Skilful use of IT tools is crucial for many entities involved in supply chain management. TMS (Transportation Management System) solutions help to plan, monitor and settle transport in production and distribution companies. This is the case, for example, in Axell Logistics (formerly Ponetex Logistics).
Axell Logistics is a logistics operator belonging to the Dutch Axell group, with an extensive network of partners (several locations in the Netherlands and Poland). In addition to transport, it offers logistic services, temporary work services and financial services.
It has been active in Europe for almost a quarter of a century. Full logistics services for clients include on packaging, repacking, preparing promotional sets, forwarding and domestic and international transport.
Creating a partner relationship with the customer requires the logistics operator’s accuracy, reliability, as well as the need to constantly adapt to individual requirements.
The operator must actively plan its activities and ensure efficient flow of goods and information so that the recipient of the goods receives it in the requested time and in accordance with the order. TMS is here to help.
Axell Logistics has four terminals in Poland (Chorzów, Nowy Tomyśl, Rakoniewice, Skierniewice), warehouses with a total area of 36 thousand sq.m. To efficiently and effectively implement everything related to the storage of goods and the performance of a number of other logistic services, the company decided to use IT tools: in the field of TMS transport management systems, as well as warehouse management – WMS. It also invested in a tool allowing remote access to the central system resources for its clients.
Transport for the operator is one of the most important components in the logistics chain because its efficiency affects the quality and costs of all activities. First of all, the TMS was implemented. It allows to carry out full truckload orders (FTL) along with partial transport.
The company has the ability to plan transport services using reloading stations (hubs)
TMS controls whether transport operations will not overflow the hub, allows inventory of their contents and monitors what is happening with the cargoes that are currently in transit to a given point. Thanks to integration with the digital map, the user of the system has graphical access to information about where the vehicle is located and whether a given driver and car is available at a given time.
TMS supports making decisions related to the optimal allocation of orders to vehicles and drivers. This contributes to reducing costs and eliminating the so-called empty runs. The system verifies whether a given route has been implemented as planned, taking into account possible changes.
TMS also offers access to a range of reports and analyzes that give the user a powerful tool to support the execution of orders. You can calculate the profitability of routes, orders and vehicles, which is the basis for making strategic decisions for the company’s management.
In the next stage, the WMS system was implemented (in the branches located in Rakoniewice, Nowy Tomyśl and Skierniewice), responsible for managing the operations of goods receipt and release, picking and moving goods within storage teams. Particularly important is the fact that between WMS and TMS (where the superior system is WMS) a full two-way data exchange takes place. WMS enabled the company to conduct full monitoring of the flow of goods as well as quantitative and qualitative control of the stored assortment.
WMS allows you to create rules for managing customer goods according to their individual requirements
Depending on the specificity of the product and the expiration date, the system allows the use of FIFO, FEFO and LIFO strategies. Additional automatic identification solutions were implemented. Thanks to them, key warehouse operations, i.e. goods release, inventory or picking of goods for shipment, are carried out faster, without mistakes.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons