DACHSER Food Logistics discusses trends at the 1st German Food Logistics Congress
Do companies have to tread new paths in food logistics?
The first “Lebensmittel-Forum Logistik”, a food logistics event initiated by the DVZ logistics newspaper and LEBENSMITTEL PRAXIS food retailer magazine on 27 November 2007 in Frankfurt, focused on precisely this question. Presentations held by experts on the subject were followed by discussions.
Alongside the ecological dimension of logistics, the event focused particularly on the role of retailers in supply chain management and on the optimum distribution of ultra-fresh goods from the point of view of time and cost. Different approaches to these questions were adopted by representatives from production companies, retailers, academic circles and service providers.
Stefan Krautwurst-Leister of DACHSER Food Logistics explained that there was still a great deal of unused productivity potential in the coordination between industry, logistics providers and retailers. The increasing role played by retailers in controlling logistics – even before goods reach the distribution centres – opens up new opportunities here, he pointed out. Idle times of over two hours, which occur in almost half of all deliveries despite today’s fixed delivery windows, are far from optimal in supply chain terms, in his view. Given the shortage of load capacity and the lack of driving personnel, he described this as a waste of valuable resources and an example of how unresolved issues between industry and retailers are simply ignored or shifted elsewhere, to the detriment of the logistics companies.
Stefan Krautwurst-Leister’s presentation on the ramp as an interface (“Schnittstelle Rampe") will return to this subject at a workshop to be held on 17.04.2008 at a logistics event, the 13th “Deutscher Logistik- und Versandleitertag”, organized by the German BWVL industrial association in Stuttgart.
DACHSER Food Logistics discusses trends at the 1st German Food Logistics Congress
Competence in the ultra-fresh market segment
DACHSER is always ready to take up new challenges in designing the logistics chain. Where existing structures cannot cope with new requirements, models have to be prepared, and appropriate new solutions have to be found. The relatively new ultra-fresh market segment requires minimal shipment times and individual delivery processes which hold down transport costs, due to the short life of the goods involved. Where there are only a few hours between receipt of the goods and their delivery to the Point of Sale, the players concerned should be able to cooperate by providing a mixture of different transport services. In this case, each party would be able to exploit its core competence most effectively.
eLetter overview 01/2008
