Greater transparency for better delivery service at Würth
Challenge
How to meet high customer expectations in complex shipping processes?
Adolf Würth GmbH & Co. KG supplies over 540,000 customers with more than 125,000 articles – from small businesses to industrial corporations, through direct sales, e-business, retail stores, and express delivery service. Every day, approximately 40,000 packages and 1,500 pallets are shipped from over 20 shipping points – a challenge for supply chain event management.
Despite high delivery performance, there was potential for optimization: Individual shipments from one order arrived at different times or via different carriers. The goal was to minimize the variation in delivery performance, make customer services more predictable, and adhere to more binding delivery commitments. To achieve this, Würth launched the major “Order and Transport Management” project in 2016 with the aim of bringing about a paradigm shift in logistics: Transitioning from productivity-driven operations to customer-focused transparency and dependability.
In what ways can software help control the shipping process?
As part of the project, a software solution was implemented in collaboration with AEB to provide complete transparency over the fulfillment process. The supply chain event software maps out 15 relevant process steps as milestones with target times, from intake to delivery. The actual times come from the Würth SAP® system, as well as from warehouse systems and transport service providers.
By continuously comparing actual and target times, bottlenecks and weaknesses in the process can be identified – whether within Würth's own operations or among transportation partners. The solution provides daily reports on shipping point performance, adherence to loading quotas, and delivery quality. In this way, it lays the groundwork for operational management, tactical planning, and strategic development.
In addition, the software offers features for workload monitoring, capacity forecasting, and alerting. This improves internal resource allocation and enables proactive management of external service providers – even down to postal code level.
“AEB kept drilling down to find out exactly what we want at Würth, what we stand for, and what business processes are behind it,” says Dirk Antrack, Head of Information Management Logistics at Würth.
Result
Transparency, customer focus, and data-driven management
A lot has changed at Würth since the AEB solution was introduced in 2018: Transparency throughout the entire delivery process has increased significantly. At the same time, there has been a shift in mindset – not only among management but also within operational teams. Today, logistics performance is geared toward fulfilling delivery commitments to customers.
Today, Würth can specifically evaluate the performance of its transportation service providers and respond promptly to any issues. Delivery quality has improved measurably, and adherence rates have increased. The closer integration of logistics and sales data in SAP® BI opens up further opportunities for optimization at the customer and industry levels.
Even after the project is completed, the solution offers continuous added value - such as in identifying improvement potentials, negotiating with partners, and managing complex logistics networks.
“We've achieved complete visibility across the entire shipping process, allowing us to pinpoint our ongoing process optimizations.”
Mino Broselge, Head of Fulfillment Logistics, Würth
