Wednesday, October 29, 2014 – The Westfalen Group manages the delivery of its technical and medical gases with the help of the transport management software opheo, which includes the integrated telematics solution opheo Mobile. As part of the project, the software was enhanced with a forecasting function that automatically calculates customers’ short-term demand. The Westfalen Group is thus able to supply its customers without an order and always ensure sufficient stock.
Supply bottlenecks are unacceptable in this industry: A large part of industrial production and, in some cases, even human lives depend on technical and medical gases. Errors in the ordering process would therefore have fatal consequences. Against this background, major utility companies like the Westfalen Group have developed efficient methods to make the demand from production facilities and hospitals predictable.
Most customer tanks now have sensors that measure the current fill level and transmit data directly to Westfalen via remote data transmission. “This technology will continue to establish itself as a standard and requires innovative software solutions in the logistics chain,” Klaus Dieter Rose is convinced. He should know: He heads dispatching for bulk operations at Westfalen. Here, gas is transported not in bottles, but in special tank vehicles (Tkw). The tank vehicles are in operation around the clock – in Germany and several neighboring European countries.
Significantly more productive
Since 2013, the Westfalen Group has been working with the transport management software opheo from initions AG. The solution prevailed against four competitors in the selection process and was subsequently successfully implemented. “The decisive advantage was the high transparency and the intelligent support for route planning provided by the dispatch cockpit. Also, the fact that opheo offers transport management and telematics in a single software solution spoke in favor of the system,” Rose recalls, adding: “It was definitely the right decision, because with this software, we were able to significantly reduce the effort compared to the previous dispatch system and further improve the quality of planning.”
The reduced effort leads to higher productivity. “Since 2011, the number of tank vehicles we dispatch has significantly increased. Thanks to opheo, we were able to manage the associated additional workload with our existing staff,” reports André Schneider, who heads Supply Chain Management at the Westfalen Group.
In addition to its ease of use, opheo also impressed with its integrated telematics solution and existing interface to the ERP system. And last but not least, initions already has relevant industry references. “opheo was able to fully map the hazardous goods requirements of the gas business,” confirms Rose.
Automatic Delivery Orders Without an Order
Specifically for the requirements of the Westfalen Group, a forecasting function was added to opheo, which calculates the stock in customer containers and determines the next delivery date. For this purpose, current stock data from customer containers is retrieved several times a day, and the future stock development is predicted based on consumption calendars and historical data. At the end of the forecast calculation, delivery orders are automatically generated for all customers with short-term demand. “With this innovative function, we can anticipate our customers’ needs and deliver even before a bottleneck can arise. This gives us an enormous advantage,” explains Rose.
opheo is integrated via an interface into the inventory management system used at Westfalen. The ERP system provides opheo with master data for customers and items. Manual order entry can be done either in the ERP system or in opheo. The ERP system checks the data, adds an order number, and sends it back to opheo. This ensures optimal interaction between the ERP system and opheo.
Mobile Dot Matrix Printers
Dispatchers plan their orders exclusively with opheo. The generated routes are transferred to the vehicles, which are equipped with mobile handhelds, at the push of a button. The devices feature the opheo Mobile telematics software integrated into opheo. This allows orders to be received and processed step by step.
A special feature is the connection to the dot matrix printers carried in the vehicles, which drivers can use on-site to print delivery notes with carbon copies, among other things. The printers also serve to create transport documents. The position data and each completed order are sent back to the central office via opheo Mobile. Subsequently, opheo exports the delivery note to the ERP system, thereby initiating the next processes in quantity management and billing.
Additional Savings Potential
Speaking of billing: opheo is also used for this. The same applies to the workshop or container technology areas. In total, numerous Westfalen Group employees work with opheo – and more will follow. Because the possibilities are far from exhausted. In the next step, the Westfalen Group intends to leverage further benefits of initions’ telematics solution. Rose and Schneider thus aim to sustainably reduce the wear and consumption values of the tank vehicles, thereby saving costs for diesel and repairs.
Regarding the planned expansions, the Westfalen Group is confident. “initions’ project management is very professional and always reliable – I haven’t experienced anything like it with other software companies,” André Schneider attests. This applies particularly to their problem-solving behavior during critical project phases. Klaus Dieter Rose expresses a similar sentiment: “We have come to know the initions team as very solution-oriented and practical. The collaboration is simply enjoyable!”
Background: Westfalen Group
The Westfalen Group operates internationally as a technology company in the energy sector with a total of 22 subsidiaries and affiliates. Over 20 production sites are located in Germany, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the Czech Republic. Founded in 1923, the family-owned company operates in the fields of gases, energy supply, and filling stations, and has its headquarters in Münster. With approximately 1,400 employees, the Westfalen Group generated revenues of approximately 1.9 billion Euros in the 2013 fiscal year.
In the gases sector, Westfalen has evolved from a regional supplier into a European-oriented competence leader for technical gases. Its product range includes several hundred gases and gas mixtures, including medical gases, laboratory gases, industrial gases, welding and shielding gases, food gases, and refrigerants.
Background: initions AG
initions AG is a software company based in Hamburg, specializing in intelligent, innovative solutions for planning and controlling. Its focus areas are transport management, optimization, and business intelligence. “Innovative IT solutions” means that initions’ software solutions think along and ahead: Nature-analogous mathematical algorithms create optimized detailed plans. Intelligent routines check all changes to these plans for consistency and highlight errors and bottlenecks. In this way, daily logistics planning is optimally controlled. As early as 2001, the Founder’s Award from ZDF, McKinsey, and Stern confirmed the uniqueness of this product idea.
