Delivering on the Promise of Value-Added Logistics
Mandersloot is an international logistics services provider with more than 150 trucks and 350 employees. A family firm at heart, Mandersloot specializes in refrigerated transport between the Benelux and Central Europe. The company has branches in the Netherlands, Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania and Hungary. They excel at value-added logistics and often manage their customers’ entire logistics operation, including storage, packing and labeling. “Keeping our promises” has been Mandersloot’s motto since it was founded in 1964.
A Growing Business in need of an IT overhaul
“Sustained growth over the past few years has made the number of shipments and runs, and the number of planners needed to schedule them, so large that we lost track of the big picture,” explains Henri Groothuis, Mandersloot IT Manager.
With increased demand for cold food storage and transport, Mandersloot’s business has grown by 20% per year. Naturally, the company wanted to sustain this growth in the future, but its planning process and IT systems could not keep up. They lacked insight into their costs and did not have a clear overview of the planning as a whole. Each of the planners worked on their own individual piece of the plan. Every one of them understood the rules and constraints for each journey, but they did not plan in an integrated way. This lack of knowledge sharing also posed a risk for the business. When a planner was sick or absent, the process would be affected.
Their Transport Management System also needed to be replaced. “We were literally running on a burning platform,” says Henri Groothuis. “We had more than 100 active users on a TMS that was intended for a maximum of 50.” This would make planning labor-intensive and error-prone. Drivers lacked access to the right information as well. The time was ripe for change.
Enter ORTEC Routing and Dispatch
“We put 10 years’ worth of IT systems live in 8 months,” adds Henri Groothuis.
At first, the company simply considered replacing its TMS, but it soon became clear that they needed an Advanced Planning System as well. They chose Navitrans as their TMS, delivered by Rainbow Solutions, and ORTEC Routing and Dispatch as their APS. Transics was chosen as their provider of on-board computers. This ambitious IT project was completed in record time thanks to the great cooperation between ORTEC and these other suppliers.
ORTEC also helped Mandersloot create a more uniform work method for its planners. Everyone uses the same layout, and has the same authorizations. Data quality improved considerably, which offered them better insight into performance and expenses. With the various IT systems integrated, the company has ‘one single truth,’ which makes planning transparent. ORTEC Routing and Dispatch calculates the plan in real-time, combining rides and routes across customers depending on what’s optimal. This requires less manual work from planners.
The systems overhaul was not only beneficial for the planning team. Drivers and subcontractors now receive better information. This, in turn, optimizes the route planning and dispatching processes. Mandersloot’s customers also get high-quality information about the plan and its execution.
The benefits of data-driven logistics
“We have processed 22% more shipments and achieved 10% growth in revenue, all with the same number of people,” Henri Groothuis adds. “We have also managed to open three extra depots and tie them into our network without a problem.”
Data-driven logistics is now a daily practice at Mandersloot. Empty kilometers were lowered, load levels are optimized and as a result, carbon emissions have been reduced. Besides achieving these performance improvements, the company benefits from higher levels of customer satisfaction. Average delivery reliability has risen towards 100%.
“With ORTEC Routing and Dispatch, we now have complete insight into the costs in our network. Since the planning is adjusted in real-time when unexpected delays occur, we can proactively inform our customers and keep our promises,” Henri Groothuis concludes.
