Locomotive of Business Award for Fresh Logistics Polska

Such a success was undoubtedly the award in the Code of Innovations ranking organized by GS1 Polska for the project of automatic advice of delivery to Jeronimo Martins Polska (Biedronka chain).

“The award presented by Gazeta Finansowa Weekly to Fresh Logistics Polska is undoubtedly the confirmation that our daily business decisions are the right ones. Nowadays, the logistics operator is forced to constantly optimize its processes to meet the expectations of its customers. The project of automatic advice of delivery using EDI technology to Jeronimo Martins Polska centres is precisely the fulfilment of our customers' expectations, for whom the reliability of delivery status data is a priority” - comments Marek Kwiatkowski, Operational Manager at Fresh Logistics Polska and the author of the aforementioned project.

Automatic advice of delivery for Jeronimo Martins Polska

One of the key points of the strategy of Fresh Logistics Polska (FLP) is to establish business cooperation with the largest consignees of goods of our customers. The joint project of advice of delivery by FLP for Jeronimo Martins Polska (JMP) is a perfect example of such cooperation.

In 2017, FLP delivered almost 850,000 pallets from over 70 customers and suppliers to 16 JMP Distribution Centres. Establishing operational cooperation with such a large business is quite a challenge which, due to its sheer size, have been divided into several stages. Based on the cooperation with Jeronimo Martins Polska, Fresh Logistics Polska was the first logistics operator in Poland to launch an automatic process of advice of delivery in the form of an EDI transmission (EDI - electronic data interchange). This allowed for eliminating differences between the advice and the actual state during unloading of goods, and it also facilitated the work of dispatchers and sped up the delivery process. Logistics operators like Fresh Logistics Polska note the increase in correctness of advice which oscillates at the level of 99.4%.

The consignee and the logistics operator

Before the cooperation even starts, the consignee and the logistics operator must get to know their objectives and their specificity of operations. This is the only way to create a solid foundation for future cooperation. In order to achieve that, there are special operational meetings of representatives of Fresh Logistics Polska and Jeronimo Martins Polska held in JMP Distribution Centres at quarterly intervals. During such a meeting, an optimal model of cooperation is agreed upon - one that will be beneficial for both parties. In 2014, during one such meeting, it was decided that the annual growth of JMP customers calls for strict adherence to timeliness of deliveries. It is particularly important in the logistics of fresh and ultra-fresh products. The final stage was for JMP to approve the hours of advice and times of registration at the entry gate and to divide the registration into individual hours of advice. That issue was handled during an operational meeting of representatives of IT departments of both business partners.

Need is the mother of inventions

It was the objective of Jeronimo Martins Polska to have reliable information on specific deliveries, quantity of the goods and hours of delivery before the delivery to the particular distribution centre. The company also wanted to limit the process of manual entry of data (i.e. each order number) to the system of acceptance at the entry gate. For Fresh Logistics Polska, in turn, it was essential to quickly receive the predicted time of unloading. This allows for more effective fleet management and it simplifies the work of dispatchers. The needs expressed by both companies gave rise to the project of automatic advice of deliveries.

Faster, better and more reliably

In mid-2015, Fresh Logistics Polska launched automatic advice of deliveries via e-mail. After planning the route by a dispatcher, an e-mail was sent automatically to appropriate centres of Jeronimo Martins Polska. Thanks to this, the dispatcher didn’t have to generate an Excel file with data or send e-mails manually. The next stage of the project took place in the second half of 2016. It was when the EDI connection was opened, and a special bar code appeared on the FLP delivery note. The automatic advice by e-mail was then accompanied by advice in the form of an EDI transmission. During a delivery to the JMP Centre, a company employee scanned the bar code from the delivery note. This was the end of the time-consuming process of manual entry of order numbers and the process of registration in the JMP system was fully automatic from then on. Specialists from Fresh Logistics Polska however, noticed differences between information in the delivery note for an individual delivery advised by an EDI transmission and the actual goods delivered. The inconsistency resulted from the fact that the process of planning deliveries is always based on system data whereas the actual delivery includes various changes which take place during everyday operational processes.

This process was the starting point of the last stage of the project. In April 2017, Fresh Logistics Polska started to send EDI advice to individual JMP centres after physical loading of goods on a specific route. This allowed for achieving the planned objectives, i.e. simplifying the process of advice of deliveries, facilitating their registration and improving data reliability.

Thanks to the synergy between the logistics operator and the consignees, it is possible to continuously improve processes, which is beneficial for each party. Ideas are born as the new needs arise, which in turn is connected with ever greater market dynamics.