Royal FloraHolland balances logistics resources with TMS from Adaption
Royal FloraHolland has significantly reduced transport costs. As a cooperative, Royal FloraHolland manages logistics resources (crates, stacking carts, CC containers). The imbalance of these logistics resources is a well-known challenge in the floriculture sector, causing extra concerns and costs. When all crates are located at one site, work at other sites comes to a halt.
Royal FloraHolland avoids imbalance and reduces transport costs. A direct result of the new Transport Management System from Adaption, linked to the existing data warehouse software and pool management software. To find out exactly how this happened, we spoke with Jaap Boomhouwer, Product Owner Logistics Resources at Royal FloraHolland.
New solution for Royal FloraHolland
Last year, Adaption implemented the TMS for shippers at Royal FloraHolland. Connections were made with the existing data warehouse and pool management software so that all processes work together smoothly.
Inter-location and grower-related transports ensure timely and correct replenishment of logistics resources at the various Royal FloraHolland locations. This keeps the work going and allows Royal FloraHolland to continuously serve its customers and growers.
“By gaining insight into the status of imbalance transports between locations, planners can intervene more easily to prevent imbalance. The result is smooth inter-location transport and a more transparent process with clear insight into the carriers’ performance.“
Jaap Boomhouwer
Product Owner Logistics Resources
Results
The new TMS solution supports Royal FloraHolland in efficiently planning transports. Additionally, the TMS provides insight into costs, inventories, and logistics flows per location.
Efficient planning
The planning logic in Adaption’s TMS supports inventory managers and planners in their daily tasks. The TMS makes planning proposals based on preset parameters. As a result, a planner only needs to check and approve, instead of creating complex plans manually.
Communication with carriers has also been partly automated by sending transport orders automatically. This communication is digital via the carrier portal. It gives planners an overview of when a transport is accepted and/or rejected by a carrier. Based on that, the planner can, if necessary, request an alternative carrier to execute the transport.
Cost control
The TMS for shippers provides cost insight with the Rate Management tool. This is a central database for all transport rates. During planning, it supports Royal FloraHolland by displaying all applicable rates based on entered variables. The planning logic ensures that the right carriers are selected for specific transports. This logic includes cost considerations.
In Royal FloraHolland’s case, it was not only about costs. They have long-standing partnerships with around 30 carriers. It was therefore important that the TMS could distribute transports evenly across these 30+ carriers. By properly setting the parameters within the planning logic functionality, Adaption’s TMS automatically allocates a carrier to a transport. The planner only needs to verify the choice and, if necessary, make an adjustment by allocating an alternative carrier.
“Adaption provided a solution for several specific challenges. We were looking for a TMS that offered complete control over smart outsourcing of transport and managing and controlling costs. This had to be based on various variables such as price, fair distribution of transports across the transport pool, and possible performance measurements.“
Jaap Boomhouwer
Product Owner Logistics Resources
Insight into inventories and logistics flows
The imbalance of logistics resources was the basis for the search for a new TMS. To counteract imbalance, insight into inventory per location was needed. Therefore, Adaption also implemented a mobile TMS app. This mobile app gives shop floor employees insight into incoming and outgoing transports and communicates this in real time to the TMS. Any deviations in planned versus actual incoming and outgoing quantities are automatically recognized and registered.
Royal FloraHolland’s search and Adaption’s outcome
The search for a software solution was quite a challenge for Royal FloraHolland. According to Jaap Boomhouwer, there seemed to be no standard system available for registering logistics resources such as crates and cc containers that focused on outsourcing transport as conveniently and efficiently as possible. RFH then carefully defined the scope and the various required functionalities. These were processed into an RFI on which a longlist of 10 software vendors could provide feedback. After careful evaluation of the feedback, a shortlist of 3 vendors was made, who were then invited to give a demo on-site and subsequently submit a quote.
Ultimately, the choice fell on Adaption. “For good reason,” says Jaap Boomhouwer. “Adaption provided tangible demos, thorough answers to questions, asked frequent and relevant questions, and took initiative with workshops. In addition, Adaption offers an accessible rate, a future-proof Cloud solution that is expanded with every release, and the system is easy to link to other IT systems.“