Monday, April 25, 2016 – The French industrial group Saint-Gobain has restructured the logistics of its subsidiaries Isover, Rigips and Saint-Gobain Weber in Germany, drastically reducing the number of customer visits while maintaining the same delivery frequency. All tours with shared delivery points are now planned and billed centrally by Saint-Gobain Weber using the opheo transport management and telematics system. The solution developed by initions AG was previously in use at Saint-Gobain Weber and has been supplemented with additional functions for the project.
The optimization project, carried out under the name “LEAD”, leads to major relief for Isover, Rigips and Saint-Gobain Weber as well as their joint customers. “We have noticeably optimized the number of ramp contacts and the utilization of the trucks, and thus also the CO2 emissions,” summarizes Thomas Muschalla, who is responsible for logistics at Saint-Gobain Weber GmbH. In addition, customers benefit from a central contact person for orders placed with the three suppliers. “With the principle of “one order, one delivery, one invoice”, Saint-Gobain now offers a significant customer advantage,” says Muschalla.
LEAD is used for supplying DIY stores. In addition, in some regions, deliveries to construction sites and specialist building material retailers by Isover and Weber are also handled by Saint-Gobain Weber’s logistics. Around 180 trucks from forwarding companies are in daily use, equipped with the opheo Mobile telematics solution. The system ensures end-to-end order management, error-free communication between drivers and dispatchers, and reliable location tracking of the entire fleet.
Only full loads and tours without customer overlaps are now dispatched independently at Isover, Rigips and Saint-Gobain Weber. The particular challenges of the project included creating the interfaces between opheo and the three ERP systems and integrating the completely different tariff models.
While Saint-Gobain Weber works with an AS400 solution in the ERP area, Isover and Rigips rely on SAP-LE. Orders recorded in the respective systems are marked in the event of customer overlaps and automatically transferred to opheo. There, the orders are available for joint tour planning and billing. Finally, opheo not only takes over the dispatching, but also the automatic billing with the participating forwarding agents.
As part of the LEAD project, all three subsidiaries had applied for central logistics. Saint-Gobain Weber was awarded the contract due to its transport management system, which was already in use at the time. “Opheo alone was able to meet the high requirements of the project,” recalls Muschalla, who has been working with opheo since 2008. Since then, they have been in a constant improvement process together with initions AG. “We feel that we are in very good hands with initions and our wishes are implemented very quickly,” confirms Muschalla. The LEAD project was also carried out by initions “on time and at the agreed costs”.
Saint-Gobain develops, produces and sells innovative building materials and high-performance materials. The portfolio includes brands such as Sekurit, Isover, Rigips, Raab Karcher and Weber. Saint-Gobain Weber is an international company in the building materials industry, currently present in 52 countries in Europe as well as in South America, Africa and Asia. The company, based in Servon near Paris, is the international market leader in facade plasters, tile adhesives and construction chemical products. The product range comprises over 800 products and systems from the facade and wall, floor, tile and building protection sectors. Saint-Gobain Weber employs approximately 10,000 people and generates annual sales of over EUR 2.3 billion.
