The Logic Factory recently attended Swiss Logistics Day, where our Chief Revenue Officer, Roel van den Broek, spoke on the benefits of Optimized Bulk Logistics Planning alongside our valued longtime customer, Van Den Bosch.
Swiss Logistics Day, hosted by our partners at Dassault Systèmes, takes place every year as part of the European Supply Chain Day in Biel Switzerland. The aim of this event is to increase the visibility of logistics and its importance in our everyday life and to get people excited about the diverse functions and professions in logistics. The day included various presentations and hands-on workshops where attendees could get firsthand experience solving logistics puzzles as wells as ample opportunities for networking. This year’s event focused on addressing issues that arose due to the pandemic. Freight bottlenecks, container-shipping backlogs, and package delays have all become our shared experience during these times.
The day’s agenda was as follows:
- The morning session was kicked off by Christian Haltiner, MD of Dassault Systèmes Switzerland and included keynotes from:
- GS1 Standards – Roman Strand
- End to End Supply Chain – Thomas Laarz & Oliver Reisch, Dassault Systèmes
- The Value of Optimized Planning in Logistics – The Logic Factory and Van den Bosch
- Sustainable Logistics – Thomas Laarz & Prashanth Mysore, Dassault Systèmes and ECCUS
In the afternoon, attendees got hands-on experience and demos:
- Innovation Pitch
- 10 Task Lean Planning Challenges in: Logistics, Production and Workforce – delivered in English, French and German
- The Virtual Twin of Logistics Facilities
- My Health @ Work
During the morning session presentation, Roel, together with Linda Krielaart of Van Den Bosch, told the implementation story of how Van Den Bosch was able to recognize quantitative value after The Logic Factory implemented an Optimizer into their Delmia Quintiq planning system:
The story began back before 2015 when Van Den Bosch first became associated with DELMIA Quintiq and The Logic Factory. Back then, they were planning everything manually on spreadsheets, leaving lots of room for errors and their planners overwhelmed. Typical shipping and logistics companies have 2 planning elements, but Van Den Bosch has 3 [chassis, orders, trucks] which adds an entire new level of complexity to their planning puzzle.
In 2016, their initial implementation of DELMIA Quintiq went live and Van Den Bosch worked with The Logic Factory to continue operational success through 2020. Then the pandemic hit, and the already complex bulk logistics challenge with its specific requirements and business rules became even more challenging with capacity shortage and rising diesel prices. With the new challenges of staffing shortages, federal regulations regarding COVID, increasing supply chain costs and continued sustainability goals, it became clear that Van Den Bosch’s planning puzzle needed to be optimized to work smarter to stay ahead. During 2020 and 2021, The Logic Factory guided and worked with Van Den Bosch to design an Optimizer that met their key goals of increasing planner efficiency, quality of their plans, and planning horizons.
The main challenge of this puzzle lies within the complexity of bulk logistics planning – whereby the possible options are equal to more than the estimated number of atoms in the universe 4×10^79! No optimizer can feasibly calculate all of these outcomes, so the goal then becomes having the optimizer choose the best option within the shortest amount of time.
Aside from the puzzle complexity, the next largest challenge is gaining the trust of the planners to believe in the system. This trust was garnered through The Logic Factory’s long-standing relationship with Van Den Bosch and their focus on ensuring buy in from all planners along every step of the planning and implementation process. The Logic Factory strongly believes that these systems are only as good as the trust the planners have in them, so ensuring that everyone has a stake in the planning process allows customers to move forward post go-live, with confidence.
During benchmarking, key results included a reduction in planning time; a 5% Optimizer improvement for all puzzles; and a 10% Optimizer improvement for dry goods. Van Den Bosch went live with their new Optimizer in 2022 enabling Planners to focus their time on value-added tasks such longer planning horizons and quality and improvement versus repetitive time-consuming tasks.
Overall, The Logic Factory and Van Den Bosch story was well received by those in attendance, and we are proud to have been a part of the day’s events. The Logic Factory is already looking forward to what the 2023 event may bring.
About The Logic Factory
As a Platinum Dassault Systèmes DELMIA Quintiq implementation partner, The Logic Factory offers complete project management, business, and implementation consultancy as well as development expertise in implementing DELMIA Quintiq Supply Chain Planning and Optimization Software (SCP&O). TLF offers its customers utilizing DELMIA Quintiq applications a flexible, fully integrated range of software maintenance, support, control, and hosting services. The Logic Factory specializes in developing solutions for customers in various industries such as logistics, manufacturing, retail, agriculture, and aviation. Headquartered in The Netherlands, The Logic Factory also has offices in the USA, the UK and India. For more information visit www.thelogicfactory.com.
About Van Den Bosch
Van den Bosch is the logistics service provider with a different perspective on bulk. Where others see raw materials for food and chemicals, they see opportunities. Opportunities for improvement. For efficiency. For change. With customized services, innovation and critical insights from data evaluation, Van den Bosch delivers more than simply ‘transport’. They deliver expertise, result-driven solutions, and entirely new and innovative logistic concepts. All that without compromising on reliability, safety, or speed. Suppliers and customers throughout Europe and Africa are taking advantage of intelligent, intermodal solutions. For more information visit www.vandenbosch.com.
About Dassault Systèmes
Dassault Systèmes, the 3DEXPERIENCE Company, is a catalyst for human progress. The 3DEXPERIENCE® platform powers their brand applications, serving 11 industries, and provides a rich portfolio of industry solution experiences. Dassault Systèmes provide business and people with collaborative virtual environments to imagine sustainable innovations. By creating ‘virtual experience twins’ of the real world with the 3DEXPERIENCE platform and applications, customers push the boundaries of innovation, learning and production. Dassault Systèmes’ 20,000 employees are bringing value to more than 270,000 customers of all sizes, in all industries, in more than 140 countries. For more information, visit www.3ds.com.
