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Scope 3 Emissions – all you need to know

Posted on by Keith McKinley

The world is at a critical point in the fight against climate change. Governments across the globe are urging businesses to do more to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across the supply chain. In response, companies are taking sustainable leadership to new levels, with a particular focus on reducing their Scope 3 emissions to actively assist in supply chain decarbonisation.

You could argue that organisations are already doing what they can to help cut supply chain carbon emissions. The evidence would support your argument. According to an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) almost 1,000 companies across the world have set emissions reduction targets aligned with climate science.

However, for companies that have already taken action to reduce carbon emissions from their facilities, operations and purchased energy (Scope 1 and 2 emissions) the majority of their carbon impact is now a result of emissions that are out of their direct control, in the maze that is Scope 3 emissions.

What are Scope 3 emissions?

Scope 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions refer to all of the indirect carbon emissions that occur as part of your supply chain and are not associated with the generation of purchased energy. Scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions will sit within your organisation, while Scope 3 GHG emissions tend to be out of your control.

The GHG protocol describes Scope 3 emissions as ‘all indirect emissions that occur in the value chain of the reporting company, including both upstream and downstream’.

According to the IPCC, many organisations report that 80% of their emissions fall under the Scope 3 category. With governments on a mission to put the planet on a pathway to reaching net-zero emissions by 2050, it could be argued that Scope 3 emissions are the most important ones to tackle.

However, that’s easier said than done, given that Scope 3 emissions tend to be out of an organisation’s control. Nevertheless, businesses are making more of an effort to engage with suppliers to create more low-carbon, easy to recycle products and services that will help to cut supply chain CO2 emissions.

The top causes of GHG emissions

To cut your Scope 3 emissions, you need to know the top causes of GHG emissions. According to data compiled by McKinsey and the CDP a few years ago, most greenhouse gas emissions come from consumer-driven companies and e-commerce shipping, which account for approximately 33Gt of CO2 annually.

The question is, what causes transportation service industry emissions to be so high? A few factors include:

  • Deadheading/empty backhauls – Driving empty trucks is always wasteful and needlessly adds emissions without contributing value or profits to the supply chain.
  • Inefficient route planning – Excessive backtracking during deliveries also adds to emissions and increases the fleet’s carbon footprint.
  • Poor reverse logistics management – For every sale made and item shipped, there is a chance it will end with a return. Therefore, planning for return shipments must be routine practice.
  • Limited visibility into transportation – Without clear insight into market trends, consumer demands, transportation rates, and fuel costs, waste will be more pervasive.
  • Stop-and-go final mile – The frequent stops associated with city driving increase fuel consumption during deliveries and can present a difficult obstacle for transportation providers.

With the transportation industry under pressure to cut its carbon emissions in half by 2050 – in order to hit worldwide sustainability targets outlined by many local, national, and global organisations – tackling some of the leading causes of GHG emissions is a top priority.

How do you reduce your Scope 3 emissions?

It’s important to recognise that most of your opportunities to reduce emissions lie outside of your organisation. New partnerships and optimisation strategies, such as leveraging omnimodal capabilities, should be on your agenda for cutting your carbon emissions.

All this will lead to directly offset the cost of emissions by restoring efficiency across your supply chain, and it all begins with identifying areas of excess Scope 3 emissions:

  • Assess problem areas and identify emission hotspots across your supply chain.
  • Identify resource misuse and highlight energy risks associated with daily operations.
  • Recognise which suppliers and partners provide benefits with emission control.
  • Highlight third-party vendors and partners that contribute to emission concerns.
  • Identify energy use and opportunities to reduce emissions within the normal function.
  • Engage suppliers and assist them in implementing sustainability initiatives.
  • Proactively engage team members and associates to improve emission levels.

Analyse everything, and then identify areas where you can improve beyond your facility. Once you know where you can make changes, you can implement practical ways to reduce your GHG emissions.

Across all three emission scopes, there are plenty of practical ways you can reduce your overall carbon footprint, including:

  • Having step-by-step processes
  • Fast and reliable collaboration with 3PLs
  • Reliance on real-time data and analysis
  • Up-to-date responses to disruptions
  • Active monitoring and tracking of products throughout and after their useful life
  • Data collection and analysis, to understand what happens to products and encourage recycling
  • Scalable and adaptable management
  • Constant evaluations and reviews
  • Practical guidelines and fleet protocols

According to a Harvard Law School report: “A more sustainable supply chain is one that is able to anticipate and adapt to unforeseen events. For companies that have stumbled during the pandemic as a result of supply chain miscues, it will be especially important to identify the right balance between efficiency and resilience, bearing in mind that efficiency risks need to be addressed at all tiers of the supply chain.”

Sustainability starts with visibility

Supply chain visibility will be crucial in helping you to reduce your Scope 3 emissions. While you may have made huge strides in reporting on environmental metrics, you may still lack a solid plan on how to achieve your goal of reducing your carbon footprint. This is where visibility across your supply chain becomes a game-changer in cutting your CO2 emissions.

How? Supply chain visibility helps you to reduce dwell time at facilities, provides upstream traceability, and eliminates empty miles.

Cut dwell times – Knowing the location of your supply chain bottlenecks allow you to implement a highly-targeted, data-driven approach to reducing waste across your logistics operations using supply chain visibility software.

For example, if your logistics operation involves transportation using refrigerated trucks, you can cut CO2 emissions massively. According to the American Transportation Research Institute, refrigerated trailers spend the longest of all truck types in detention (over 36% of deliveries spend four-plus hours in detention).

Most of these have to remain in lengthy detention periods to ensure the continued freshness of goods. The result is wasted fuel and huge CO2 emissions.

However, with supply chain visibility software, you can quickly detect detention and implement strategic appointment scheduling to help reduce dwell times.

Better traceability – Traceability has long been a major challenge when it comes to sustainability. You need to know that your upstream suppliers are engaging in environmental best practices if you stand any chance of cutting your Scope 3 emissions.

A real-time supply chain visibility platform gives you the capability to track information upstream and downstream. This means that you know exactly where your products are coming from and enable you to clearly communicate your sustainability goals.

Eliminate empty miles – Often referred to as ‘deadhead’, empty miles represent one of the biggest drains on supply chain efficiency across the transport sector. According to research, heavy-duty trucks account for 57% of all GHG emissions in the logistics industry.

Meanwhile, most of these trucks are driven empty 40% of the time, resulting in huge waste and, you guessed it, increased supply chain CO2 emissions. However, supply chain visibility software can help to eliminate empty miles.

How? Visibility software can help you to identify round-trip opportunities across lanes within your network. In most cases, truckers are able to collect a return load from a nearby facility. As a result, this increases the utilisation of the truck and prevents goods from having to be transported by another vehicle.

Real-time supply chain visibility helps you to balance efficiency with your sustainability goals, allowing you to:

  • Estimate greenhouse gas emissions from freight activity
  • Monitor how emission levels and patterns are changing over time
  • Determine which lanes have the highest and lowest emissions
  • Identify transportation modes (rail, ocean, truck) that contribute the most and least to emissions, at an aggregate level and on a per-shipment basis

How to start your Scope 3 emissions reduction journey

It’s important to have a supply chain engagement strategy to help you tackle Scope 3 emissions. Numerous options exist that enable you to reduce your carbon footprint across your supply chain.

The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) recommends a ‘Sectoral Decarbonisation Approach’, which will allow you to set Scope 3 reduction targets based on sectoral differences, including expected growth and access to emissions reduction activities.

Meanwhile, you could implement ‘absolute contraction’, which enables you to set emissions reduction targets that are aligned with the global, annual emissions reduction rate that is required to meet 1.5˚C or WB-2˚C

Irrespective of your approach to sustainability, or the size of your supply chain, it’s crucial that you recognise that climate leadership and long-term, sustainable profitability will depend on reducing your carbon footprint across your supply chain because emissions reduction is fast becoming a mainstream requirement.

Real-time supply chain visibility with Tive

Never again wonder where your shipments are, or how they’re doing. Tive’s combination of proprietary trackers and cloud-based software gives companies the visibility they need, enabling alerts, reporting and analysis on their inbound and outbound shipments.

 

Sustainability and due diligence laws force action

Posted on by Keith McKinley

In addition to the digitisation of industry and commerce, the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic have also emphasised the importance of supply chain management and sourcing. Ralf Duester, board member of the SCM software specialist Setlog, summarises which trends will shape the year 2022.

His analysis is based on conversations and data from Setlog customers who use the SCM tool OSCA, e.g. more than 100 brands in the fashion industry alone.

1. Sustainability and due diligence laws force us to act

The topics of sustainability, decarbonisation and social compliance are becoming of utmost importance for businesses. Following the Glasgow World Climate Conference, consumers, politicians and business partners are calling on companies to act quickly.

New legislation is driving the pace. In road transportation, there is a strong trend towards e-vehicles and hydrogen-powered trucks. Companies are increasingly considering how to implement circular economy strategies so that fewer products need to be destroyed. More and more, transportation and product packaging come under scrutiny.

Managers are taking topics such as carbon emissions, resource consumption and their social responsibility in global sourcing very seriously. In Germany, the Supply Chain Due Diligence Act has been launched, and the European Union is working hard on regulations.

2. Sourcing and purchasing models are being rethought

The pandemic has shown: companies need to consider and implement individual approaches to sourcing to become more resilient. Analyses of automotive manufacturers, for example, may show that re- or nearshoring of certain products or components makes sense. This may be more expensive, but it makes supply chains more stable.

However, in the consumer goods sector it makes more sense to keep production in the Far East due to the enormous cost difference between Europe or the US and Asia. Furthermore, when it comes to a company’s profits – sourcing, procurement and supply chain management are becoming increasingly important.

The reason for this is that opportunities to push through higher price points in lower and middle product segments have become rare. Prices are becoming more transparent for the consumer through buying platforms. Today, profits are achieved through purchasing – or more precisely – through process optimisation.

In the purchasing models of the future, collaborative thinking will prevail – and all partners in a supply chain will align their actions accordingly. In addition, inventory levels of companies are being redefined due to increased network disruptions – such as environmental disasters, strikes or the pandemic. The disruption in global transportation has shown: For certain industries that depend on a few suppliers, it may be necessary to build higher safety stock levels and rethink order processes in general.

3. Supply chains are being replaced by supply networks

The collaboration of companies with purchasing offices, suppliers, factories, testing laboratories, logistics service providers and distributors is becoming increasingly important. As a result, companies will seek to further strengthen their business networks in the upcoming year. Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, company-internal systems have proven not to work ideally.

As a result, companies will use tools and platforms that enable secure data sharing as well as support tight collaborative workflows around forecasting, orders, deliveries, production, capacity, and inventory in real time. Collaboration, the optimal use of data and streamlined information flows eliminate errors and delays as well as reduce lead times and inefficiencies. At the same time, all stakeholders can reduce costs and improve their competitiveness.

4. Human resources management becomes more important

Studies show: One of the biggest challenges companies in industrialised countries currently face is a shortage of workers. This applies to specialists in transportation and customs as well as to highly qualified experts in supply chain management.

In Europe, many countries see a severe shortage of truck drivers – in Germany alone, there are 80,000 vacancies. Associations have been calling for better working conditions and higher wages for years. Companies will only remain successful if they pay close attention to recruiting. They must also enter cooperative ventures with universities. And they cannot avoid training their long-time employees in supply chain management – because the complexity of their tasks continues to increase.

5. ERP silos are eliminated

It is a fact that small and mid-sized companies rely on one or two ERP systems, some multi-national corporations on 20 or even more. Even before the pandemic, the inefficiencies of these self-constructed silos were obvious. Covid-19 acted as an amplifier.

The coexistence of systems artificially added to inventory buffers, caused information gaps and delays, and resulted in high IT costs for interfaces, maintenance, and upgrades. Companies will tear down these silos because they can no longer afford the cost, effort, or associated hassle. The best solution is to move supply chain workflows to a collaborative network platform that cuts across all silos and enables both data sharing and data transfer across production lines, departments and companies.

So-called best-of-breed solutions enabled through REST API interfaces in an intelligent IT architecture break down silos and enable collaborative, cross-company workflows with transparent data exchange.

6. Supply chains are seen as competitive advantage

Due to material shortages and the Covid-19 pandemic, supply chains in many companies broke down for the first time since the end of World War II. Increasingly, managers are asking themselves: Can they continue to rely on the existing supplier relationships and logistics chains in future? Many are analysing and re-evaluating suppliers, transit times, and even their own order and sourcing management.

Instead of just looking at list prices, a risk surcharge – depending on the country of origin and other criteria – is calculated for each critical component. Those who reorganise their supply networks can use stable and flexible supply chains as a competitive advantage.

7. Supply chain managers embrace modern technologies

Companies are realising more and more that thousands of decisions with dozens of parameters must be made every day. Experienced managers alone do not help. Companies need to trust new technologies, such as artificial intelligence, to make decisions. The best of the best will automate processes more and take advantage of artificial intelligence in prescriptive analytics and autonomous agents to gain efficiencies.

Managers will adopt supply chain software technologies to increase their companies’ resilience and competitiveness. As a result, new automation technologies eliminate dozens of positions and roles within an organisation. Thanks to modern technologies, companies can generate speed from planning to delivery, reduce buffers and manage processes more efficiently.

8. Optimisation of supply and demand match

Companies are turning towards technologies that optimally match demand with available supply for and within specific delivery windows. If circumstances change, products sometimes need to be reallocated to orders – almost in real time – to keep service levels high while minimising costs. Companies that use software and algorithms to manage demand and supply globally will be one step ahead of the competition.

Generally, rapid changes in supply and demand make it impossible to forecast based on the past. The best strategy is for companies to devise agile approaches to permanently optimise the use of resources and production capacities. Modern demand planning software and business intelligence tools are increasingly important here.

9. Omnichannel comes without an alternative

The years 2020 and 2021 have shown that for companies to remain successful, become faster and more resilient, the potential in all sales channels must be exploited: brick and mortar, wholesale, e-commerce, sales partners and platforms. Only businesses who follow this strategy will remain successful if one or even more of the channels weaken.

Companies also need to be able to consolidate demand across all channels and to increase service levels and revenue while reducing costs. To do this, they need powerful SCM software.

10. Direct-to-costumer makes the difference

If you haven’t optimised this channel yet, your competition may outrun you fast. Managers must have a handle on “batch size 1” production and delivery, master the returns business, and have a last-mile solution in place.

They also need e-commerce technology that can handle the multitude of choices and item variations customers want. In B2B but also B2C markets, this includes drop shipments, which are created, handled and optimised with the necessary transparency of SCM solutions. This allows retailers to sell goods to consumers without having them physically in stock.

Tips to help hauliers cope with high Christmas demand

Posted on by Keith McKinley

The Christmas rush is something hauliers anticipate every year. But it’s going to be felt more acutely this year with the additional pressures of a driver shortage and Brexit affecting the supply of some goods.

The haulage sector is set to experience its busiest Christmas period on record. On top of the usual increase in demands, there’s the perfect storm of the HGV driver shortage and supply chains impacted by Brexit and COVID. By focusing on increasing efficiency and reducing empty running, hauliers can meet these higher demands and ensure their customers receive the highest level of service.

This means hauliers will need to be even more efficient and prepared in order to meet the demands of businesses and consumers this Christmas.

In this article, supplied by Mandata, we cover how hauliers can cope with arguably the most demanding Christmas we’ve ever experienced.

Make planning more efficient

Efficient planning is paramount to success for all hauliers, but never has it been more important than right now. A Logistics UK survey revealed that 96% of hauliers are struggling to recruit drivers, with 13% saying their shortage is severe to very severe. To meet high demands with a potentially depleted workforce, hauliers need to get the most out of their available resources.

That’s where route planning software comes in. By feeding in all the collections and deliveries you need to make, and your vehicle and driver availability, you’ll be able to plan the most efficient routes and get the most out of your fleet.

With these solutions, you’ll have one view of your business supported by real-time information. Your planners can then make informed decisions. In the hectic traffic rush leading up to Christmas, it’s critical you can identify and manage exceptions as deliveries progress because it’s undoubtedly the busiest period on the road.

Eliminate empty running

When you have a larger-than-usual task on your hands to keep up with demand this Christmas, running empty seems even more wasteful than usual. Yet, for many hauliers, this is the case on their return journeys. If your drivers travel back empty from Glasgow to Plymouth on their return journey, for instance, that’s a lot of wasted mileage.

Using a freight exchange platform gives hauliers the opportunity to not only make the most of their journeys but also serve more customers in a time of increased demands. This can help optimise fleets in the short term and also enables hauliers to expand their network to connect with new shippers. Haulage companies with loyal customers but limited resources have the opportunity to subcontract their excess work on these platforms, meaning they can still take on additional haulage loads and get customer’s jobs done.

Allow your drivers to do more in their workday

The changes to drivers’ hours, which means drivers can work up to 11 hours a day twice a week, has been extended once again to January. But we know that making already overworked drivers work longer hours isn’t the solution, especially when many of the drivers who’ve left the sector have done so due to poor working conditions.

Giving your drivers the tools they need to achieve more in their workday is a much better solution. Not only will this allow your business to be more efficient, but you’ll also improve their satisfaction by making their jobs easier. Let’s face it, dealing with paper proof of deliveries is difficult to manage and adds time to their day.

It’s these inefficient processes that can frustrate drivers, cause delays, and even result in them finishing their day later than expected. It’s no wonder that drivers are leaving businesses that aren’t addressing this problem. Using digital tools like electronic proof of delivery and apps that provide real-time details of their deliveries allows them to focus on the job and get more done in their day.

Interview: an invitation to open source

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Four big names, one big project: Anchoring open source in logistics across the globe. Dachser, DB Schenker, duisport and Rhenus have jointly founded the Open Logistics Foundation to open the next chapter of digitisation in logistics. A technology initiative of this kind is not only unique in logistics to date, but the founders are also taking on a pioneering role in the future topic of open source. However, this shall only be the beginning.

A conversation with the founders and the person who brought them together about their motives, thick planks that must be drilled, and what open source has to do with the World Logistics Championship.

In the interview (pictured from left): Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Michael ten Hompel (Managing Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics (IML), Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Open Logistics Foundation); Markus Bangen (CEO of Duisburger Hafen AG (duisport), Member of the Board of Trustees of the Open Logistics Foundation); Christian Bockelt (Executive Vice President Global IT Land and Digital Solutions, DB Schenker); Stefan Hohm (Chief Development Officer, Dachser SE, Vice Chairman of the Open Logistics Foundation); Dr. Stephan Peters (Member of the Board of Management of Rhenus SE & Co. KG, Vice Chairman of the Open Logistics Foundation).

The Open Logistics Foundation joins the ranks of the large non-profit open-source foundations. Open source means that the source code of a software is publicly accessible. This is not new; many successful business models are based on this principle. We all use open-source produced services every day. Web browsers like Firefox or Chrome and most of all programming languages are so. Linux, the world’ s most used operating system, is open source. It runs on all Android smartphones and on countless servers worldwide, in our Internet routers and even in smart light bulbs. Open source is everywhere, except in logistics, as it seems. So, the question is not “Why open source?” but “Why only now?”

Bangen: With open source, Michael ten Hompel has placed a topic in logistics of which everyone knows that it is overdue. We all know that we must develop commodities together. We just have not been able to get over the threshold of competitive thinking. There were just always too many buts. Pooling resources and themes give us a unique opportunity to set de facto standards instead of creating more monoliths.

Bockelt: To actively drive truly disruptive innovations, you need the right companions and a serious push. Fraunhofer IML has recognised that this constellation can be effective and brought us together.

Hohm: The digitisation tasks are too big for one company to solve alone. It can only be done together. Open source has a very decisive advantage: it simplifies the entry into digitisation and is therefore an important success factor for the entire logistics industry. At the same time, open source is a driver for a standardised process landscape in digital value chains.

Peters: After all, you often need a momentum. Especially in the weeks leading up to the founding, it became clear to us that the Foundation brought together exactly those who have been researching on innovations in the innovation environment in Dortmund and at Fraunhofer Labs for years. We have brought together what fits together and what we have been developing for years. Because of this innovation research, there is a trust and a natural affinity. When the critical phase of setting up the foundation with the legal experts began, you could clearly feel that.

The right people, at the right time, with the right mindset in the right place. Sounds reasonable. But as we all know, the devil lies in the details. In-house IT development is something like the holy grail of logistics. Is this sector ready for open source?

Bockelt: A large part of our software is already built with open source. Now it’s all a matter of enriching open source with logistics aspects and creating standards. That’ s an extremely exciting aspect…

Peters: …and bringing logistics expertise together in a repository, in an open-source community, is a crucial argument. This open-source approach guarantees an open standard for the digitisation of logistics processes and at the same time offers a high degree of flexibility for individual adaptations.

Hohm: Intelligent logistics is based on powerful IT systems. At Dachser, this principle has applied for decades and will continue to do so. That is why Dachser is also well known for its in-house IT development. However, it makes little sense to program every line of code in a standard application in-house. This is neither economical nor does it offer a competitive advantage. On the contrary, it often even prevents the pragmatic networking of partners and customers. Therefore, it is advantageous for all supply chain parties, if in the future, that selected software components are available to everyone free of charge as open-source elements and continuously updated via a neutral authority.

ten Hompel: The logistics sector must become more software-driven to play a role in the forthcoming platform economy and to self-determine its future based on European legal standards and values. Digitisation is the goal, and open source is the key to taking all companies along this journey, regardless of size and sector.

The first step has been taken. Now it’s time to drill some thick planks so that open source goes viral in logistics. The founding members declare: “We consider the Open Logistics Foundation to be the first step towards a platform economy based on European legal standards and values. It is both a beginning and an appeal to the logistics sector to think of technology and processes together and actively participate in the open-source community”. Open-source community: participate, preferably everyone – is the motto. Why should they do so? What is the added value?

Bockelt: This approach will replace individual investments in the digitisation of commodities. Every company involved will benefit from this.

Bangen: In a classic port like duisport, just a few years ago it would have been “waste of time and money” to talk for example about a joint slot system for all terminals. Today we are doing it. The psychological strain is higher, and we have simply realised that we will only succeed together; we won’t achieve anything with isolated solutions.

Hohm: Acceptance in the logistics industry will depend very much on which use case we place first. Let us take the truck driver app – we already have one or two of them (everyone laughs). That is the best example of wasted resources. Every company builds its own app, and every driver has countless apps on his mobile device. An enormous effort is put into this, but no company generates any added value through it. With such simple but widespread use cases, the realisation will catch on quickly.

Peters: The use cases we are talking about are obvious: e-pallet bill, e-delivery bill, driver app, ETA, and a few others. But the thickest plank will be getting the logistics and software industries enthusiastic about using and collaborating on the open-source repository. We could reduce complexity and be so much more innovative, faster, and better if there were no longer one hundred completely incompatible individual solutions to such problems, but one common standard.

ten Hompel: That’s exactly how it is, and creating this common basis is the core goal of the Foundation. There is always a tendency to tie the Foundation and open source to specific applications, it’ not about four competitors doing something together. It is about raising the jump height into digitisation because many people still underestimate the complexity that is coming with AI and predictive algorithms as a basis in data-based business models. This change – and this is important – is also a cultural change. Many companies have long since understood that they can generate added value for themselves if they do not have to take care of every interface themselves but can create value-added software.

Catchword cultural change: The willingness to share is growing in general. Not because sharing is trendy now, but because the success of the company’s own business models is at stake. Business has recognised that AI-based platforms will not get them far, since the chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Moreover, business leaders know very well that even the most valuable services do not make money these days unless they are perceived as a differentiator. And in the logistics sector, valuable services are just teeming. Everyone uses the same consignment note, everyone plans tours in the same way, calculates the ETA or offers tracking & tracing. However, cultural change also means adopting a different internal structure if you want to be successful with open source. Sounds so easy and harmless. But if you think about it more closely, it is a call for a paradigm shift. Is the motto meant to be that disruptive? How do the developers or IT service providers feel about the project?

Bockelt: Logistics has always been innovative, and IT played a key role early on. Today, almost all logistics processes are based on digital solutions, but the era of large software monoliths is about to end. We are thinking in terms of end-to-end supply chains, and the key here is to make processes more efficient and secure. If we use modular, standardised components for this purpose, we will be much faster and more agile when it comes to implementing truly value-creating ideas. In any case, you are preaching to the choir.

Peters: Logistics is very fragmented, both geographically and structurally. If we want to inspire people from the logistics sector to join us, we need to have an open mindset right from the start and not get bogged down in committees and bureaucracy. Incidentally, we are also unattractive as an industry if we are not open source. Many of our employees aspire that go beyond Rhenus. They want to be part of a bigger picture and drive the innovation of an industry and society forward. We are much more attractive as an employer if we can offer the big picture.

Bangen: Our developers also immediately said, yes, we will do that. So far, we have been using software that only we have – and if you take a closer look, 80% of it is already open source. The fraction of those who rely on exclusive specialised applications is becoming smaller, because at today’s speed of innovation, all of this will no longer be compatible in just two years.

The foundation’s offer is more than tempting. It is good to have confidence and be transparent but how do you guarantee neutrality in the development and participation for interested parties?

ten Hompel: The Open Logistics Foundation is the ultimate transparency. It is clear from the outset that there is no business purpose behind it or a single company that wants to monopolise the market on its own. Everything is completely open down to the very last detail, is accessible free of charge, and anyone can use it. The foundation’s purpose can be defined in terms of support for small businesses or start-ups. Here at the table, everyone is big enough to compete in the platform economy. But it is about bringing along those we work with. Start-ups or medium-sized companies are much faster if they have a basic software on which they can build their business models.

Bangen: In terms of confidence, however, logistics still has room for improvement. There are industries that are much further along in this understanding that you must sit in the same boat on the one hand and develop USPs as a competitor on the other.

Peters: Start-ups are much more disruptive here, and with a level of commitment that will probably challenge us quite a bit. We’ve talked about culture change. One of the main things here is to stop the feeling that the last 10% is not being disclosed. For example, we are all able to find the next flight connection from Berlin to Papua New Guinea on our mobiles in 30 seconds, including prices. Try that for intra-European transport. Why is there no rate transparency? Why does everyone have different interfaces for exchanging data? It is piecemeal and not very customer friendly.

Bangen: Our customers also want to be able to switch service providers at any time without having to rebuild the entire IT structure. They no longer accept raising the switching level via the complexity of the IT connection. On the contrary, it challenges them to switch in any case.

Hohm: Nevertheless, we clearly separate content and application. The content, for example the amount of prices as well as data, will continue to be exchanged between companies confidentially and inaccessible to third parties, for instance between the customer and the logistics service provider. We are focused on the ways and means of exchanging this information. That is what we are focusing on.

ten Hompel: You can compare this development with the introduction of an e-commerce. The consumer interface became simpler, and at the same time the algorithm ensured that people got the right offers. That is where we are headed in logistics as well. We come from a business that has lived very much on know-how and are going into a world that lives on algorithms. With their platforms, start-ups are suddenly making dominant knowledge freely available. Success is determined not by better information, but by better algorithms.

Let us talk about time and money. How much time and money can you save developing with open source?

Peters: In our case, it depends very much on the application, but the expectations are clearly in the double digits. Digitisation is not an end in itself. It overcomes interfaces and pays off in terms of higher-level goals such as transparency, efficiency, and sustainability. However, it must also be economically feasible and successful to the market.

Hohm: Dachser’s focus is on the business case. For us, it is about making on-site applications leaner and more standardised. For us, IT is an orchestrator. It uses a variety of building blocks. There are applications which scream out to be downloaded from a repository and made available to a large community. And more people thinking about the same topic usually results in something better.

Bockelt: There are topics that we can only solve together and there are differentiating topics for which you build your own software. And there will be algorithms that we donate to the repository, and thus to the public. For us, it is important to give access to all players in the industry.

Peters: We can only achieve that by transparency, and the basis for it is trust. We must communicate that, in addition to what we initially place in the repository.

In 2022, the setup of the logistics repository is high on the agenda. For the minutes: For the record: A repository is a database for centrally managing digital objects. The logistics repository is therefore a kind of public global central warehouse for open-source hardware and software components. Companies can use it to expand their own platforms, for example, or to set up new products and business models more quickly. A major undertaking. Which projects will you initiate and which components will you open-source? And how does that work?

Peters: At our Fraunhofer IML Rhenus Lab, we have developed a tracker for measuring the temperature and filling level of our intelligent container, which you can use just as well elsewhere. Whether you use the filling level indicator for a container, a waste bin or a rat trap, the technology is the same. We are contributing this tracker to the logistics repository, along with a standard interface so that anyone can connect their own devices. Of course, if we place the software open, we also hope that it will be further developed by many.

Bockelt: We have components that would be suitable for kicking off into the open-source world, and some examples have already been mentioned. We will go along with that.

Hohm: Dachser will also provide resources; we will determine more details in the coming weeks once the first lighthouse project has been defined.

Peters: There are two ways to get involved. Variant one is to merge existing applications into one. Variant two is a kind of supermarket shelf where, for example, different driver apps are placed next to each other. The market decides who continues to program on what and which app will be the most popular. In practice, it will be a mixture. Personally, I favour variant two because we do not need to keep working on things when there are better solutions. By voting with our feet, it will be transparent what is available and what of it is used and how often. This would allow us to allocate development capacities in a much more targeted way.

Hohm: But it is not the foundation founders who determine what is best for everyone. The foundation management and the open-source community will define a process that allows participation for everyone.

The foundation has just started its work. What expectations do you have in terms of the foundation’s operational work? Where are the priorities? What needs to go to the top of the agenda? What matters in practice to make open-source fly in logistics?

Hohm: Creative approach, complete transparency, common applications, maximum usability, and the question of how we involve all companies so that the right business case can be set as a flagship. That is what matters.

Bangen: The platform must be cool to developers, and we have to offer the community something in the repository that excites them, to motivate as many as possible to be part of it and to bring an open-source community with thousands of developers forward in logistics…

Peters: …and that also should not take twelve months. Either the first project is so convincing that it is worth joining, or it will be incomparably harder to convince the community.

Bockelt: For me, the focus is not on us founders, but on the issues that concern the entire supply chain industry. We have only thrown a first stone into the water. For our open-source project to get off to a successful start, it will be important to function as a network and to continue to develop technologies in a continuous dialog with users.

Demanding digitisation is easy; implementing it changes everything. We are writing the year 2031: Looking back, what should be said about today and about the Open Logistics Foundation?

Peters: I would love the headline: “Germany logistics world champion thanks to open source” or “From logistics world champion to open-source world champion”.

Bangen: We have finally crossed the threshold of transparency and trust that everyone has been talking about for 20 years, but no one has overcome yet. We have just got our act together.

Bockelt: The Open Logistics Foundation has unleashed a wave of transformation. The courageous step toward open source has paid off for both the logistics industry itself and its customers.

Hohm: I would like us to say that October 22, 2021, was the day we succeeded in raising logistics to a new level and enabling collaboration – through open source.

ten Hompel: I hope that in three years I will be able to say: Who would have thought back then that the open-source community would grow exponentially. And I think the best thing would be if, in ten years, we do not even remember what it was like before open source.

Michael ten Hompel, you brought the donors together. What advice do you give to the logistics industry?

ten Hompel: Companies should ask themselves one question: What are we doing with open source? Because the logistics community must be aware of one thing: In the upcoming platform economy, money will be made with AI. The use of software will increase exponentially in a brief time, and that can only be done with open source. Dachser, DB Schenker, duisport, and Rhenus have laid the groundwork for an open-source community by establishing the non-profit Open Logistics Foundation. Now it is important for logistics as an industry to reposition and join forces. My advice? Never walk alone.

Transporeon acquires Logit One

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Transporeon has strengthened its international ocean visibility capabilities through the acquisition of Logit One.

As adoption of in-transit visibility has become a must-have, the focus has mainly been on outbound transportation visibility, improving customer satisfaction and delivery accuracy. The next phase for customers is to build a complete End-to-End supply chain visibility, expanding coverage of inbound visibility across multimodal tracking. Connecting transport execution to multimodal visibility across Ocean, Road, and Air is when transportation gets in sync with the world, and the real value is unlocked.

Bringing in Logit One, an industry technology leader of Ocean visibility and end-to-end multimodal planning capabilities in real time enables Transporeon’s mission of bringing transportation in sync with the world. This is achieved through the execution of predictive transportation across multiple modes enabled through high accuracy and global coverage of its in-transport visibility network.

Logit One’s technology will be immediately made available to all existing Transporeon customers and prospects. It serves as a perfect extension of the established Transporeon Sixfold Visibility and Tracking portfolio.

Transporeon is continuing to build up the most powerful visibility network in the world, delivering predictive transportation across multiple modes. The acquisition of Logit One expands the Transporeon Sixfold Visibility and Tracking offering across Ocean. It makes Transporeon the only company to provide an execution platform with an integrated multimodal visibility offering. For clients, the integration of Logit One represents a major development in transport visibility and predictive transportation across all modes.

Stephan Sieber, CEO of Transporeon: “Expanding our visibility offering to Ocean is the logical next step. It shows our continued commitment to combining visibility with execution. This will enable our customers to continuously improve their operations and open a whole new set of innovation potentials to all of us! We are excited to welcome the Logit One family to Transporeon.”

Integrating the Logit One solution into Europe’s largest network of shippers and carriers will generate important scaling effects. This means that all parties to the Transporeon platform can enjoy far greater transparency than any individual visibility solution could offer. Logit One will be a great extension to Transporeon Sixfold currently monitoring over €500m worth of goods in real-time every day for customers in 40+ countries with 25 languages.

“Shippers and forwarders are facing huge dynamics in the ocean transport system and international transportation needs to become greener, more agile, and responsive. Through this acquisition, Transporeon’s customers will be able to expand the scope of their transportation visibility to international movements and to synchronise ocean and overland transportation. We are very excited about this step because we share a common vision and this will bring our solutions to a worldwide market,” said Frank Knoors, CEO of Logit One.

Transporeon’s one-platform approach ensures all users instantly benefit from the integration of new functionalities and services. Existing Transporeon customers will automatically benefit from the integration of the Ocean Visibility data feed into their transport planning and execution. The Transporeon platform includes a bird’s-eye view control tower of all their shipments across modes. Furthermore, additional multimodal planning functionalities will help to utilise the available capacity and reduce the environmental impact.

The Transporeon logistics platform is a 360° logistics services platform, and not only a standalone in-transit visibility provider. The strength of the Platform lies within its unique services supporting the customers’ complete transport lifecycle demands. Transporeon’s services include Market intelligence, freight procurement, planning and execution, tracking/proof of delivery, visibility, and freight audit. All the above are built on the world’s largest road carrier network. With the addition of Logit One, Transporeon significantly strengthens its services across all transport modes.

“As a well-known and recognised provider of global 4PL solutions we offer our clients with visibility and transparency in their supply chain in order to keep in control and to react fast on exceptions said Amaury Luycks, Managing Director of Polytra NV (part of Fracht Group).

“For us, the future of logistics service providers comes from analysing data, moving from reactive to proactive to predictive. We believe that logistics is not only finding the cheapest solution but also the most reliable, the fastest, and the greenest. Our partnership with Logit One is an important building block to achieve this. Their visibility solution gives us the tools to achieve superior service for our customers and even for our customers’ customers.”

Descartes helps Dover Hamilton with Brexit challenges

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Descartes Systems Group, a global leader in uniting logistics-intensive businesses in commerce, is helping customs clearance agent Dover Hamilton Ltd’s customers navigate post-Brexit EU customs complexities and grow their business with Descartes’ e-Customs.

Established immediately after Brexit in January 2020, Dover Hamilton has put together a team with expert knowledge of new Brexit regulations, customs clearance processes, procedures and compliance – many of whom closely monitored the changes as they were drafted and published by Government lawmakers. In the last 18 months, the company has grown into an international organisation with three branches across the UK and Europe.

Following the UK’s decision to leave the EU, Dover Hamilton identified an opportunity to work closely with its customers – predominantly small- and medium-sized businesses – to help them optimise their road freight import and export operations within the UK, whilst ensuring regulatory compliance at both origin and destination.

Descartes’ e-Customs allows Dover Hamilton to offer exceptional customer service and a high level of responsiveness for its clients.  Descartes is supporting Dover Hamilton further by providing the Pentant CSP Badge for imports and exports at non-inventory ports and Dover.

“We recognised that Brexit offered a business opportunity, specifically for road freight imports and exports with the EU,” said Monica Stefan, EU-GB General Customs Manager, Dover Hamilton Ltd. “Descartes’ e-Customs is a comprehensive, efficient and user-friendly platform for customs declarations.  It is highly flexible and is incredibly easy to train our customs agents on. One of the most valuable aspects for us is the ability to access it from a secure system when connected to the internet locally or through an encrypted laptop, as this enables us to optimise our customer responsiveness. The level of Brexit expertise at Descartes has been exemplary and has supported us in driving our business growth.”

“We’re proud to be supporting Dover Hamilton’s customs brokerage business as it continues to grow,” said Pól Sweeney, VP Sales UK and Ireland for Descartes. “Dover Hamilton spotted an opportunity in the market and has developed its expertise and knowledge to offer its customers an exemplary service in response to the market changes caused by Brexit – and is consequently thriving.”

Prologis acquires potential logistics site at Heathrow

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Leading developer and owner of logistics property, Prologis, has acquired a prestigious office building at Heathrow Airport, known as the Compass Centre, as part of its ongoing investment into the London logistics market.

The property, previously owned by the Arora Group, is a striking office building, which is currently let to Heathrow Airport Ltd, providing 200,000 sq ft (18,500 sq m) of prime office space close to the airport’s northern perimeter. Set in almost 15 acres of land, the site is just 12 miles (19km) west of central London and is supported by excellent road (M25/M4) and rail links.

Robin Woodbridge, Head of Capital Deployment and Leasing for Prologis in the UK, said: “We are delighted to secure this prestigious building, and its surrounding land, at a time when demand for industrial space and land for development is soaring, especially in areas close to London. Competition is particularly intense for this type of package at the moment, and we are pleased to have been able to complete the transaction off-market.

“While we have no immediate plans to develop the property or land, and the office building will remain let until at least (year), there may be scope to redevelop it for logistics use at some point in the future.”

Commenting on the sale of the Compass Centre, Sanjay Arora, Director at the Arora Group, said: “The Compass Centre has always been a strategic asset in the portfolio for many years. However, with the change in the business environment post COVID, we are pleased to have sold the asset to Prologis, releasing funds to facilitate new projects.”

Once the HQ for British Airways, the Compass Centre was originally built in 1992. The building has been refurbished and provides fully-modernised, energy-efficient office space. The building was acquired by the Arora Family Trust in 2008 as part of a larger portfolio acquisition of the Airport Property Portfolio (APP) from BAA plc.

Imperial opens new logistics base in Germany

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Imperial has opened a new, multi-user logistics facility in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, located 8km from its existing benchmark multi-user business site in Herten.

The launch customer for the new facility will be a long-standing Imperial customer, Lemken, which is a renowned international manufacturer of agricultural machinery. Imperial will transfer Lemken’s spare part logistics operations from Herten to Gelsenkirchen.

The opening of Imperial’s new multi-user facility in Germany supports its organic growth strategy, introduced in 2019, which has seen multiple investments in workforce expansion and operating infrastructure to date.

According to Hakan Bicil, CEO of Imperial’s Logistics International business, “Our latest multi-user facility provides Lemken with further space for growth, and will also mean that another long-standing customer, KONE, has additional space for its own expansion at our Herten location.”

KONE provides elevators, escalators and automatic building doors, as well as solutions for maintenance and modernisation to add value to buildings throughout their life cycle.

“Above all, however, the latest base enables us to welcome further new customers to both business locations, and so we are already actively marketing our expanded capabilities,” added Bicil.

Marco Averesch, previously Warehouse Manager in Herten, will take over  operational responsibility for the Gelsenkirchen site, while Patrick König will be in overall charge of both Herten and Gelsenkirchen.

Shipping costs biggest concern for online shoppers

Posted on by Keith McKinley

A poll* by intralogistics innovator Dematic has found that while shopping on the net is becoming far more popular, almost three out of five shoppers (58%) are put off buying clothes online if asked to cover the shipping costs for a delivery or return.

As many people make multiple purchases with a view to returning items that don’t fit, costs can soon mount up, undermining the apparent convenience and cost efficiency of virtual vs high street shopping.

Another key concern, the survey revealed, was that some retailers have made the returns process unnecessarily difficult to navigate. Almost a quarter of customers (23%) are dissuaded from making a purchase, fearing the challenges of logging a return online, packaging and posting it back to the retailer.

Interestingly, many people actually prefer buying a new outfit from a clothes shop as they can not only try a garment on but take it home straight away without having to wait for a delivery. In fact, 13% of respondents in the poll said they want their goods immediately and the long wait for a delivery is another reason preventing them from completing a purchase online.

Other leading concerns raised by shoppers include trying to navigate different clothing brand size variations, not knowing if an item would fit properly, and not being able to establish the authenticity of a vendor.

Although shoppers enjoy the value for money and wider choice offered by online shopping, the survey revealed that a positive customer experience remains key to securing an Internet purchase.

Steffen Thierfelder, Managing Director of Northern Europe, Dematic, commented: “As the popularity of online shopping continues to grow, it is clear from our survey results that shoppers still expect high levels of customer service and simple, yet cost-effective, deliveries and returns processes.  Previously, ordering online was just about fulfilment but now it’s an integral part of the customer journey. Fashion retailers must take advantage of available logistics and automation solutions to improve costs and efficiencies to ensure their goods get to where they are needed as fast as possible, whether that be to a customer or returned to the warehouse.”

Dematic designs, builds and implements automated system solutions for warehouses, distribution centres, and production facilities.  As part of its intralogistics solution, Dematic uses an industrial engineering approach to deliver process improvements, material flow automation and performance optimising software.

  • * The poll was conducted on Twitter between 6th and 12th October, 2021, across Dematic’s Northern Europe region [Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom] and attracted 10,514 respondents.

Werma launches “new benchmark” for industrial signalling

Posted on by Keith McKinley

The new eSIGN signal tower is a breakthrough and a clear sign of Werma‘s continual technological progress: this signal tower sets new standards in terms of individuality and flexibility with full-surface signalling, robust industrial design and impressive features.

As early as 1994, Werma established a global industry standard with the launch of its KombiSIGN signal tower. And this standard has just been upgraded: the eSIGN is the next generation that will define the future of signal towers. Impressive features, supreme compatibility and an industrial design that combines functionality with style and durability.

The new eSIGN has generated a quantum leap in possibilities: full-surface signalling makes it considerably more conspicuous and optimises the signal tower’s potential. This enables all users to monitor processes even more extensively, more comprehensively, more accurately and more proactively. Werma claims the new eSIGN represents a new dimension of signalling.

The eSIGN is a shining example of a signal tower with visibly improved performance: more colours, more effects and more individuality. Thanks to the modularity of its electrical components combined with the latest LED technology, different signalling modes can be produced using multiple colours, brightness levels and light effects – from the classic traffic light display to fully customised settings. Variable fill-level displays or full-surface signals can also be generated with ease using this signal tower. This not only allows users to oversee processes, but also brings completely new possibilities.

Werma says the eSIGN is the best signal tower it has ever developed. The range of applications is as diverse as the eSIGN itself: from alarm signalling to access control, visual warnings, statuses, fill-level or fault displays right through to material stock levels and building security. It can even be used as an acoustic warning system.

Acoustic signalling is an indispensable component that supplements visual signalling in daily work processes across the globe, from production facilities to logistics, building technology or mechanical and plant engineering applications. Their aim is to ensure that processes run smoothly, to secure the safety of personnel and protect the equipment being used. With the comforting feeling that everything is running smoothly.

For this reason, the new eSIGN is equipped with a siren that can produce up to 10 different tones. These can also be configured to suit specific applications. Naturally, the siren can be combined with light effects, has variable volume options and is easy to set up.

The high technological standards and user-friendly operation of this new Werma signal tower are not at all contradictory: depending on the variant, eSIGN can be easily controlled using IO-Link or configured via USB. It can be mounted on the floor, on tubes or on walls.

The two different sizes of the eSIGN also offer maximum flexibility: 15 or 9 segments, with or without siren, standard 24V version with configuration transfer via USB or using IO-Link technology.

The robust industrial design also delivers what it promises: the high IP66/IP69k protection class ensures improved resistance to typical substances used in production, while the UL type 4X enclosure guarantees resistance to UV radiation and environmental influences.

Werma says the custom modes, acoustic signals, free selection of light effects and robust industrial design mean the new eSIGN is simply always the right choice.

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