Hardly any manual workflows left in transport management at Schnellecke Transportlogistik
“In 2015, we were looking for a partner with whom we could also implement our automation and digitalisation strategy in transport management,” says Mandy Beck, Head of Operational Excellence & Procurement Transport at Schnellecke Transportlogistik GmbH. The goal was to unite all transport processes in one software and to integrate further systems. All 525 employees should be able to work with the same system instead of using different solutions.
Schnellecke Transportlogistik is a leading expert in area freight forwarding – other business areas are consumer goods, industry and retail. For customers such as VW, Daimler and MAN – but also Amazon and IKEA – the company puts around 800 tours on the road every day. Up to 405 tractor units and 490 towed units from the company’s own fleet, as well as additional vehicles from subcontractors, have to be planned.
Automated transport management, optimal workflows
For this purpose, the transport service provider has been using our transport management system (TMS) since July 2016. Beck: “All standard processes related to transport are 100 per cent integrated in WinSped and are processed in an interlocking manner.” All modules required from Order Entry to claims and damages processing are in use and connected to other specialist departments of the company through several interfaces. Many once manual processes are now automated. “Our workflows have improved significantly as a result,” says Beck.
Examples of automated processes:
- Invoicing Freight invoicing creates documents in WinSped which are automatically transferred to the SAP Finance program so that the financial data is available in both applications.
- Vehicle tracking: Vehicle data from the company’s own vehicles enters the TMS via an interface between WinSped and the telematics system. Schnellecke Transportlogistik connects the telematics of around 110 third-party vehicles to WinSped via AppSped. For example, the forwarder tracks tours in the automotive sector that it does not carry out itself in order to provide OEMs with an ETA in the VDA standard.
- Exchange with subcontractors: WebSped replaces the mail traffic between fixed subcontractors and Schnellecke Transportlogistik. There, for example, freight documents can be uploaded and credit notes retrieved.
- Communication with repair shops: We are currently working on an interface to a workshop software to be able to connect commercial vehicle workshops to the TMS.
- Recording and scheduling of automotive orders: The Automotive Center, which we developed with Schnellecke Transportlogistik in 2016, supports the VDA plant structures. This means, among other things, that VDA master data is integrated and VDA plant bordereaus, time slot management and demurrage accounting are supported. In this way, orders in the automotive sector can be recorded and dispatched completely digitally.
Cloud service for optimal workflows
A major step forward for Schnellecke Transportlogistik was the switch to our cloud service. Since 2021, we have been hosting WinSped for the freight forwarding company and the employees use the software via the web client. The cloud service includes access to all modules of the TMS plus hosting on our servers in Greven, automatic updates, data backup and maintenance. Beck finds this ideal: “WinSped is completely the responsibility of LIS. This simplifies our internal workflows immensely.” If additional storage space is needed, Schnellecke Transportlogistik does not have to call in the internal IT experts; we take care of it. We also proactively monitor the performance of the hardware and optimise it automatically if necessary, without our customers noticing.
“Our automation and digitalisation strategy is a long-term project and we are not yet where we want to be, even with WinSped,” says Beck. “But we are convinced that we will get there with LIS.” Beck, who was already there when we first made contact in 2015, particularly appreciates the partnership-based cooperation and the motivation for joint further development. “We’ve never been told that something can’t be done,” she says. If processes change, work is done to ensure the modules fulfil the needs of the new processes.