical functionality for managingmanufacturing resources and operationswithin and beyond the enterprise,enabling global manufacturers tocollaborate with their customers,suppliers and partners to make anddeliver the right product, at the right costand at the right time.
Frank & Pignard provides a variety ofpower steering and engine injectionparts for major automotive originalequipment manufacturers (OEMs).
October 201216 ITMANUFACTURING&LOGISTICS
\\\ Manufacturing \\\ Product news
www.logisticsit.com
Infor, provider of business application
software serving more than 70,000
customers, has announced a Cloud-based
offering of its suite of applications for the
equipment industry. The company
comments that deploying Infor applications in
the Cloud will help equipment companies
modernise their technology, reduce IT
infrastructure, speed deployment, and create a
lower total cost of ownership. Infor will leverage
IBM Power Systems built on open standards to
create a private Cloud environment to run Infor
applications with increased speed and agility.
“Infor is committed to helping our customers in
the equipment industry drive efficiency not only
through applications that improve business
processes, but also through technology that
helps reduce their IT budgets,” said Mark Wright,
executive vice president, Infor. “Customers that
choose to deploy Infor
applications in the cloud will
be able to take advantage of
reduced costs, increased
flexibility and easier
upgrades, all with
maintenance and support
direct from Infor’s award
winning Xtreme Support
Programme.”
More than 5500 customers in
approximately 60 countries
use Infor applications for their equipment-centric
business. Whether deployed on-premise or in the
cloud, Infor Equipment helps customers
centralise key information from production, sales,
service, warranty, finance, and rental with a
single, scalable business system to drive
strategic and profitable operations.
The delivery of a Cloud offering of Infor
Equipment follows Infor’s recent announcement
of heavy investment in the industry, which
includes a dedicated innovation centre and the
formation of the Infor CAT Dealer Advisory
Council. n
Infor announces Cloud offering forequipment industry
m-hance, UK provider of
business software solutions,
has launched its integrated
enterprise social networking
solution (ESN) for SMEs, m-
hance Social Business (mSB). mSB is an ESN
solution that offers secure and seamless out-
of-the-box connectivity to financial
management, CRM, SharePoint and other
SQL and Oracle based applications, enabling
employees to easily access, comment on and
share valuable knowledge from one unified
system to drive more profitable
communications.
mSB combines the principles of social
networking to provide instant collaboration
and knowledge-sharing within an internal
business context. The system can be
deployed as an on-premise or hosted solution
and is available on smartphones and tablet
devices with its accompanying app providing
greater engagement and collaboration for
remote and mobile workers. Businesses can
also purchase mobile and tablet devices with
associated airtime packages as part of m-
hance's one-stop-shop mobile offering.
Andrew Hayward, managing director of m-
hance, commented: "The sheer volume of
information generated by businesses on a
daily basis is overwhelming. This often leads
to lost revenues when employees are unable
to share and access vital knowledge when
they need to. mSB is m-hance's latest
innovative solution which dynamically
connects people, content and back-office
processes via a single system and has been
developed in response to rising customer
demand for integrated ESN technology."
Analyst IDC predicts that the ESN solutions
market will grow rapidly to reach £2.8 billion in
2016. By implementing mSB, businesses can
successfully bridge geographical distance
and departmental divides across senior
management, finance, sales and marketing,
project and HR teams to improve efficiency.
Key benefits of m-hance Social Business are
claimed to include:
• Increases productivity by an average 2
per cent per user and up to 8 per cent for
knowledge-based workers providing
efficiency savings ranging from £70,000
per year (based on 100 users) to
£350,000 (based on 500 users) through
reduced email 'noise'.
• Reduces knowledge silos.
• Keeps sales teams better informed which
is critical to closing deals.
• Increases employee recognition and
engagement.
• Greater knowledge sharing and skills
transfer.
• Improves connectivity for mobile and
homeworkers.
• Helps the on boarding process for new
starters.
• Moves systems of record to systems of
engagement.
m-hance launches integrated enterprisesocial networking solution for SMEs
October 2012 17ITMANUFACTURING&LOGISTICS
Analysis \\\ Manufacturing \\\
www.logisticsit.com
The public Cloud services market
is forecast to grow 19.6 per cent
in 2012 to total US$109 billion
worldwide, according to Gartner.
Business process services (also
known as Business Process as a Service, or
BPaaS) represent the largest segment,
accounting for about 77 per cent of the total
market, while Infrastructure as a Service
(IaaS) is the fastest-growing segment of the
public cloud services market and is expected
to grow 45.4 per cent in 2012.
High-growth sector
"The Cloud services market is clearly a high-
growth sector within the overall IT
marketplace," said Ed Anderson, research
director at Gartner. "The key to taking
advantage of this growth will be
understanding the nuances of the opportunity
within service segments and geographic
regions, and then prioritising investments in
line with the opportunities."
BPaaS is the largest segment primarily
because of the inclusion of Cloud advertising
as a subsegment. BPaaS is forecast to grow
to $84.2 billion in 2012, up from $72 billion in
2011. In 2011, Cloud advertising represented
about 47 per cent of the total public Cloud
services market, making it the biggest
identifiable sub-segment in the forecast.
Through 2016, Cloud advertising will continue
to account for about 47 per cent of total
public Cloud services spending.
Software as a Service (SaaS) is the next-
largest segment and is forecast to grow to
$14.4 billion in 2012, while IaaS is forecast to
grow from $4.3 billion in 2011 to $6.2 billion in
2012. In 2010, the IaaS market was less than
one-third the size of the SaaS market. By
2016, the IaaS market will grow to almost
equal the size of the SaaS market.
Growth in application infrastructure services
(also known as Platform as a Service, or
PaaS) will also be high, although it is a
smaller market relative to the other segments.
PaaS is strategic and considered to be a
critical growth driver for other segments,
including BPaaS and SaaS. The PaaS
segment is forecast to grow to $1.2 billion in
2012. Cloud management and security
services constitute a new forecast segment
comprising Cloud security services, IT
operations management (ITOM) and storage
management (including backup and recovery
services). The Cloud management and
security services segment is forecast to grow
to $3.3 billion in 2012.
Although North America is the largest region
and is expected to produce the largest
absolute increase in market size, Gartner
expects the highest regional growth rates in
emerging Asia/Pacific (including India and
Indonesia), greater China, Eurasia (including
Russia) and Latin America (including
Argentina, Mexico and Brazil). Western
Europe is forecast to grow the slowest during
the forecast period, largely due to ongoing
Eurozone economic issues, while growth will
also be lower in mature Asia/Pacific markets
due to ongoing economic challenges in the
Japanese market.
North America will account for the greatest
percentage of absolute growth in the Cloud
services market, with 61 per cent of all growth
from 2010 through 2016. Western Europe will
follow, with 17 per cent of absolute Cloud
services growth over the same period. This
highlights the dominance of North America
and Western Europe in the development,
availability and adoption of Cloud services.
High growth rates will occur in emerging
markets, including the top three growth
countries of India, Indonesia and China.
However, 79 per cent of spending increases
will come from North America and Western
Europe. For Cloud services providers, this will
require a strategic approach when
considering both high-volume and high-
growth markets. Both will be important in the
development of sustained, global strategies.
Evaluation
"The total public Cloud services market size in
2011 was $91.4 billion, and it will grow to
$206.6 billion in 2016. As the market grows,
IaaS will become a larger part of the overall
market, while the market share of Cloud
management and security services will grow
as well," said Anderson. "When targeting
specific markets within the Cloud services
marketplace, we recommend evaluating both
potential market size and growth rates. These
will vary by segment, sub-segment, region
and country."
Richard Davies, CEO of ElasticHosts,
commented: “The predictions that the public
Cloud services market is predicted to grow to
$206.6 billion in 2016 presents a huge
opportunity for the channel, particularly in the
IaaS space. With this in mind clever channel
players will start looking at solutions that allow
them to white label cloud solutions, provide
additional services and associated revenue,
while also maintaining customer relationships.
As Cloud becomes more prevalent end users
will have a much clearer perspective on what
Cloud is and what to expect from providers.” n
Gartner: worldwide Cloud servicesmarket to surpass $109 billion in 2012
October 201218 ITMANUFACTURING&LOGISTICS
\\\ Manufacturing \\\ Analysis
www.logisticsit.com
As competition intensifies across
all industries, Frost & Sullivan
believes companies need to
increase their process efficiency,
quality and productivity. Key
factors to establishing successful automation
systems include faster and more reliable
networking solutions, such as industrial
computers.
New findings from Frost & Sullivan, ‘Analysis of
the Global Industrial Computers Market
(www.industrialautomation.frost.com)’, finds that
the global industrial computers market earned
revenues of US$2134.4 million in 2011 and
estimates this to reach $3,216.6 million in 2015.
Progression
“Currently, competition has intensified across all
industries, leading companies to increase their
process efficiency, quality and productivity, and
thus raising the need for industrial computers,”
commented Frost & Sullivan research analyst
Katarzyna Owczarczyk. “In each industry,
automation systems have progressed beyond
programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and
supervisory control and data acquisition
(SCADA) systems to include robotics or
machine vision systems.”
While competition is intensifying at a global
level, and computer technology is striving
forward at an increasing rate, most companies
prefer to make immediate and maximum profits
by using the latest technologies available. This
is creating a need to expedite the decision-
making process for investments into the
industrial computers market, as companies aim
to refresh and update their processes with
modern technology to remain competitive.
Owczarczyk continued: “Key factors to
establishing successful automation systems
include faster and more reliable networking
solutions such as industrial computers which,
when combined with advanced process
control software, function as automation
supervisors with the ability to connect external
machines and plants. Furthermore, recent
increases in computational and storage
capability and the integration of several tasks
on one platform have allowed for the creation
of computing platforms capable of recording
and analysing terabytes of raw data, resulting
in increased process efficiency, quality and
productivity.”
Far East factor
The industrial computers market has been
thriving in the Far East – especially in South
Korea, Taiwan, and China. These countries
have been producing industrial computers,
exporting them at extremely low prices. As
their quality matches the expectations of the
western market, the continued increase in
competition from the Far East has put pressure
on the established European market players.
“With many end users being price sensitive and
importing inexpensive products from Asian
countries such as China or Taiwan, it is expected
that these countries will penetrate the market as
low cost options, especially among the small and
medium sized companies, which cannot afford
high price, best quality products,” said
Owczarczyk.
European and American industrial computers
suppliers are therefore forced to keep their
prices down in order to compete, which may be
difficult to achieve due to higher production
costs. This in turn puts pressure on industrial
computers manufacturers to drive down prices,
as customers will be seeking to reduce their own
costs. The impact of this restraint remains strong
in the short and medium terms, as many end
users – especially in the Asian and Eastern
European countries – will prefer low cost
industrial computers.
“Once end users recognise the need of
having highly effective machines, the
adoption is expected to increase,”
concluded Owczarczyk. n
Frost & Sullivan predicts growth for theglobal industrial computers market
Owing to the rapid growth of computer and communication technology, manufacturingareas are becoming more automated, increasingly deploying intelligent devices tomonitor and control unmanned facilities, according to Frost & Sullivan.
European and American industrial computers suppliers are therefore forced to keeptheir prices down in order to compete, which may be difficult to achieve due tohigher production costs.
October 2012 19ITMANUFACTURING&LOGISTICS
Analysis \\\ Manufacturing \\\
www.logisticsit.com
The market data from PAC shows
the highly heterogeneous maturity
levels of the SaaS market, with the
USA accounting for 60 per cent of
the worldwide SaaS market in
2012. ”The USA is the clear leader – the model
was invented there, a very broad offering is
already available there and there are no cultural
barriers,” said Christophe Châlons, chief
analyst at PAC. “In many
other countries, on the other
hand, the fear of losing
control, security concerns,
plus - in emerging countries
- the lack of Internet
bandwidth and the
competition from (low-cost)
local ISVs are hampering
the market development.”
In order of size, the USA is
followed by the UK,
Germany, Japan, Canada,
and France, each of them
making up between 3 and 6
per cent of the worldwide
market. The BRIC countries
(Brazil, Russia, India and
China) taken together, on
the other hand, represent
just 2 per cent of the worldwide market.
Strong variations
In a comprehensive datamart document, PAC
provides and compares market volumes and
growth rates by industry. While Manufacturing
and Services & Consumers account for the
major share of the SaaS market, followed by
Banking and Retail & Wholesale, there are
strong variations regarding both volume and
growth between the different countries.
Châlons continued:
“Traditionally, SMBs – in
particular in the Services,
Manufacturing or Retail
industries – have considered
the SaaS model an attractive
option. It enables them to
deploy solutions and
automate processes in a
flexible, easy-to-use and financially feasible
manner. However, security concerns and
compliance regulations particularly hinder growth
in industries like Banking or the Public Sector.”
PAC’s detailed datamart ‘Software as a Service
by Vertical Sectors – Market Figures –
Worldwide by Countries’ is part of our SITSI
market research. It provides market volumes,
growth rates and forecasts for the worldwide
Software as a Service market for the 2009-2015
period and covers 25 countries (Australia,
Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China,
Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, India, Italy,
Japan, Mexico, Middle East, Netherlands,
Norway, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Spain,
Sweden, Switzerland, UK, USA) and 3 regions
(Americas, APAC, EMEA). The figures are
broken down by the following vertical sectors:
Manufacturing, Banking, Insurance, Public
Sector, Telecom, Utilities, Retail & Wholesale,
Services & Consumers, Transport. n
Worldwide SaaS Market: USA leadingwith 60 per cent market share
European research and analysis company, Pierre Audoin Consultants (PAC), recentlypublished market figures and a forecast for the worldwide Software as a Service (SaaS)market for 2009-2015, showing the development of the SaaS market by 9 verticalsectors in 25 countries as well as at regional and worldwide level.
Traditionally, SMBs – in particular in the Services, Manufacturing orRetail industries – have considered the SaaS model an attractive option. Itenables them to deploy solutions and automate processes in a flexible,easy-to-use and financially feasible manner. However, security concernsand compliance regulations particularly hinder growth in industries likeBanking or the Public Sector.”
– Christophe Châlons, Pierre Audoin Consultants.
“
October 201220 ITMANUFACTURING&LOGISTICS
Planning Success story
Advanced planning & scheduling
has brought many benefits to
pharmaceutical companies in
different types of application.
This is best illustrated by
looking at some examples. Universal Products
(Lytham) Manufacturing Ltd. (UPL) is a
leading contract manufacturer serving the
pharmaceutical and personal care industries
including liquids, creams, lotions, ointments
and gels.
Operating on a Make to Order basis, UPL
produces in the region of 40-45 million units
per year with order sizes ranging from 1000 to
1,000,000. Each of the company’s 500+
products comprises two essential components
– raw materials and packaging. However while
the lead times for raw materials are normally
between 1 to 4 weeks, packaging lead times,
which may include design and printing can
extend out to 18 weeks depending on what is
specified. To complicate matters further, some
customers choose to supply their own
packaging, which needs to be available before
the product can begin to be made.
Alison Walmsley, the
company’s planner explains
why the relationship between
packaging and filling is so
important. “Clearly we can’t fill
a product if we don’t have
anything to fill into but it’s more
complicated than this. Many of
our products have to be mixed
in very exact ways, in
dedicated tanks at specific
temperatures. Some have to
be stored at a certain
temperatures and also kept at
the specific temperatures
required by the filling machine
that is needed to fill the tubes,
jars or bottles in question.
Each of our mixing, storage
and filling resources are
therefore a potential
bottleneck and we cannot
begin a job and keep it on
hold while we wait for the
packaging to arrive.”
Evaluatingalternativescenarios
As Walmsley notes, resource
utilisation extends beyond
the use of machines to
ensuring that sufficient staffing levels are in
place. “We run a variety of shift patterns and
when demand is high we may need to run
weekend shifts and take on extra people,”
she said. The non-availability of people as
well as unplanned maintenance also needs to
be carefully managed, with the company
ideally needing to evaluate a number of
alternative scenarios to select the most
effective plan. Seeing the impact of a
decision on all the existing live orders as well
as those further upstream then becomes
increasingly important.
The ability to update the plan as and when
required and push it to everyone in the
company means that UPL now only works to
the same, up-to-date plan. The company can
now react much quicker to unexpected
changes in customer orders, supplier
problems and unplanned maintenance
situations and in the case of larger
disruptions, perform numerous ‘what if’
scenarios.
Another example is Laboratorios Raffo in
Preactor provides the rightAdvanced Planning & Schedulingremedy for UPL
www.logisticsit.com
October 2012 21ITMANUFACTURING&LOGISTICS
Planning Success story
www.logisticsit.com
Argentina. Headquartered in Munro, Vicente
López, the company has 2 other locations in
Buenos Aires with its main manufacturing
facility located in San Juan province. QA and
QC are vital processes in the operation of the
company, actively involved in each stage of
production, from raw materials and drugs,
tablet production, through to primary and
secondary packaging. It was therefore vital to
integrate QC and QA fully into the planning
and scheduling process. At every stage an
intricate logic of constraints must be taken
into account for each package of raw
materials and drugs to be sampled with
traceability of batches needing to be
maintained for the individual lots of
intermediate products.
A particular feature of the QC processes in
the pharmaceutical industry is that they are
essentially made up of two ‘trains’ of
operation; those that correspond to chemical
analysis and those that correspond to
microbiological analysis. These should both
flow in parallel and independently. An
additional degree of complexity comes from
the company’s aim of minimising the stocks of
intermediate products and minimising total
production time.
Fast pace The company uses Preactor to plan production
across more than 280 resources. The fast pace
of business forces Central Planning, operating
from the Central Administration, to run MRP at
least once a week. San Juan inputs all the new
data regarding plans and stocks of both raw
materials and intermediate products
manufactured in San Juan, Buenos Aires and/or
third parties into Preactor to update the
schedule.
Eduardo Behmer, planning project leader,
commented: “Preactor is not only a very
efficient scheduling tool, it has also been an
impressive driving force to improve our
logistics chain. Preactor has forced us to re-
define the parameters included in our MRP
Module including the update of the
suggested orders generated by it, the
update of the raw materials lead times, and
other logistics parameters with the objective
to improve the starting dates for the
production processes.” n
UPL can now react much quicker tounexpected changes in customer orders,supplier problems and unplanned maintenancesituations and in the case of larger disruptions,perform numerous ‘what if’ scenarios.
October 201222 ITMANUFACTURING&LOGISTICS
Planning Opinion
www.logisticsit.com
Four pillars of demandforecasting excellence
Estimating future demand is one of
the most fundamentally valuable
challenges in supply chain
optimisation. Demand forecasting
provides the crucial forward-
looking picture that shapes how a company
will deploy its supply chain to take maximum
advantage of customer opportunity. Demand
planning is the effort to increase forecast
accuracy and customer service levels through
better perceiving, predicting and shaping the
full range of factors that determine how well
your product portfolio satisfies market needs.
No other aspect of supply chain optimisation
has greater impact on business profitability.
Providing the best ‘one number’ forecast
requires capturing demand close to its source
and accurately predicting actual demand with
enough lead time and confidence to ensure
maximum sales & operations planning (S&OP)
performance at minimum cost. There are four
key pillars that support effective demand
planning and establish fundamental
parameters for higher service levels and lower
inventory cost. These are the ‘pillars’ on which
competitive advantage and profitability are
built.
Pillar 1: Go beyond simpleforecasting
Effective demand planning applies science to
deliver a better forecast (a prediction that
turns out to be closer to actual demand).
While forecasts have long been executed
using not much more than a spreadsheet and
a hunch, leading planning organisations strive
for a multi-layered approach that employs a
variety of statistical models in an unbiased
way to comprehend the many factors that
influence demand for products in the
marketplace over time. According to a recent
analyst survey on improving demand
planning, respondents indicated that “lack of
accountability for the accuracy of the
forecast” was the biggest challenge.
Companies can benefit from clearly defining
the balance between statistical modeling and
collaborative forecasting methods.
Pillar 2: Beat the ‘Devil inthe details’ using ademand aggregation
Demand aggregation and disaggregation are
keys to creating the best possible forecast at
all levels of granularity required to reconcile
corporate (strategic) plans with operations
(tactical) plans. As Gartner puts it, “the
balance between bottom-up collaborative
approaches versus top-down statistical
modeling is challenging”.* The demand
aggregation hierarchy is a concept familiar to
most planners: a multi-layer view in which the
lower, larger levels represent demand for a
greater number of sub-components, while the
higher levels summarise demand by product
family, group, region, etc.
In practice, this hierarchy (see Figure 1)
should support input from multiple sources,
including customer forecasts, sales forecasts,
management direction, and constraint-based
forecasts, as well as external demand signals
generated by syndicated data and point-of-
sale information. The hierarchy structure
breaks down higher-level (executive-friendly)
plans into detailed forecasts associated with
product components such as style, color,
size, sales channel, customer, region, and
other elements. It captures ‘how many of
which kind’ need to be created, stocked, and
distributed for multilevel product structures
such as accessories, components,
consumables and service parts that have
time-phased dependent demand.
Pillar 3: Take plannerproductivity to the nextlevel
One of the primary distinctions between
leading companies and all others is their
ability to focus valuable planner resources on
high-value-add activities like problem
avoidance, issue resolution and optimisation.
Adopting a management-by-exception
approach to demand planning is a crucial
way of maximising planner productivity in the
organisation. Advanced demand planning
systems encourage a ‘set-and-forget…until
alerted’ philosophy around forecasts. As
actual sales data becomes available, the
system monitors validity by comparing the
existing demand curve to the actual demand
signal.
Establishing and automatically monitoring a
customised set of performance indicators
provides planners and other stakeholders a
comprehensive picture of how well the
forecasting effort is working. Common KPIs
include forecast accuracy, inventory levels,
Karin Bursa: “Getting visibility to whatcustomers, partners and internal stakeholdersknow can make a more accurate demand planand provide reliable input to the Sales &Operations Planning team.”
By Karin Bursa, vice president, Logility.
October 2012 23ITMANUFACTURING&LOGISTICS
Planning Opinion
service level, fill rate, and stock-out
percentage. The demand planning system
provides individualised dashboards that
display KPIs relevant to each stakeholder’s
needs. By managing one integrated set of
KPIs across the organisation, from supply-
side to demand-side, at every level of
forecast aggregation; everyone stays on the
same page regarding overall performance
against unified customer service metrics.
Pillar 4: Make collaborationa core demand planningcompetency
Getting visibility to what customers, partners
and internal stakeholders know can make a
more accurate demand plan and provide
reliable input to the Sales & Operations
Planning team. There is no greater
contribution to wise S&OP decision making
than collecting information as close to the
demand signal as possible, and receiving
feedback as early as possible. According to
Gartner gathering demand insights from
customers presents the largest gap between
importance (74 per cent think it is important)
and effectiveness (44 per cent think they are
effective at it). Gathering demand insights
from sales and marketing (importance 65 per
cent, effectiveness 48 per cent) and gathering
demand insights from product management
(importance 55 per cent, effectiveness 42 per
cent) showed smaller, but still significant,
gaps between importance and effectiveness.
As we have seen, providing the best ‘one
number’ forecast requires capturing the
demand signal close to its source and
accurately predicting demand with enough
lead time and confidence to ensure maximum
sales and operations performance at
minimum cost. n
[*] ‘Building an Effective Demand-Planning
Process,’ July 18, 2012, Steven Steutermann,
Fenella Scott, Noha Tohamy, Gartner.
Figure 1. Demand hierarchy, showing multiple aggregation stacks.
www.logisticsit.com
Patient safety is naturally the top
priority within hospitals and
clinics, as is dispensing the
right drug to the right patient at
the right time. Auto ID plays an
important role here, providing benefits such
as unique patient ID numbers to prevent
treatment errors – such as the transfusion
of the wrong blood type, or confusion
arising from two patients with the same
name. There is also a very robust
dispensing methodology in place, making
sure the right drugs are supplied. However,
an assumption is commonly made that the
drugs in the packet, syringe or the saline
bag are genuine. “You can have the best
patient safety initiatives in place, but if
patients are receiving fake drugs this
defeats the whole objective and can
ultimately put lives at risk,” remarks Zebra
Technologies’ Matt Parker.
So what is the solution? Parker maintains
that in order to best ensure drugs are
genuine within the hospital or clinic
environment, as well as at the counter of
the local pharmacy, the medical and
pharmaceutical industry needs to look
upstream within the supply chain. “It’s all
about full tracking and traceability of
goods,” he said. “Pharmaceutical
counterfeits are an expensive problem
globally, as well as potentially highly
dangerous – with potentially hazardous
substances sometimes being used as a
packer or filler.”
With this in mind, Parker explains that
manufacturing organisations in the
pharmaceutical space and elsewhere are
beginning to see the potential of already
established auto ID technologies as a
trusted means of better interrogating
products and their origin. He adds that, of
course, it is impossible to fully secure
anything and that counterfeiting has been
around since the beginning of civilisation;
however Parker makes the point that
stakeholders within a supply chain can go
a lot further in making counterfeiting more
difficult. In order to achieve this, he
explains that by establishing a centralised
company-wide or industry-wide database a
series of lock-codes can be established at
item level in order to verify products when
dispensed or at the point of issue to
hospitals or clinics.
Added security layers
Parker explains that, by scanning a 2-D
data matrix code to verify the lock code
against the central database, quick and
accurate verification of genuine products
can be achieved. But there remains a
potential problem here. If the lock codes
were leaked from the point of manufacture
and intercepted by unscrupulous
individuals they could in theory be
duplicated before they reach the pharmacy
store. Therefore, he points out that there
remains a small element of risk that fake
goods could be dispensed. This is where
he recognises the real value of using
different layers of auto ID technology for
added security.
“Rather than just verifying goods at the
point of dispense, the point of purchase or
the point of consumption there is a need
for every individual within the materials
handling process to check and cross
check against the central database,” said
Parker. “OK, there can be around 30
different handover points within the supply
chain, and the handler might say he has 10
pallets each with 100 cartons containing 15
individual items, and so argue that he
couldn’t possibly open every single one of
those items, scan them all individually, re-
pack them and then ship them. But this is
where this different layer comes in because
if we look at using passive RFID at a carton
October 201224 ITMANUFACTURING&LOGISTICS www.logisticsit.com
Printing & Labelling Interview
Fightingcounterfeitingin pharmaceuticaland healthcare
Manufacturing & Logistics IT spoke with Matt Parker, head of marketdevelopment Zebra Technologies Europe, about the practice of counterfeitingwithin the pharmaceutical and healthcare sector, and how better aggregation
of data throughout the supply chain is the best line of defence.
Potentially deadly:Counterfeit drugs remain
a very real, expensiveand dangerous reality inthe pharmaceutical and
healthcare sectors.
October 2012 25ITMANUFACTURING&LOGISTICSwww.logisticsit.com
Printing & Labelling
level or a case level – or even a pallet level
– that allows the handler not only to read
and verify all the goods quickly and simply
against that database but also update the
database because of the writable memory
that still exists on that passive RFID tag
that he’s taken ownership of.”
Parker added that, through deploying this
methodology, companies can secure a
greater level of visibility within their whole
supply chain in terms of who has the
goods at any point in time, when they
released them, when the next person took
ownership of them and so on. “This
process is something we refer to as an
aggregation of data,” said Parker. “It is
about ensuring everything is visible right
the way through the value chain so at the
point of dispense you can look back
through the whole electronic pedigree of a
particular item and make an informed
decision as to whether it’s genuine against
the centralised database.”
Parker added that auto ID is the technology
that is allowing companies to access the
different data points as well as create new
data points; as well as providing
commentary on an individual item as it
moves through the supply chain. “And the
benefit of RFID is that, because of its line-
of-sight removal and the lack of manual
intervention required, the burden is taken
away from any one of those stakeholders
within the supply chain to break down
goods to a component level and then to
scan and verify,” he said.
Top of mind
Parker concluded: “I think it’s fair to say
that this whole anti-counterfeit drive and
the whole content-secure supply chain is
top of mind, not only in the pharmaceutical
and healthcare industry but also in a whole
host of other sectors such a food &
beverage and tobacco, high tech,
automotive parts and fashion & apparel.
The practice of counterfeiting is not going
to go away entirely, but what we need to do
is make it more complicated and harder to
do. Auto ID allows us to do this and
therefore access to aggregated data
throughout the supply chain becomes even
more important.” n
Interview
Rather than just verifying goods atthe point of dispense, the point ofpurchase or the point of consumptionthere is a need for every individualwithin the materials handling processto check and cross check against thecentral database.
RFID can play a critical role inscuppering the counterfeitdrug trade.
October 201226 ITMANUFACTURING&LOGISTICS www.logisticsit.com
Printing & Labelling Product news
Toshiba TEC reports that low
cost of ownership, ease of
integration into existing
competitor estates and high
performance at top speeds are
just some of the benefits of its new B-
EX4T2 premium industrial barcode printer,
available at a price often associated with
less powerful printing solutions. Also, with
what is claimed to be the lowest power
consumption of any industrial printer on the
market* combined with a 600m ribbon
offered as standard, the resulting reduction
in electricity use, stoppages, media
changes and storage requirements, all
point to lower operating costs for users.
Paul Reynolds, senior manager Auto-ID,
from Toshiba TEC, commented: “There was
a definite gap in the market for a high
spec, low cost industrial printer. We are
delighted to introduce the B-EX4T2 and
believe that it will compete extremely
effectively since it provides a low cost
means of upgrading outdated estates to a
more robust, efficient solution, and
performs consistently to the highest
standards guaranteeing maximum return
on investment.”
Reducing capitalinvestment
Toshiba TEC’s use of Z-Mode emulation is
claimed to ensure that the B-EX4T2 can
replace competitor products quickly and
seamlessly, integrating into legacy software
systems without the need for huge capital
investment in expensive upgrades.
Flat-head technology, combined with left
justified media and the use of inside and
outside wound ribbons allow for easy
transition from old label and ribbon stock,
with further savings possible on running
costs when replacing printing estates that
are ageing and expensive to operate. And
with a 600m ribbon, as well as the option of
an 800m ribbon, downtime and associated
costs are also cut to a minimum.
Featuring advanced processing power, the
B-EX4T2 boasts fast output with print
speeds of up to 12ips, combined with
efficient throughput, making it an ideal
choice for heavy-duty industrial printing
environments. In addition, it is available in
203/300 or 600dpi variants for a diverse
range of high volume industrial printing
applications.
Minimummaintenance costs
Using customer-friendly
features that are easy to
upgrade in the field – such as
snap-in printheads, combined
with double-ribbon motor
control, which provides linear
ribbon feed and correct
tension, reducing wrinkles and
waste – maintenance costs are
also kept to a minimum.
Equipped with Ethernet and USB 2.0 as
standard, the B-EX4T2 offers the option to
include parallel port and wireless LAN
capability. Green credentials include the
prized Energy Star label, a solvent-free
ribbon and the Toshiba promise to deliver
Carbon Zero printing.**
* The B-EX4T2 was benchmarked against
competitor products in stand-by mode.
**Toshiba TEC’s Carbon Zero scheme was
launched in 2009 to help end users reduce
their environmental impact, and has
eliminated over 106,000 tonnes of carbon to
date. n
“There was a definite gap in the market for a high spec, low
cost industrial printer. We are delighted to introduce the B-EX4T2
and believe that it will compete extremely effectively since it
provides a low cost means of upgrading outdated estates to a
more robust, efficient solution, and performs consistently to the
highest standards guaranteeing maximum return on investment.”
– Paul Reynolds, Toshiba TEC.
Toshiba TEC launcheslow-cost premium B-EX4T2
27ITMANUFACTURING&LOGISTICS
AUTOMATIC DATA
CAPTUREProduct news
October 2012
Handheld’s Algiz 10X ruggedtablet built for outdoor use
Handheld Group, manufacturer of
rugged mobile computers and
smartphones, has introduced its
new rugged mobile device for
field professionals: the Algiz 10X
rugged tablet PC. The powerful Algiz 10X can
withstand tough weather elements and harsh
handling, and its large, 10.1-inch touchscreen
provides the best screen visibility on the market.
“The new Algiz 10X is perfectly suited for field
professionals who need a rugged tablet
computer that is lightweight and built to
withstand the harsh conditions that come with all
kinds of industry fieldwork, and that can display
detailed maps and other visuals even in bright
sunlight,” said Jerker Hellström, CEO of
Handheld.
IP65-rated
The Algiz 10X is IP65-rated and meets stringent
MIL-STD-810G military standards for protecting
against dust, water, vibrations, drops, extreme
temperatures and varying altitudes. It is
lightweight at just 1.3 kg (2.9 lbs), and it is only
32 mm (1.2") thick.
The Algiz 10X's brilliant display features the
latest generation of MaxView technology. The
tablet also comes with a u-blox GPS receiver
and WAAS/EGNOS/MSAS capability, plus
Bluetooth 4.0, WLAN 802.11 b/g/n and it is
WWAN Gobi 3000-ready with fully integrated
modem and antennas for wireless
connectivity. It has a built-in 5-megapixel
camera with LED flash, and several
connectivity opportunities, including
waterproof USB 2.0, VGA and RS232 ports.
The Algiz 10X operates on a powerful Intel Atom
N2800 dual-core processor with 4 GB of DDR3
RAM, offering top-of-the-line computing
capability, and the SSD disk is expandable via
microSD for massive storage capacity. The Algiz
10X runs Windows 7 Ultimate, and is ready for
Windows 8.
Larger display
Hellström continued: “With the Algiz 10X, we
are expanding the popular product family that
includes our Algiz 7, which is the preferred
choice today for field professionals worldwide.
The Algiz 10X comes with increased
processing power and storage plus a larger
display – something that the market has been
asking for.”
Like all of Handheld’s lineup of rugged PDAs,
smartphones and mobile computers, the Algiz
10X is specifically developed for field workers
in industries such as logistics, geomatics,
forestry, public transportation, utilities,
construction, maintenance, mining, military
and security. The Algiz 10X will be available in
January 2013. Orders can be placed
immediately. n
www.logisticsit.com
The new Algiz 10X is perfectly suited for field professionals who needa rugged tablet computer that is lightweight and built to withstand theharsh conditions that come with all kinds of industry fieldwork, and thatcan display detailed maps and other visuals even in bright sunlight.”
– Jerker Hellström, Handheld.
“
Handheld at a glance The Handheld Group is a manufacturer ofrugged mobile computers, PDAs andsmartphones. Handheld and its partnersworldwide deliver complete mobilitysolutions to businesses in industries suchas geomatics, logistics, forestry, publictransportation, utilities, construction,maintenance, mining, military andsecurity. The Handheld Group of Swedenhas local offices in Finland, the UK, theNetherlands, Italy, Germany, Switzerland,Australia and the USA.
AUTOMATIC DATA
CAPTURE
28 www.logisticsit.com
Product news
Box Technologies, the UK provider
of customer interface technology
solutions, has announced the
launch of the Cielo range of high-
end EPoS terminals specifically
designed to combine high performance with
aesthetically pleasing looks aimed squarely at
the fashion, pharmacy, hospitality and specialty
retail sectors.
Cielo is an attractive and powerful EPoS
terminal endowed with an ultra-slim display,
sleek chassis and small footprint design. Its
bezel free design gives a tablet style look and
combined with its smooth lines and elegant
appearance, Cielo is ideal for high-end retail,
fashion and specialty stores.
Vent-free frame
Cielo is equally at home dealing with more
mission critical applications. Cleanliness at the
point of sale within a pharmacy or
hospitality environment, for
example, is essential
and Cielo provides
design features
that address
these
important
requirements. The Cielo boasts a vent-
free frame which along with its bezel
free construction ensures a cleaner,
more hygienic terminal. This provides
the additional benefit of
reducing ingress of
liquid, dust or food, which can have a
detrimental effect on the lifespan of the touch
screen.
Cielo is available in a choice of charcoal or
white; whilst charcoal might find itself in a
designer style operation, the latter is ideal in a
pharmacy environment where any accumulation
of dirt is easily visible enabling it to be wiped
clean and kept clear of germs.
There are two models. Besides the standard
Cielo, the Cielo-i is the high performance
version for use in environments where
transactions may be more complex and
require a more system hungry software
package. This PoS terminal can be
supplied with either an i3 or i5 core
bringing prodigious amounts of
computing power.
Tough but light aluminum chassis
Operationally, Cielo boasts a bright image
display which is backlit for ease of use. It is
economic in its power consumption and has a
Box Technologies introducesthe Cielo Series of EPoS terminals
October 2012MANUFACTURING&LOGISTICSIT
[The Cielo’s] tablet style linesbring the point-of-saleenvironment up to date whilst itsdesign practicalities ensure that itis easy to keep clean with fewermoving parts for longer life and alow total cost of ownership. Cieloshows the beauty can becombined with practicality.”
– Richard Elmes, Box Technologies.
“
29ITMANUFACTURING&LOGISTICSwww.logisticsit.com
tough but light aluminum chassis with a
compact footprint that is perfect for point of
service areas where space is at a premium.
Of its launch, Richard Elmes, marketing
manager at Box Technologies, commented:
“The introduction of Cielo addresses a need
within the retail, pharmacy and hospitality
sectors for a point-of-sale terminal that
provides both performance and
stunning good looks. Its tablet style
lines bring the point-of-sale
environment up to date whilst its
design practicalities ensure that it
is easy to keep clean with fewer
moving parts for longer life
and a low total cost of
ownership. Cielo shows the
beauty can be combined with practicality.” n
October 2012
AUTOMATIC DATA
CAPTUREProduct news
Box Technologies at a glance Box Technologies is the UK provider ofcustomer interface technology solutions,within six core market sectors: Retail,Hospitality, Finance, Public Sector,Utilities, Transportation & Logistics.Celebrating 20 years in business in June2012, Box Technologies’ success overmany years derives from its sellingproposition of ‘Delivering the CustomerInterface through Technology’. As anISO 90001:2008-accredited business,supported by direct relationship withleading manufacturers BoxTechnologies delivers total solutionsacross multiple product lines DigitalSignage, EPoS, Mobile and Self-Service supported by in-houseService delivery teams.
Box Technologies
F5t rugged next generation tablet PC Dolphin 6000 Wireless Scanphone
Delivering the Customer Interface Through Technology
Merlin UHF RFID
+44 (0)1844 [email protected]
@boxtechnologies
Getac UK has launched the
PS336 – a fully-rugged
handheld that offers RFID
(Radio Frequency
Identification), long range
Bluetooth, 1D laser barcode reader, and 3-in-
1 card reader functionality (HF RFID reader,
smart card reader, SAM card slots).
Users can easily switch between these
functions thanks to Getac’s own Flexiconn
technology, which allows various caps to be
fitted and removed from the device
depending on the primary function required.
The PS336 also incorporates an open
interface meaning Independent Hardware
Vendors can add new modules/caps to
expand functionality.
Peter Molyneux, president of Getac UK,
commented: “This new device offers
maximum flexibility and will go a long way
towards reducing the need for multiple
devices in the field. Presently users need to
be equipped with a number of tools or
devices to perform their tasks: the PS336
offers a new multi-solution.”
Cap-click convenience Molyneux added that field users in the
manufacturing, industrial and utility sectors
are expected to make the most of the new
technology, which includes embedded RFID
on the rear of the device (allowing operators
to choose between cap and rear RFID
functionality).
“We have designed and built the PS336 to be
the most convenient and multi-functional
handheld users can buy,” he said. “Having
multiple functions just a cap-click away
makes the new handheld ideal for data
capture in any environment. And in addition to
Flexiconn, the device offers programmable
keys so users can personalise and prioritise
the functions most important to
them.”
As well as being designed
with convenience in mind, the
PS336 offers advanced
computing performance and
rugged build. The device
has a 1GHz
processor,
providing
superior
graphics
performance while
operating on low power consumption;
the battery can last up to 12 hours with
LiveSupport battery swappable
technology, meaning users can change
the battery without shutting down the
system.
Built to MIL-STD 810G
The PS336 is also built to a rugged
Certification of MIL-STD 810G, and with
an Ingress Protection (IP) rating of IP68,
the device can be submerged in water for at
least 30 minutes and will remain fully functional.
It also offers Drop Protection to 6 feet.
Outdoor users will benefit from a Sunlight
Readability of 600 nits, including BlanView high
resolution (VGA) display. Those using mapping
technology can also make the most of
Geographic Information System features
including GPS, e-compass, altimeter and 3-Axis
Accelerometer, and 5 megapixel camera. n
AUTOMATIC DATA
CAPTURE
30 ITMANUFACTURING&LOGISTICS
Product news
Getac rugged handheldoffers multiple functions
October 2012 www.logisticsit.com
The PS336 has a 1GHz processor,providing superior graphicsperformance while operating on lowpower consumption; the battery canlast up to 12 hours with LiveSupportbattery swappable technology.
Getac at a glance Getac UK is a wholly owned subsidiaryof Getac Technology Corporation. GetacTechnology Corporation, a key subsidiaryof MiTAC-Synnex Business Group (2011consolidated revenue US$25.3 billion),was established in 1989 as a jointventure with GE Aerospace to supplydefence electronic products. Getac’sbusiness coverage includes; ruggednotebooks, rugged tablet PCs andrugged handheld devices for military,police, government, communications,manufacturing and transportationapplications ranging from fully rugged tocommercial-grade rugged. Getac’sstrong R&D capabilities allow it toprovide a high level of customisation andall-aspect hardware-software integrationsolutions. Apart from the ruggedcomputing business, Getac is alsoinvolved with the design andmanufacture of plastic and lightweightmetal components. The acquisition ofWaffer Technology in 2009 has madeGetac the world’s third largestaluminium-magnesium alloy producer.
HighJump Software, provider of
supply chain management
software, has formed a strategic
alliance with technology partner,
Speech Interface Design (SID).
SID provides business process optimisation
for distribution and manufacturing customers.
Specialising in Vocollect Voice solutions; SID
analyses, engineers and applies supply chain
industry best practices and technologies
solving customer’s critical business
challenges.
This partnership will provide HighJump
Software customers with an expanded and
unique portfolio of configurable Voice
solutions, including distribution Voice-enabled
workflow for areas such as picking, receiving
and replenishment, as well as for
manufacturing processes such as kitting,
assembly and inspection. The solution
includes ten Voice technology configuration
options that can be set by warehouse, pick
area or employee. This allows a company to
establish different requirements based on its
particular needs, such as the ability to skip a
slot, the requirement to speak the slot location
for validation, validate staging locations or
determine whether the item name is spoken to
the user, among other options.
Key component HighJump reports that Voice technology is a
key component for increasing efficiency and
productivity in the warehouse. The company
adds that combining Voice technology with
the HighJump warehouse management
system (WMS) will allow customers to drive an
even lower total cost of ownership by
maximising the productivity and accuracy of
picking and other warehouse activities.
“For any company looking to increase
accuracy and efficiency even more, Voice is
the next technological frontier to master,” said
Gary Nemmers, vice president of worldwide
sales & marketing at HighJump Software.
“HighJump’s new partnership with SID will
enable seamless integration between a
customer’s existing WMS or enterprise
resource planning system and the speech
recognition solution to provide a
comprehensive solution for companies wanting
to take their operations to the next level.”
Operational advantage
“Our suite of configurable Voice-based solutions
is an excellent match for the adaptable and
flexible HighJump software architecture,” said
Ahmed Reza, president at SID. “This partnership
will provide HighJump Software customers with
the operational advantage they need to increase
productivity, achieve their goals and realise
increased margin.” n
October 2012 31ITMANUFACTURING&LOGISTICS
VOICEtechnology
www.logisticsit.com
Company news
Our suite of configurable Voice-based solutions is an excellent match for
the adaptable and flexible HighJump software architecture. This partnership
will provide HighJump Software customers with the operational advantage
they need to increase productivity, achieve their goals and realise increased
margin.”
– Ahmed Reza, Speech Interface Design.
“
HighJump extends SCM softwarewith highly customisable Voice solution
HighJump Software at a glance HighJump Software is a global provider of supply chain management software thatstreamlines the flow of inventory and information from supplier to store shelf. More than 4500customers worldwide have improved their supply chains using HighJump Software.HighJump Software solutions for distribution and logistics, direct store delivery, tradingpartner connectivity, mobility and manufacturing include: warehouse management systems,transportation management systems, route accounting systems, manufacturing execution,mobile sales, ERP data collection and the TrueCommerce EDI Solutions Platform. HighJumpSoftware solutions support growing and evolving businesses in distribution, food andbeverage, 3PL, retail, healthcare and consumer goods industries. HighJump is a trademark ofHighJump Software Inc.
Speech Interface DesignSpeech Interface Design (SID), founded in Pittsburgh, PA in 1993, provides businessprocess optimisation solutions for distribution centres and manufacturing facilities. SIDspecialises in Vocollect Voice-enabled workflows and offers Business Process OptimisationAssessments, development of Custom Systems Solutions and complete ProfessionalServices Implementations. Successful supply chain management customers in the US andCanada resolve their business challenges and add strategic value with SID’s offerings.
Based in Nottingham and founded
over 40 years ago, Pedigree is
one of the UK’s key pet products
wholesalers servicing the
independent sector. The
company has an annual turnover approaching
£48 million and operates from a network of
five strategically located depots, using its own
30 strong delivery fleet to service over 2000
accounts across England and Wales.
Customers include pet shops, garden centres
and specialist outlets.
Pedigree first invested in Accord Voice WMS
for its bulk warehouse and accessories
warehouse at its main distribution centre in
Nottingham as part of a full Accord
Distribution system. The improvements
delivered by Voice – particularly in picking
accuracy – were so convincing that Pedigree
decided to invest further in Voice for the rest
of its depots.
Transformation During a two-year programme, Accord Voice
WMS was rolled out to each depot in turn,
transforming Pedigree’s warehousing from
manual, paper-based operations to real-time,
wall-to-wall Voice control in all five depots.
Goods in are now scanned and Voice-
received to ensure all stock information on the
system is accurate from the start and any
discrepancies addressed immediately, then
controlled by Voice through put away, picking,
replenishment and stocktaking right through
to despatch. With 9000 SKUs and 250 orders
a day to manage across 170,000 square foot
of warehouse space divided between 5
locations, the conversion to Voice is delivering
major efficiency improvements.
As expected, Voice-directed picking is
helping pickers work faster and more
accurately from pick faces which are now
automatically kept replenished by the system,
optimising the use of both forklift truck drivers
and pickers and eliminating re-picks and
waiting time due to empty picking faces.
Picking rates have improved by up to 20 per
cent depending on the type of goods picked
and accuracy is now at 99.9 per cent.
Manifold benefits “Order fulfilment ‘right first time, on time’ is
October 201232 ITMANUFACTURING&LOGISTICS
VOICEtechnology
www.logisticsit.com
Success story
Pedigree Wholesale getsdelivery right first time, on time with
Accord Voice WMS
Pet products wholesaler, Pedigree Wholesale Ltd., has seen significantimprovements in efficiency and control of its operations with the roll out of wall-
to-wall Accord Voice WMS across its network of five depots.
When we first invested in Accord Voice WMS as part of a full Accord
implementation we believed that it outclassed specialist standalone WMS in
terms of functionality. The improvements we have gained have verified this,
more than fulfilling our expectations.”
– Chris Laud, Pedigree Wholesale.
“
always our aim and we’re virtually there now,”
said Chris Laud, Pedigree’s financial director.
“The whole warehouse just works so much
more efficiently. Pickers can quite literally start
picking as the order comes in because
picking instructions are generated at the
relevant depot as soon as the order is
placed.” Moreover, not only are orders more
accurate but damage is minimised as pickers
can now pick and pallet by weight so that
heavier items do not damage more fragile
ones and pallets are more stable. Less
obvious benefits have arisen in terms of faster
training of new staff and flexibility to move
staff around departments as product
knowledge is no longer needed.
Stationery and administration savings arising
from Voice have also been significant with the
elimination of paper picking lists and labels
along with associated administrative tasks.
Invoices, which used to require manual input
with up to five separate picking notes for
each order, for instance, are now all produced
automatically on completion of picking. The
net result has been a significant saving of
administrative time, allowing staff to be
redeployed in more productive tasks.
Expectations fulfilled Laud concluded: “Pedigree are delighted with
the improvements we have obtained by
moving to Voice-controlled warehousing.
When we first invested in Accord Voice WMS
as part of a full Accord implementation we
believed that it outclassed specialist
standalone WMS in terms of functionality. The
improvements we have gained have verified
this, more than fulfilling our expectations.” n
October 2012 33ITMANUFACTURING&LOGISTICS
VOICEtechnology
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Success story
BCP at a glance BCP is one of the UK’s top suppliers ofVoice WMS and Supply Chain ERPsolutions. BCP implemented its first end-to-end Voice warehouse solution in the UKfood & drink industry in 2002 and 90 percent of BCP Voice implementations givewall-to-wall Voice control and efficiencyacross the warehouse.
Wall-to-Wall Voice Directed Warehouse Computing
Typical Benefits:-
Business Computer Projects Ltd
Visionary Solutions
Join our social networks Business Computer Projects
October 201234 ITMANUFACTURING&LOGISTICS
Warehouse Management n Success story
www.logisticsit.com
Mini Clipper Logistics has risen
from its humble beginnings as
a one man and a van
operation in 1971 to an £8.5
million company operating a
fleet of 30 trucks from its headquarters in
Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire. Founding
director Mick Masters, now retired, has
handed over the running of the company to
son Peter and the firm remains very much a
2nd generation family business.
The company has the capacity to store
25,000 pallets in its three main cluster sites
and distributes goods for a wide range of
industries, including clothing, food & drink,
leisure and homeware products for
independent stores and leading high street
retailers. “Our customers typically have an
annual logistics spend of up to £500,000, not
enough to be a major customer for the likes of
DHL or TNT, but ideal business for us,” said
Mini Clipper Logistics’ sales director Jayne
Masters. “We’re able to give people the
individual attention they need and to allow
them to have some influence in the way we
work together, so their values and brand are
maintained throughout the distribution
process. That’s very important when you’re
delivering directly to the customer.”
WMS upgrade
As the company has developed, the family
has been keen to take full advantage of the
latest technology, especially in its
warehousing operations which now account
for around 25 per cent of the business. Mini
Clipper Logistics has been using a
warehouse management system for several
years but with the increase in business and
the need to store goods across three sites it
became obvious that an upgrade was
necessary to provide the level of efficiency
their customers demanded. Two years ago a
decision was made to upgrade to the MACS
warehouse management system.
“One of the main benefits of the new MACS
system is that it is user friendly,” said Simon
Light, Mini Clipper’s warehouse operations
manager. “With the old system the admin staff
had to do a lot of the work simply because it
required a high level of computer literacy to
operate it, whereas now the warehouse
operatives carry out most of the order
processing themselves, which is far simpler
and more efficient.”
The warehouse staff are now able to pick the
items, confirm their order and produce
dispatch labels directly themselves without
having to wait for them to be processed by
the office. In the past orders were often
delayed simply because of the time it took to
complete the paperwork. The MACS system
then produces a Comma Separated Value file
(CSV) which is automatically sent to the
transport management system giving delivery
information and the service level required;
same-day, next-day, timed, etc. to the
transport manager. Previously this had to be
done manually which was slower and
vulnerable to human errors.
Problems solved
“The benefits of the MACS system became
very obvious last Christmas when we were
dispatching orders for a customer in the toy
industry,” said Light. The previous year we
dispatched on peak around 500 orders a day,
and that was a struggle, but using the MACS
system this rose to a maximum of 892 without
any problems and with the same number of
operatives.”
Reporting has also become much more
streamlined with reports showing stock
inventory and end-of-day manifests sent
automatically by e-mail with no manual
intervention from the warehouse staff.
Customers are also able to log onto Mini
Clipper’s website at any time to view transport
POD reports and other key information.
MACS system delivershigh-efficiency while retainingsmall company values
“ The blue-chip companies we deal with demand very high standardsof efficiency and reporting and without a state-of-the-art IT system asmall company like ours would not even have been considered.”
– Jayne Masters, Mini Clipper Logistics.
Customers who request Key Performance
Indicator stats at the end of each month
receive a pick success percentage which,
using the MACS system, is very impressive
with a typical figure of over 99.6 per cent
measured over a recent sample of 27,000
picks.
High standards
“Having the MACS system has enabled us to
obtain business we would otherwise not have
been able to secure,” said Jayne Masters.
“The blue-chip companies we deal with
demand very high standards of efficiency and
reporting and without a state-of-the-art IT
system a small company like ours would not
even have been considered. Using the MACS
system means we can compete with our
global logistics competitors and still retain the
levels of personal service that have been the
key to our success.” n
GEM Textile has signed a multi-
year agreement to implement
the Kewill Warehouse solution.
Based in Manchester, GEM
Textiles is a major wholesale
distributer supplying the retail trade with
household textiles. GEM Textile has been in
operation for over 30 years and supply several
of the major retail brands in the UK.
Kewill has a long history of delivering best of
breed logistics solutions on a local, regional
and global basis. Kewill Warehouse (WMS) has
a strong international pedigree and leverages
on experience from hundreds of successfully
delivered logistics projects. GEM Textiles has
chosen Kewill to provide a fully hosted solution,
where Kewill’s Managed Services team have
extensive experience hosting solutions for local,
international and global logistics clients.
Increasing demands
David McCallum, managing director at GEM
Textiles, commented: “We were seeking a best-
in-class hosted solution to support our
increasing warehouse demands. We are under
constant pressure to meet customer deadlines
and to ensure we are managing the costs
associated with our warehousing infrastructure.
We decided to invest in the Kewill Warehouse
solution to differentiate ourselves from our
competitors and ensure we meet our customer
needs for the long term. The Kewill Warehouse
solution will provide GEM Textiles with a proven
solution that is easy to roll-out and fully scalable
for our ever growing business.” n
October 2012 35ITMANUFACTURING&LOGISTICS
Warehouse Management n Success story
www.logisticsit.com
Customers are able to log onto Mini Clipper’s website at any time to view transport POD reportsand other key information.
GEM Textiles to roll out KewillWarehouse Solution
October 201236 ITMANUFACTURING&LOGISTICS
Warehouse Management n Insight
www.logisticsit.com
The demand for sustainable
solutions in the supply chain has
increased greatly in the last few
years. Under the ‘green’ theme,
companies and governments have
started a large number of zero emission
campaigns with marketing, behavioural
stimulation and/or operational cost savings as
the leading motives. Until now, the possible
CO2 savings in air and road transportation
was often chosen as an area of attention. As a
result of the strong increase in the automation
of warehouse logistic processes, the
warehouse has now been placed on the
agenda as well.
Assumptions and facts
Vanderlande’s 'Sustainability' internal working
group began an investigation more than a
year ago to make a baseline measurement
concerning energy use in warehouses and to
analyse trends in reducing the CO2 footprint.
Vanderlande first investigated the influence of
automated warehouses on energy use within
the entire logistics chain. Automated
warehouses with miniloads, conveyors and
sortation systems appear, on average, to
account for 24 per cent of the total CO2
emissions in the chain. Assuming a highly
automated ‘goods-to-man’ based system with
miniloads and conveyors, automation
accounts for roughly half of this 24 per cent.
Fact 1: Energy use of a mechanically
processed order line is the same as for a
manually processed order line
Despite the fact that an automated order
picking process with miniloads, conveyors and
workstations uses more energy than order
picking with, for example, an order picking
cart, the energy use per order line is the same.
This is based on the following factors:
• Throughput per m3 of automated
warehouse volume is, on average, three
times higher than that for manual
processing.
• Miniloads do not require heat, lighting or air
conditioning to do their work. People do.
• Space utilisation in an automated
warehouse with miniloads or a shuttle
system is 35 per cent higher than in a
manual warehouse with shelving or flow
racks, because it makes better use of a
facility’s height.
Fact 2: The building and the layout make
the difference
For this, Vanderlande paid special attention to
lighting, cooling, heating and the energy use
of internal transport.
Lighting
Modern, sustainable lighting concepts save
up to 50 per cent energy compared to
conventional lighting. Nowadays, a lot of
attention is given to workstation lighting,
because this increases productivity, keeps
the workers alert and motivated.
Vanderlande’s Pick@Ease high-
performance order picking workstations
with Philips Dynamic Lighting are a good
example of this. By using brighter lighting
for fixed workstations, the number of LUX
used in the warehouse can be reduced by
30 per cent.
Cooling and heating
The combined use of soil heat exchangers,
improved insulation of roofs, walls and
loading docks, the reuse of heat from
compressors and other machines, and
night-time ventilation form approximately 30
per cent of the total potential energy
savings. Automated warehouses gain even
more from the fact that only workspace
where workers are present has to be
conditioned.
Creating the ʻgreenʼ automatedwarehouseThe increasing need for sustainability in logistics appears to be at odds with the increasingautomation of warehouses and distribution centres. But Vanderlande Industries uses five facts todemonstrate how ‘green’ improvements can be made in an automated warehouse.
Automated warehouses with miniloads, conveyors and sortation systems appear, on average, toaccount for 24 per cent of the total CO2 emissions in the chain.
October 2012 37ITMANUFACTURING&LOGISTICS
Warehouse Management n Insight
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Energy use of internal transport
For example a forklift truck which, on average,
moves 30 pallets with 40 cartons per hour: It
consumes 1.3 Watts of energy per carton. With
conveyors, the same transportation of 1200
cartons costs approximately 1.1 Watts of energy
per carton (and, of course, no personnel).
Vanderlande’s latest DOTM conveyor range has
been specifically developed to reduce the
energy use of internal transport even further.
Fact 3: Overly optimistic growth expectations
and peak scenarios result in an energy-
inefficient system
Often systems are designed in such a way that
their operational capacity is able to handle the
peak hour load on the peak day 5, or even 10,
years away. With the wrongly chosen
assumptions, overly optimistic growth
expectations and extra integrated system
capacity, this can eventually result in an over-
sized system, with an energy profile that is far
from ideal.
Fact 4: Insight results in improvements
To find out where the biggest potential cost
savings lie, Vanderlande has developed a
special Energy Scan, which can accurately
determine the energy use in subsystems
over time. Within the sortation solutions, the
energy use of conveyors proves to be
substantially greater than that of the
sortation system itself. That is why
Vanderlande has developed the new DOTM
conveyor range which, by using different
belts, drives and software, reduces energy
use by 25 to 30 per cent. In addition,
Vanderlande’s new cross-belt sorter,
Crossorter 1500, is 80 per cent more
energy-efficient than conventional cross-belt
sorters. In ‘goods-to-man’ order picking
solutions, the miniload turned out to be an
interesting area of attention. In cases with
an average of 5 miniloads per system, more
than 60 per cent of the energy is consumed
by these miniloads. With its Quickstore
miniload Vanderlande was able to reduce
energy use by 20 per cent by using lighter
materials and by making use of acceleration
and deceleration energy and gravity.
Fact 5: Clever controls software offers a
great deal of potential
The system only has to run if something has
to be stored, transported or sorted. By
dividing all the equipment into a finely-
meshed network of transport fields, which
can be individually operated based on the
flow of cartons, packages or totes, an
average energy saving of 10 per cent can
be achieved. n
Please visit www.vanderlande.com/corporateresponsibility
MAKING A POSITIVE IMPACT
THE GREEN AUTOMATED WAREHOUSE
According to SaaS WMS software
provider Snapfulfil, the practice
known in the IT industry as
‘vapourware’ is still very much in
evidence. Vapourware, which
first surfaced in the 1980s, is a practice
whereby an impending product launch,
typically hardware or software, is announced
to the consumer and / or corporate market,
but is not actually released, or only partially
completed at launch. More often than not the
motivation behind producing vapourware is to
encourage buyers to select a product and
then, once this business is secured, rush to
complete the work in time for the client to
actually use what they have ordered, despite
the inherent risks in this strategy.
Questionable practice
Recently Snapfulfil encountered a classic
case of this questionable practice while
negotiating for a new contract. Gavin Clark,
commercial director of Snapfulfil, explained:
“After the initial consultation period, the
prospective client stated that he understood
that Snapfulfil was a feature-rich and proven
SaaS WMS, but they had been offered a
competitive package for a lower monthly
subscription.”
He continued: “However having kept in touch
with the company, it became clear as soon as
the training process began, that the claims
made by the other vendor were in fact just
developments planned for the future and the
system could not fulfil the client’s
requirements for several months”.
Proven track record
Clark concluded: “The old adage ‘All that
glitters is not gold, often have you heard that
told’ springs to mind. Like many things in life,
the cheaper option may not always be the
right option and often corners are cut and
quality reduced to meet the lower price
point. When choosing business critical
solutions, a product that is well-
established, competent and versatile,
plus has a strong and proven track
record is more likely to deliver the real
benefits that your business needs.”
The good news is that, despite the
initial setback, the client in question
is still due to go live with its
Snapfulfil SaaS WMS on time, due to
the rapid deployment capabilities
inherent in the system. n
October 201238 ITMANUFACTURING&LOGISTICS
Warehouse Management n Opinion
www.logisticsit.com
WMS software in the Cloud,or is it just ʻVapourwareʼ?
Snapfulfil’s WMS buying tips • Ask the vendor to give detailed demonstrations; including how the system will handle
your particular requirements live in the system where possible.
• Ask yourself: Does the vendor have experience in your business vertical and howmight this experience bring additional benefits to the project?
• Ask the vendor if it shares the risk of the project with you. Money talks, so enquirewhether the vendor will accept payments over a longer term to keep it keen andinterested in your continued success.
• Talk to customer references on the phone. Site visits can be time consuming, but agood vendor will be able to provide a few references to call and discuss theimplementation and on-going support.
• Ask for a fixed price for implementation or, even better, ask if the vendor can providethose services for free.
• Upgrades can be even more costly than the software itself, so ask the vendor forcustomer references to learn about the time, cost and overall approach to upgrades.Did changes carry forward or did they require re-application? Was custom code/costinvolved?
• Make sure the vendor is well-established; one that has been successfully serving itstarget markets for a number of years. The ‘fly-by-night’ supplier scenario can provehighly injurious to your business inasmuch as you might find yourself left ‘holding thebaby’ when the provider disappears from the marketplace; unable to provide furtherupgrades, service or support for your WMS.
Gavin Clark: “Likemany things in life,the cheaper optionmay not always bethe right option andoften corners arecut and qualityreduced to meet thelower price point.”
We have 12 reasons why you should call us and a proven track record of success to match your business needs…
maybe we’re worth 5 minutesof your time?
Snapfulfi l can be implemented in your warehouse without up front investment, meaning we work with you as a partner, not a vendor…
Our number? it’s 0845 463 7627 or why not visit our website at:
w w w . s n a p f u l f i l . c o m
Just because we are the UK’s Premier Software as a Service (SaaS) provider of Warehouse Management Software, already helping hundreds of users to streamline their warehouse operations and drive down costs, shouldn’t mean you should call us… should it?
Snapfulfi l SaaS WMS…A Better Way
October 201240 ITMANUFACTURING&LOGISTICS www.logisticsit.com
ByBox protects patientconfidentiality while streamliningsupply chain process
TRANSPORTATION MANAGEMENT Opinion
Carriers’ love affair with a ‘deliveryto your neighbour’ policy haspresented one of the biggestchallenges yet to thepharmaceutical and healthcare
sector in terms of protecting patientconfidentiality and data protection. Both areserious issues in their own right, but oneswhich have been further heightened ashealthcare and medicines are increasinglybeing delivered in the community or direct topatients’ homes.
Surely the distribution of such sensitive andoften vital items should be afforded the samelevel of confidentiality and care as is providedwithin GP and hospital environments. Sadly,however, that is not always the case. In theabsence of any specific instructions by thesender, any carrier nowadays can leave apackage with a neighbour or in a ‘safe’location if the recipient is out. The trend isseemingly unstoppable.
Changing needs
Logistics has long been seen as the ‘Cinderellaservice’ of a business – a function that isnecessary but one where, through thetraditional delivery model, the only differentialhas been cost and reliability. However as theneeds of the pharmaceutical industry arechanging so must the distribution process toensure a means whereby 100 per centconfidentiality can be protected at all timeswhile at the same time delivering cost savings.
ByBox can offer a solution. Through its lockernetwork it has been leading a distributionrevolution providing a viable alternative to thetraditional delivery model. For many yearsByBox has worked extensively within thesector distributing parts for equipmentmanufacturers and promotional material andsamples for pharmaceutical suppliers; all ofwhom have benefited from the company’sability to develop supply chain solutions that
derive benefits both in terms of cost savingsand increased productivity and efficiency.ByBox is acutely aware of the need for timelyand secure deliveries whilst at the same timekeeping the cost base to a minimum.Customers include GlaxoSmithKline, Fujitsuand Siemens.
ByBox already has an established network ofmore than 18,000 lockers situated at over 1500locations in the UK to ensure that vital parts,materials and consumables are receivedquickly and efficiently. Totally secure, thelockers are only accessible by key, card or anaccess code. Once a delivery has been madeinto a locker the recipient will receive a text oremail notification advising that the goods areready for collection. It is also the perfectsolution as there is no human interaction at thetime of collection – nor is there even anaddress or name required, just a contactnumber to provide collection instructions.
However, the full flexibility and versatility of alocker network is only as good as its ITplatform. ByBox’s supply chain platformThinventory integrates seamlessly with itsphysical supply chain network, offering
cohesive end-to-end reporting software toboost efficiency, through to reliability andstock transparency. Additionally, the systemhas a full track and trace facility via thewebsite providing total visibility 24 hours aday, 7 days a week, 52 weeks of the year. It isa system that not only demonstrates ByBox’stechnological prowess but also its inherentunderstanding of the needs of the market.Customers are able to take advantage of thefull range of Thinventory services to drivesupply chain efficiency while at the same timereducing costs.
ByBox helps customers reduce same-daydelivery costs by up to 50 per cent,eliminating time wasted by personnel drivingto obtain parts and materials while at thesame time helping customers reduce theircarbon footprint. Deliveries can be made byByBox pre-8am to one its lockers or ifrequired pre-10am direct to the customer site.
Anonymity protected
The pharmaceutical sector is highlycompetitive and it is essential that businesses
By Mark Garritt, managing director, ByBox.
Through ByBox’s locker network it has been leading a distribution revolution providing a viablealternative to the traditional delivery model.
October 2012 41ITMANUFACTURING&LOGISTICS
Opinion TRANSPORTATION MANAGEMENT
deliver an exceptional level of service if theyare to keep pace with the market. The ByBoxoffering covers all aspects of the distributionfunction. For the end user it protects identityand offers anonymity, while for businesses itoffers the assurance that engineers and repscan collect their required materials for theday’s work ahead. It is a method of deliverythat is proving to be increasingly successful.Not everyone wants their neighbours to knowabout their business, especially when itcomes to private matters such as their health.Furthermore, engineers and reps do not wantto have to waste time travelling to get theirsupplies. ByBox’s service enables them to getstarted earlier, fit more jobs into the day andso improve productivity.
It is a totally flexible solution and one thatByBox is able to offer thanks to its award-winning software platform Thinventory, whichallows customers to drive their efficiency,reduce costs and improve service levels fromend-to-end while at the same time providingtotal visibility of all movements across thesupply chain. Thinventory is one of the mostexciting developments in ByBox’s history and it
has constantly evolved to offer our customersan enhanced level of service. Indeed it fulfilsour original vision of minimising stock andmaximising productivity through an integratedsupply chain platform – an ethos on which thecompany was founded. The system is already
being embraced by a number of ourcustomers in the pharmaceutical sector whoare benefiting from our safe and securedistribution solution which meets the demandsof the marketplace. n
www.logisticsit.com
October 201242 ITMANUFACTURING&LOGISTICS www.logisticsit.com
TRANSPORTATION MANAGEMENT Success story
Paragon software helps Glanbiacut 106,000 km from delivery routes
Glanbia, the global nutritionalsand dairy business group, iscutting 106,000 km a year fromits delivery vehicle routes byusing Paragon transport
optimisation software to plan efficient deliveries.The routing software is also improving vehicleutilisation by 15 per cent and reducing theannual number of routes by 10 per cent. Thespinoff is an overall reduction in CO2 emissionsof over 100 tonnes per year and improvedservice levels to the marketplace.
Glanbia's transport challenge involves dailyplanning and optimising of same day direct tostore deliveries that have a narrow two-hour6am to 8am delivery window and Coldboxdepot deliveries between 4pm and 6am thefollowing day.
Substantial efficiency gains
Paul Devlin, Glanbia Consumer FoodsIreland’s senior route planner, said: “It's reallyimportant that we make the best use of ourvehicle fleet and that loads are maximisedand routes optimised. Paragon gives us thepower to do that and, when used inconjunction with our SAP business software,has resulted in efficiency gains across ourdairy product delivery operation which spansthe entire Republic of Ireland."
The dairy operation runs six days a weekbetween 6am and 10pm from the Ballitore,Co. Kildare distribution centre. It suppliesmajor retailers and 145 agents, who aresubcontracted to distribute Glanbia productsfrom the Coldbox locations. With more than4500 weekly deliveries across 136 routes,serviced by nine hauliers and contending withmore than 250 individual delivery windows,Glanbia was keen to see how Paragon couldimprove the operation and improveefficiencies wherever possible.
Having first set up the base case withinformation about depots, agents, hauliersand customers to model the current routesand costs, Glanbia was then able to try outvarious scenarios aimed at improvingefficiencies. Several options were testedinvolving more flexible delivery times for
Coldbox locations, and the greatestefficiencies came from standardising Coldboxtime windows at a regional level, whilecombining Coldbox deliveries with time-constrained direct store deliveries. As a result,routing efficiencies yielded a 15 per cent gainin vehicle utilisation, a 10 per cent drop inloads per week, and a fuel reduction equatingto over 100 tonnes of CO2 per year.
Powerful strategic tool
Denis Conway, national logistics manager atGlanbia Consumer Foods Ireland, said:"Paragon is a very powerful strategic tool. Itallows us to test all potential delivery
scenarios offline without affecting our realworld routes. Using the routes designed byParagon we can easily recognise whereimprovements can be made and implementthem. With the constant increase in fuel costsand the drive to reduce our transport carbonfootprint, we have been able to makesignificant reductions in usage and emissionswhile improving efficiencies of our deliveryoperation."
John Mee, supply chain manager at GlanbiaConsumer Foods Ireland, concluded: "We arenaturally delighted with the Paragon software– the transport cost savings we are makinghave ensured that Paragon was a cost-effective investment.” n
Paragon Software Systems at a glance Paragon Software Systems is a provider of transport optimisation solutions, with over 2300routing & scheduling systems installed in more than 750 client sites in 45 countries.Paragon helps companies to reduce transport costs by up to 20 per cent through moreefficient deployment of vehicles and drivers. Headquartered in Dorking, UK and with USoffices in Dallas, Paragon has over 30 years of routing & scheduling knowhow. Paragon isemployed by transport operations ranging from just ten vehicles at a single site to hundredsof vehicles operating from several sites. The system is used for routing and schedulingoptimisation; managing transport resources; strategic planning; scheduling home deliveriescontinuously as orders are being confirmed; and managing the execution of the transportplan in real time using vehicle tracking technology. Paragon assists many leadingcompanies with their logistics including ASDA, Royal Mail Group, Harrods, Sainsbury's, ABAgri, Ceva Logistics, Wincanton, DHL Exel, Norbert Dentressangle, Linde, Fuller's, JohnLewis, Tesco, Keystone Distribution and Raleigh.
October 2012 43ITMANUFACTURING&LOGISTICS
Cargolux accelerates its eCargo ambitions with Champ
Champ Cargosystems hasattracted Cargolux InternationalAirlines, the global all-cargocarrier, as a customer for itsTraxon cargoHUB and
cargoWEB+ applications. These IT solutionsenable Cargolux to further improve its e-services and contribute to the reduction ofcommunication costs. Aiming to increaseconnectivity, efficiency, and customersatisfaction while reducing cost, Cargoluxuses Traxon cargoHUB for its electronicmessaging. This includes the electronicexchange of FWB (Master Air Waybill Data),FHL (House Air Waybill Consolidation List),and FSU (Freight Status Update) messagesworldwide. The integrated host-to-hostsolution supports numerous transmissionprotocols and is compatible with all commonmessage formats.
The agreement with Champ Cargosystemsgives Cargolux access to the global Champnetwork. It enables the Luxembourg all-cargocarrier to do business with all logisticsservices providers and partners in the aircargo industry on a single uniform platformusing stable host-to-host messaging services.In addition, Cargolux has the option to useseveral other Champ Cargosystems productsvia Traxon cargoHUB.
Intuitive system
As the company is keen to serve small,medium-sized, and large customers equallywell, it has recently enhanced its Internet andself-service capabilities with the help ofTraxon cargoWEB+. This application, brandedfor Cargolux, is aimed at forwarders that arenot yet EDI capable, but need to send FWBand FHL messages. Franco Nanna, head ofmanagement network support at Cargolux,commented: “On one hand, the TraxoncargoHUB service is providing us with reliableconnectivity and seamless data transmission– the proactive information we are gettingfrom Champ for unnecessary EDI exchange ishelping us to achieve further cost savings. Onthe other hand, Traxon cargoWEB+ is highlyappreciated by our customer user community,because it is intuitive and boosting
productivity. The art of electroniccommunication emphasises the existence of atransparent dialogue.”
Using Traxon cargoWEB+, Cargolux’scustomers may look up flight schedules,check allotment capacity, capture andtransmit AWB and HAWB data and createsingle or multiple bookings for free sale orallotment capacity, all at once and without anythird-party help. Other features includebooking history reporting and
shipper/consignee capture. The application iscompliant with IATA standards andrecommended practices. It increases userefficiency and data quality as it coaches theuser while entering data. It is user-friendly witha paper AWB look and feel. It reducestransaction costs as well as simplifies andspeeds up goods acceptance and customspre-clearance.
Process standardisation
Christian Cavez, director enterprise servicesat Champ
Cargosystems, said: “Traxon cargoHUB andcargoWEB+ are part of the comprehensiveportfolio offered by Champ Cargosystems,enabling Cargolux to further standardise theirprocesses, simplify business procedures andachieve a higher efficiency at lower costs.These new services are the vital foundationsin the drive towards paperless freight. TraxoncargoWEB+ gives Cargolux a totally self-service booking interface whilst reducing itscommunication costs.”
James Fernandez, vice president globalcommercial operation at ChampCargosystems, added: “Champ has a proventrack record of innovative productdevelopment, execution and implementationthat instils confidence in our customers. Ourstrength is our customer orientation. Oursolutions offer additional functionalities notavailable elsewhere. Winning Cargolux as acustomer for Traxon cargoHUB and TraxoncargoWEB+ demonstrates the value additiongiven to the client by offering an integratedproduct portfolio that includes all parts of theprocess as well as different communicationoptions.” n
Success story TRANSPORTATION MANAGEMENT
On one hand, the Traxon cargoHUB service is providing us with reliableconnectivity and seamless data transmission – the proactive information we aregetting from Champ for unnecessary EDI exchange is helping us to achievefurther cost savings. On the other hand, Traxon cargoWEB+ is highlyappreciated by our customer user community, because it is intuitive andboosting productivity. The art of electronic communication emphasises theexistence of a transparent dialogue.”
– Franco Nanna, Cargolux.
“
www.logisticsit.com
tmWare enables rapidgrowth for County Logistics
County Logistics, based in Kent,are a third-party transportoperation delivering fresh fruitand vegetables nationwide.Using a combination of its own
transport fleet and subcontractors, Countycollects goods from customers for onwarddeliver to stores and markets across thecountry. Managing the operation on paperrequired a large table and a lot of manhours. County can only issue invoices onreceipt of a POD and managing directorAdam Irvine would spend the large majorityof his time surrounded by mountains ofpaperwork as he tried to reconcile jobs toenable invoices to be released. Any loss ofpaperwork could result in non-payment, acritical issue for any business.
Automated system tmWare was chosen as the solution toaddress these problems. By electronicallymanaging jobs and uploading signed PODs,
invoices can be automatically released onupload of the POD. The implementation oftmWare allows County to input jobs manuallyor interface directly with its customers’systems. Jobs are then automatically
displayed by region on tmWare's planningscreen, where County can plan loads andprint all associated documentation. Once adriver returns with his signed PODs, they arescanned and the images uploaded to
tmWare. The Auto Indexing module uses abarcode printed on the POD to automaticallyassign it to the correct job.
Where customers’ own paperwork is used asmall barcoded label is printed off andattached to the document, allowing the
system to index it in the same way.Once the POD is
TRANSPORTATION MANAGEMENT Success story
www.logisticsit.com44 ITMANUFACTURING&LOGISTICS October 2012
The efficiencies gained with the implementation of tmWare have enabledCounty to focus on growing its business and improving service levels. Thecompany has comfortably grown from 15 to 45 daily vehicle movements as aresult of having the ability to manage more jobs. County has already utilisedmany features of the tmWare system to give customers a higher level ofinformation and visibility.”
“
October 2012 45ITMANUFACTURING&LOGISTICSwww.logisticsit.com
filed against the job it is released for invoicing and an invoice isgenerated. Because invoicing is dependent on successful receipt of aPOD tmWare also gives County the option to receive POD by SMS. Adriver is sent consignment details and texts back with a code to denotepositive or failed deliveries and a name for who receipted theconsignment. The system picks up the date and time stamp from thetext and releases the job for invoicing. As POD SMS does not require thedeployment of expensive in cab hardware it is a very cost-effective wayto achieve real-time PODs to ensure the invoicing process is as efficientas possible.
Cost-effective
As a Cloud-based solution with a monthly service charge, County wasable to rapidly deploy the solution on a cost-effective basis. BeingCloud-based means the system is an effective collaboration tool forcustomers and partners. Key customers are given access to view thestatus of their jobs and what trips they have been planned on. They canalso view the signed paperwork for the jobs to reconcile against theinvoices they receive. This reduces the time spent by County having toproduce paperwork at the demand of the customer. In addition,subcontractor partners are given access to view and print paperwork forloads that have been planned for them by County. This bridges the gapof getting POD paperwork to a subcontractor who is doing a collectionand onward delivery without visiting the County depot.
Growth
The efficiencies gained with the implementation of tmWare have enabledCounty to focus on growing its business and improving service levels.The company has comfortably grown from 15 to 45 daily vehiclemovements as a result of having the ability to manage more jobs. Countyhas already utilised many features of the tmWare system to givecustomers a higher level of information and visibility. The company willcontinue to work with tmWare to make enhancements and improvementsto benefit both parties. "tmWare has revolutionised my business,"concluded Adam Irvine. n
County Logistics collects goods from customers for onward deliver tostores and markets across the country.
October 201246 ITMANUFACTURING&LOGISTICS www.logisticsit.com
Driving greater efficiencies
Manufacturing & Logistics IT spoke with James de Roo, business developmentmanager UK at PTV Group, about how logistics professionals can save time and cost, as wellas improve safety levels and reduce their carbon footprint, through deploying the right type of
transportation management solution functionality.
The transportation industry isconstantly striving to improve itsperformance from a time, cost,safety and environmentperspective, as well as setting out
to enhance its service to end customers. Withthese goals in mind an increasing number oflogistics companies are setting out to improvetheir logistics operations; everything fromrouting and trip planning while alsocalculating toll charges and CO2 emissions.James de Roo of PTV (www.ptvgroup.com)points out that another key focus is driverperformance. “There is certainly a desireamong logistics organisations to ensure drivertime is best utilised, thus saving on fuel andensuring more accurate and speedy deliveryto the customer,” he said. “Also, companieswant their drivers to drive as safely andresponsibly as possible, therefore reducingvehicle wear and tear as well avoidingaccidents. And, of course, this can have abearing on the cost of insurance premiumstoo.”
PTV Map&Guide
So, in order to best manage their dailyscheduling tasks and improve overall dailyperformance, de Roo believes PTVMap&Guide (www.mapandguide.com) offerslogistics professionals a highly compellingsolution. Map&Guide is available as desktopproduct, in the Cloud or can be integratedwithin the user organisation‘s corporate
intranet system. “With PTV Map&Guidelogistics companies can plan their route morereliably, saving time by optimising thesequence of stop-off points, includingindividual times slots,” explained de Roo.“Additionally, companies can calculate theirtransporation costs in advance, includingthose related to toll and fuel usage. Acompetitive advantage can also be securedwith Map&Guide’s CO2e reports, allowingusers to tap into a new customer base with aTÜV-certified emissions calculation.”
de Roo also pointed out that PTV Map&Guidecan undertake route planning based on anindividual vehicle’s unique profiling; based onheight, weight or even road restrictions for theparticular type of vehicle. He added that thesystem can also take into consideration thedriver’s operating times and rest periods etc.“And we can match this data up with anydemands end customers are putting on thelogistics company, making sure the algorithmthat is created covers all these differentelements,” he said.
xServer
PTV also offers a series of softwarecomponents as part of its xServer(http://xserver.ptvgroup.com) toolbox. PTVprovides these components to vendors ofsolutions within the TransportationManagement, Telematics, Sales Planning,Territory Planning and Scheduling space, aswell as sell directly to the end user in order to
enhance their existing solution. “Our xServercomponents cover the full scope of logisticsfunctionality; from geocoding addresses andmapping to route optimisation andnavigation,” explained de Roo. “A lot ofcompanies want to improve routing andoptimisation while also taking intoconsideration a certain vehicle’s particularprofile. The extensive functionality available inour toolbox can facilitate this, as well asallowing our customers to integrate extrafunctionality as and when required in order tofollow the trends and requirements within theirend user base. And these components canbe adapted for the particular requirements ofthe vendors and their end customers. Byintegrating these components into their ownapplications or in their company networktransportation management solutionproviders, or the logistics professionalsthemselves, can quickly and easily extendtheir range of functions.” de Roo alsoexplained that the PTV xServers are modularby design; meaning PTV customers only needto license the modules they actually need.“We have many years of experience in thefields of digital maps, geocoding, routing andtrip optimisation, and our xServers reflect allthis knowhow,” he said.
Carbon reduction
The further reduction of vehicles’ carbonfootprint is likely to become an even greaterrequirement in the near future. Therefore,looking at the broad picture, de Roo reflects
TRANSPORTATION MANAGEMENT Interview
October 2012 47ITMANUFACTURING&LOGISTICSwww.logisticsit.com
that Transportation Management solutions will be increasingly required tosave time and cost as well as ensure greater environmental responsibilityand optimum safety on the road. “And, of course, achieving such overallbenefits can mean the ROI in a logistics company’s TransportationManagement solution can be achieved within a compellingly shorttimeline,” he added.
FTA agreement
In order to encourage greater efficiencies within the UK logistics sector,including greater CO2 reductions, the PTV Group and the FreightTransportation Association (FTA) signed a co-operation agreement in Junethis year. The agreement allows association members of all sizes to benefitfrom a substantial volume discount on PTV Map&Guide Internet solution.Theo de Pencier, chief executive of FTA, commented that the FTA is alwayslooking for new technologies which its members may benefit from. In additionto planning and optimising routes for road freight transport, toll costcalculation, integrated lorry attributes and restrictions, as well as driving andrest periods, the FTA finds calculation of CO2 emissions particularlyinteresting. "This is an important issue that the industry must deal with,”added de Pencier. “PTV Map&Guide provides the right instrument.”
de Roo concluded: “It’s all about ensuring logistics professionals can attaingreater efficiencies on the road. This has multiple benefits for thecompanies themselves, as well as for their end customers.” n
Interview TRANSPORTATION MANAGEMENT
James de Roo
.
Gartner identified the top 15
performers headquartered in
Europe, based on a
combination of financial
metrics – revenue growth,
return on assets (ROA) and inventory – and
opinion (Gartner supply
chain analyst and peer
opinion). Unilever, Inditex,
H&M and Nestlé were the
leaders, which are also
listed in the global Gartner
Supply Chain Top 25. Six
new companies entered
the European top 15
ranking this year: H&M,
AstraZeneca, Reckitt
Benckiser, Syngenta,
Roche and Volkswagen.
Local characteristics
"The ranking comprises companies
headquartered in a variety of European
countries, predominantly the UK and
Switzerland," said Christian Titze, research
director at Gartner. "Top European supply
chains span the automotive, chemical,
consumer goods, life sciences and retail
industries. Leading companies have the right
combination of organisational structure and
governance to balance global reach with the
ability to take local characteristics into
account."
Unilever is ranked No. 1 in the European
Supply Chain Top 15. This company has a
global virtual manufacturing network that can
quickly cater to fluctuations in local demand.
Unilever also has the ability to design its
products proactively for profitability.
At No. 2, Inditex is the highest-ranked retailer.
This company keeps in tune with its
customers in order to sense and shape ideas,
trends and tastes around the world. To this
end, Inditex has made conscious trade-offs
between higher production costs and speed-
to-market, with manufacturing capabilities in
Spain for some products.
H&M, the No. 3, is the
world's second-largest
clothing retailer. As a
fast-moving retailer, it
takes an innovative
approach to designer
events, one that pools
consumer interest. It
has also started
experimenting with
augmented-reality
technology, which links the growth of social
media and sales to determine how consumers
will use virtual technologies in the future.
Food giant Nestlé is No. 4. Nestlé
complements its successful Nespresso model
with plans to manage its different types of
coffee with segmentation strategies and
different routes to market.
The right balance
"Earlier this year we announced Gartner's
Global Supply Chain Top 25, but regional
analysis identifies issues and best practices
unique to each region," said Vladimir
Krasojevic, research director at Gartner.
"Supply chain leaders in Europe are focusing
on cost reductions, supply chain innovation
and the increasing business importance of
sustainability, and the need to balance global
reach with local needs.” n
48 ITMANUFACTURING&LOGISTICS October 2012 www.logisticsit.com
Gartner ranks top EuropeanSupply Chain organisations for 2012
Gartner, Inc. revealed its annual ranking of the top 15 supply chain organisationsheadquartered in Europe at its Supply Chain Executive Conference, held in London last
month. The goal of Gartner's Supply Chain Top 15 in Europe research initiative is to raiseawareness of the supply chain discipline and how it impacts businesses.
Supply chain leaders inEurope are focusing on costreductions, supply chain innovationand the increasing businessimportance of sustainability, andthe need to balance global reachwith local needs.”
– Vladimir Krasojevic, Gartner.
“
The Gartner Supply Chain Top 25 The Gartner Supply Chain Top 25, now in its eighth year, uses a methodology with twomain components: financial and opinion. Public financial data provides a view intohow companies have performed in the past, while the opinion offers insight into thesupply chain leadership of the future. These components are combined to reach atotal composite score for each company considered. The list of companies derivesinitially from a combination of the Fortune Global 500 and the Forbes Global 2000, witha revenue cut-off of US$10 billion. This list is then pared down to the manufacturing,retail and distribution sectors to eliminate certain industries, such as financial servicesand insurance, that do not have physical supply chains.
Supply Chain Analysis
At the opening Lord Jones
commented: "Training that takes
place in a Premier Inn by the
side of a dual carriageway is not
going to inspire anyone." And he
contrasted this with the Supply Chain
Academy, with its painstakingly restored
training rooms and impressive facilities set in
eight acres of landscaped gardens. "This
Academy makes a statement, and the
statement is that learning and skills
development are critically important,” he
continued: “The Supply Chain Academy is an
inspirational venue for those new to business
and for those for whom business is deeply
ingrained."
Global challenges
The Academy has already been engaged in
training, with major names such as Marks and
Spencer taking on the challenges that the
new major global players, India and China are
setting. The Academy is breaking new ground
with T-shaped management training, giving
experienced managers a wider knowledge to
enable them to work collaboratively in all
areas of their business.
Zen Yaworsky, programme director at the
Academy, commented: "As well as
businesses who manage their own supply
chains, those companies who service these
businesses – accountancy, legal, insurance,
banking and property companies – are all
registering an interest or engaging with the
Academy. They recognise the need to
develop an intelligent business empathy with
their customers.”
Turning ideas into
profitable ventures
Echoing Lord Jones's
assertion that Britain
needs creative and
strongly business-minded
management to help it
out of recession, the
Academy has announced
that it is committed to
developing
‘intrapreneurs’; managers
who have the commercial
energy and inspiration to
turn ideas and innovation
into profitable ventures
within a company.
Yaworsky went on to say:
"Our vision is to support
industry, not only through
developing high-level
practice, but by unifying
capabilities across the
supply chain. We want to encourage
intrapreneurialsm. We want to give industry
the tools to release value from their supply
chains."
The tools that the Academy employs involve
course material covering Supply Chain Risk
Management, Negotiation Techniques, Cost
Structure Analysis, Business Finance, The
Law of Terms and Conditions, Direct
Sourcing, Process Improvement, Planning
and Forecasting, Customer Service, Inventory
Management and Supply Chain Design
among a field of other course offers.
Partnership
The Academy has partnered with industry
experts, trade institutions and bodies to
develop its high-value training offering. It is a
totally privately funded venture and the offer
is for both day and residential courses to
allow flexibility for the manager or executive.
Lord Digby concluded: "...if you don't want
China to eat your lunch and India your dinner
then you need to invest in making sure that
you know how to run the business that you
are in better than you have ever done before.
The Supply Chain Academy is going to
contribute to that effort and I congratulate
them." The Academy is based in the London
Borough of Havering; 25 minutes from
Fenchurch Street Station. n
49ITMANUFACTURING&LOGISTICS
Supply Chain
www.logisticsit.com
Industry news
October 2012
Lord Digby Jones opens newSupply Chain Academy
UK business got a significant boost last month after Lord Digby Jones officiallyopened the Supply Chain Academy at Upminster, London, the country's
newest educational establishment focusing purely on excellence in globalbusiness supply chain management.
...if you don't want China to eat your lunch and India your dinner then youneed to invest in making sure that you know how to run the business that youare in better than you have ever done before.”
– Lord Digby Jones.
“
Zen Yaworsky, programme director at the Supply ChainAcademy (left), with Lord Digby Jones at the openingceremony.
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