Press Report

Pickup processes can become more transparent and continuous assessable with web-based IT-solutions

(Dispo Who is Who Logistik 2007 12.2006) Especially within the automotive industry, cross-company inbound transports pose a special challenge. The multitude of the participating supply chain partners who all have different IT-systems often gets in the way of exchanging important information smoothly. Low minimum inventory levels and high costs for shutdowns present the sword of Damocles below which each cross-company transport order stands. In order to avoid the worst case scenario of a production stop the consequences of opacities within transport processes get balanced again and again through expensive special transports. By means of the standardisation of the pickup process according to the VDA-recommendation 5004 an important step towards the simplification of inbound transports has already been taken. However, the logical continuation of the standardisation towards automation is still missing at the moment due to the heterogeneity of the various IT-systems of the supply chain partners. Internet-based standard software solutions for supply chain execution now offer the possibility to connect all logistics partners to a uniform system. Therefore, it is today also possible to take the decisive second step towards the optimisation of the pickup process.

Modern standard software solutions such as the logistics-server® by inet-logistics can be used by all partners who participate in the transport process from their own IT-environment. These solutions display the pickup process according to VDA 5004 and provide the OEM, the supplier and also the logistics service providers with all information which they need for fulfilling their respective tasks. Thus, they close those information gaps which were often the source for errors in cross-company transport processes.