Quintiq Logistics Planner

Planning for complexity ininbound and outbound logistics The journey from suppliers to products on shelves is paved with complexity, particularly in the grocery retail sector which deals with perishable and non-perishable products.We hear your challenges. You want a planning system for inbound and outbound logistics that supports cross-docking, multi-temperature trailer requirements, and dock & lane planning ― all in one package.

Your supply of raw goods comes from specialized producers. Frozen and fresh meat come from the meat packing lines in France. Yogurt, pasteurized milk, eggs and fresh milk are

sourced from farms in Germany. Oats, millet and whole grains come from mills in Belgium. Besides the various food safety regulations and perishable factor that you need to consider in planning your food distribution, you also need to deal with logistical complexities.

At the production facility, there are 10 loading docks and 20 lanes. Although there is a huge number of trucks coming at all hours of the day to pick up and drop off goods, you quickly take control of the impending chaos using the planning system to schedule trailers to docks and assign pallets to lanes.

The products are to be channeled to various stores, with each receiving shipments of different goods within narrow time windows. You have to consider the various compartment temperatures needed – frozen for ice cream, chilled for fresh meat and dairy products, a 12 - 16°C compartment for fruits and vegetables, as well as ambient temperature for grains and unrefrigerated eggs.

Next, you look for opportunities for efficiency and cost-savings. The costs to operate and maintain a logistics fleet are steep, so you start with reducing the number of trips. Using your logistics planning system that supports your decisions with end-to-end supply chain transparency, you combine different goods headed for the same places in a single trailer.

With your system’s multi-temperature trailer (MTTs) optimization capabilities, your trailers can have different compartments that hold frozen, refrigerated, and ambient products in a single load.

The optimizer in your system ensures your MTTs are optimized, minimizing distance driven and costs while satisfying deliverytime windows and other constraints. The plan generated takes into account the number of stops, types of trailers, and even docks and lanes available. Everything is loaded on time and congestion is avoided.

The retail industry encompasses a wide range of products, which adds complexity to logistics planning. Cross-docking needs to consider countless product types. The challenge becomes bigger when you factor in the number of locations in your network.

Fresh produce requires chilled compartments for transportation while frozen products require freezing temperature. Loading activities need to be planned just in time before the trailer docks. Scheduling should cover sequencing for loading and unloading rear-loading trucks. Loading and unloading activities also require optimal plans to avoid bottlenecks and ensure that all deliveries are fulfilled on time.

The all-in-one solution to your planning complexity

The planning system needs visibility over properties required such as trailers with lift-gates. Can the docks and lanes at the warehouse and delivery locations accommodate lift-gates? This needs to be checked. Quintiq Logistics Planner offers an all-in-one solution to retailers for logistics planning. It is designed to provide a multitude of industry-relevant capabilities out-of-the box, and can be configured to provide a 100%-fit toyour business.

Logistics Planner helps you take control of the complexity in your operations in three ways - cross-docking, multi-temperature trailer (MTT) optimization and dock & lane planning. Let's look at each one more closely.

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Cross-docking

One prominent example of cross-docking in the retail value chain is combining inbound shipments from different suppliers onto a mixed product pallet, and delivering the products to the customer right away, without needing them to be stored in a warehouse first. A standard planning system would require planners to manually figure out the cross-docking plan. Quintiq Logistics Planner provides users with the ability to set up cross-docking rules based on addresses/areas and product types. Logistics Planner auto-splits the shipments according to set rules, making the planning process more efficient and saving the planners’ time.

S1

DC1 DC2

S2S3

B

A

For example, you have two distribution centers (DC1, DC2) served by three suppliers (S1, S2, S3), and serving two customers (A, B). Cross-docking enables you to speed up shipments to your customers. You can input a rule that if customer A orders eggs and beef, which come from S1 and S3 respectively, the inbound products will be combined for cross-docking at DC1 as the customer is closer to DC1 than DC2.

Cross-docking brings a number of benefits such as: • Reduced labor costs as products no longer require handling in the warehouse• Improved customer satisfaction as the time between products transported from supplier to customer is shortened• Saving of warehouse space as products no longer require storage

LEGEND

Supplier

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Stores

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Multi-temperature trailer (MTT) optimization

With multi-compartment planning, you can plan for loads of all sizes as your trailer space is optimized. You can also mix products of different temperatures in one trailer. Your vehicles are no longer limited to transporting just dry, refrigerated or frozen products. For example, if frozen products fill up only 60% of your trailer space, the remaining space can be used to transport dry and refrigerated products. Maximizing product loads ensures higher utilization of your assets and reduces empty miles.

Optimal trailer configurations that are feasible to execute ensure cold chain integrity is maintained. Frozen food is loaded first in the front compartment where refrigeration is the strongest as it is closest to the engine. This section is closed and the other compartments are filled out with chilled and ambient temperature products.

Temperature integrity is maintained by routing the deliveries and sequencing unloading for the trailer compartments so that ambient goods are unloadedbefore frozen/chilled goods.

Dock & lane planning

A distribution center typically has an average of 10 loading docks and 20 to 30 lanes serving thousands of orders daily. Without optimal planning, loading and unloading will quickly descend into chaos. There are pallets, docks and lanes to assign. The aim is to minimize unassigned trips due to capacity issues and dock conflicts, and this could require shifting from fixed lane planning to dynamic lane planning that is more flexible in reacting to fluctuating demand and supply.

If there are too many trucks arriving at the same time and not enough docks to accommodate them, a number of trucks would have to wait for their turn. This delay could snowball. Lane shortage could also occur if there are too many orders prepared on lanes at the same time. That means some orders will have to wait before they are placed on a lane. Dock & lane planning has an impact on planning for activities outside the distribution center. Shipments are planned to create a series of trailer stops for routes. Loading and unloading bottlenecks would nullify even the best transport plan as delays would affect travel schedules. Logistics Planner’s visibility over your supply chain will reduce trailer and lane dwell durations by limiting the occurrences where lanes are occupied and trailers have to wait to dock. By having loads ready for pickup as soon as trailers dock, trailers will not incur detention fees.

The more complex your supply chains, the more important optimization becomes, especially for food distribution where profit margins are thin. Making the right decisions can mean the difference between a profitable and sustainable business, or making losses. A robust and optimized planning system that takes into account all the unique requirements and constraints of your operations powered by optimization technology generates the best plans while empowering your planners to tweak them based on soft knowledge.

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Why Quintiq?Gartner recognizes Quintiq as the fastest growing supply chain company among the top five in the industry. More and more organizations are relying on our technology, our people and our approach to solve their planning problems. Here’s why:

Easy customization andhassle-free integration Software customization such as defining docks and lanes for addresses, cross-docking rules, and vehicle types and properties, usually takes hours or days to complete. Being SAP- and Microsoft-certified, Quintiq Logistics Planner can be easily integrated into your existing IT frameworks or with solutions from a different vendor, with no complications or loss of data. It can also be implemented as a standalone system or with other Quintiq products such as S&OP and Workforce Planner. Quintiq provides your planners with data visualization and decision-support. Its interface is also user-friendly, ensuring high buy-in from end-users.

Proven track record Dot Transportation (the logistics affiliate of the largest food industry redistributor in North America, Dot Foods) and TINE (leading Norwegian dairy producer) are a few of the companies that rely on Logistics Planner to optimize their inbound and outbound logistics. Other retailers that use Quintiq for their planning needs are Jumbo Supermarktenand Morrisons.

Industry standards ―configured to your businessLogistics Planner reflects industry standards and best practices. Data-driven configuration enables rapid deployment of the solution and quick configuration to your company’s specific requirements.

24/7 supportDuring implementation and even after project completion, you can rely on Quintiq support. With 17 offices across the globe, we have the facilities to offer support at your local level. Quintiq solutions are used in over 80 countries worldwide, with business conducted in 11 languages, and our network is growing allthe time.

Fast return on investmentThe Quintiq team has implemented Logistics Planner in various industries, including express, postal, retail and trucking. Our value-driven implementation approach ensures incremental returns at every stage. Our customers see significant reductions in miles driven and trucks required. Guided by an accelerated approach called the Quintiq Project Lifecycle (QPLC) methodology, we work with our customers toward a solution that is ready to go live between 6 and 12 months. Return on investment is often within less than a year after go-live.

Challenge usThere’s nothing we love more than a challenge. Contact your local Quintiq sales rep today for a live demo and experience Logistics Planner’s ability to perform faster and better than the competition. Using your actual data, we model your operations to create an optimal plan that will work in your business reality. See for yourself why we are the world’s leading planning and optimization provider.

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