Freight & parcel logistics in Scandinavia

Our customer, a leading global freight provider in a major Nordic country, needed a new automated tour planning system.

Greenplan won the official tender, beating several established tour planning and optimization providers.

To serve all customer needs we have designed and implemented a tailor-made business rule engine around our standard product.

Greenplan won the tender and was 8 % better than the next best solution

8% better

than the next best solution

Value for customer delivered by Greenplan

Increased tour planning efficiency and better processes

Lower costs and less tours

We reduced the total km driven and the number of tours compared to the status quo

Less vehicles needed

We enabled higher utilization of most vehicles and thus increased productivity

Lower CO2 emissions

We enabled a smaller CO2 footprint by planning a lower number of tours as well as less km driven

Lean processes and better usability

We enabled a new level of user efficiency by improving the whole planning system – including a modern GUI

Best solution considering the big picture

We strive to fully understand the true customer’s needs and pain points. That is why in this case the final scope exceeded the initial customer’s requirements and addressed the problem in a long-term sustainable way

Value for customer delivered by Greenplan

Increased tour planning efficiency and better processes

Lower costs and less tours

We reduced the total km driven and the number of tours compared to the status quo

Less vehicles needed

We enabled higher utilization of most vehicles and thus increased productivity

Lower CO2 emissions

We enabled a smaller CO2 footprint by planning a lower number of tours as well as less km driven

Lean processes and better usability

We enabled a new level of user efficiency by improving the whole planning system – including a modern GUI

Best solution considering the big picture

How we did it: a custom-made business
rules engine (BRE)

The custom BRE allows to model, create and manage a vast array of business requirement and rules. Modelling all business processes of the customer e.g. shipment consolidation or the utilization of subterminal infrastructure ensures operational processes that are efficient and serve the customer’s need at the same time. The system is highly scalable due to the modern cloud-native design.

Top-3 features that enabled the success story

Challenges

Processing times for individual shipments need to be low to provide the best service to the end-customers. This implies extremely narrow time windows for tour planning

Greenplan had to be integrated with both up- and downstream systems in a very heterogeneous IT-landscape in accordance with customer’s group-wide policies

Due to the large service area the conditions of delivery range from pedestrian zones in city centers to sparsely populated rural areas with a long driving distance

Such setup significantly increases the complexity of the system due to numerous interfaces between the two parts of the customer’s operations

Quote from a Greenplan
team member

“It was a challenging but very interesting journey to take one of the most business critical operational systems of our customer to the next level. We enabled them to be more flexible and more efficient with both planning and operating their pickup and delivery tours.”

Setup

More than 1200 tours daily

25 terminals and numerous subterminals

Large service area

Planning routes for a heterogeneous fleet

Challenges

Limited time to calculate tour plans

Processing times for individual shipments need to be low to provide the best service to the end-customers. This implies extremely narrow time windows for tour planning

Integration with multiple legacy systems

Greenplan had to be integrated with both up- and downstream systems in a very heterogeneous IT-landscape in accordance with customer’s group-wide policies

Non-uniform delivery region

Due to the large service area the conditions of delivery range from pedestrian zones in city centers to sparsely populated rural areas with a long driving distance

Considering multiple shipment types together: pallets and parcels

Such setup significantly increases the complexity of the system due to numerous interfaces between the two parts of the customer’s operations