The very first step to optimal planned routes already begins at Bahlsen at 00:30hrs. At this time, all order data is transferred into Cargo-Sourcing, where the optimal delivery routes are planned. During delivery route planning the program determines which orders are delivered via transshipment points and which orders are delivered centrally. Not only the orders of Bahlsen are considered but also orders of the companies Lorenz Snack World, Wasa and Barilla for whom Bahlsen delivers.
After Cargo-Sourcing, the order data is given back to the enterprise resource planning systems of the orderer. Several steps are performed then in Bahlsen’s SAP-System. After checking the availability and generating replenishment orders, the delivery orders are transferred into Cargo, so that scheduling can start at exactly 05.00 hrs.
About 250 routes are planned daily at Bahlsen, about 200 of them centrally. The transportation is carried out by small or medium-sized transportation companies, which works in close partnership together with Bahlsen.
The scheduling of the route is carried out in so called time-slices, which helps to control the load of Bahlsen’s goods distribution center. Time-slicing is a time-pulsing of orders, working under the premise that orders that have to be delivered to distant customers have to be commissioned and loaded first and during the course of the day move closer to the location. The allocation of the orders to these time-slices is done by the schedulers using Cargo.
After scheduling, the orders are transferred back to the SAP-system. There, the delivery building and commissioning is activated based on the results of the scheduling. The transportation companies are informed of their routes via fax automatically from Cargo.
Regarding the transshipment, Bahlsen works together with four transshipment points, which are run by forwarding companies. The route planning is done by the Cargo- application server, which automatically schedules the routes based on predefined parameters. Again, after scheduling, the orders are transferred back to the SAP-system with the following delivery building and commissioning.
At regular intervals credit memos for the transportation and forwarding companies are generated in Cargo. On the one hand these are based on transportation orders, on the other hand the terms and conditions agreed with the transportation and forwarding companies, which are available in Cargo. The credit memos are transferred via interface to SAP-FI/CO, which induces the payment.
Freight costs are distributed to the articles and to the supplied customers and transferred back to SAP-CO/PA via interface. Here they are considered in the article and customer contribution and margin accounting.
Furthermore, the database is used in logistics area for all kinds of statistical analysis, to react anytime to changes in business. All true to Bahlsen’s Logistics motto: “Specialists deliver quality.”
