Building a climate-friendly supply chain
Driving a greener future
Supply Chain Management oversees our global supply of finished goods and material flows, which includes freight and logistics, planning and order fulfillments. Building greater sustainability into the supply chain is no small task, but as Achim Sinn says, “We’re on it! And while we are not at our goal yet, we are paving the way to a greener supply chain.”
The possibilities are many – for example, through cutting the number of pallet steps to the customer, reducing the use of restocking warehouses, by streamlining packaging, or by optimizing the use of transport round trips to avoid empty runs. Achim Sinn emphasizes, “The company is permanently working on an efficient and environmentally friendly logistics system. We are implementing changes on an ongoing basis.”
One of the most effective ways to bring about fast results is to look closely into the supply chain – together with the customer – and find individual solutions based on the customer’s needs.
Know your customer
Supply chain management is ideally situated to work closely with customers because it oversees the entire handling. Achim Sinn explains, “We accompany the customer from the initial contract confirmation to the final delivery of products – so for the entire transport stream we cover everything from optimizing freight volumes to frequency of deliveries and finalizing transport routes.”
This opens the door to sitting down with a customer to pinpoint and address specifically what needs there are – and differentiate them from what the market conditions may suggest. Florian Schweikert explains, “A good example is the promise to deliver in 24 hours. Does a customer really need this? We found that whether they are a direct customer or a large supplier, the answer was usually no. What really counts for customers is reliability.”