Volkswagen and INFORM -
joint winners of the AKJ elogistics Award 2010

INFORM GmbH, Aachen, intelligent planning and management systems provider, is joint winner of the AKJ elogistics Award along with Volkswagen Wolfsburg. Receiver of the award was the inbound control and appointment solution SyncroSupply, which under the name LKWcontrol, is responsible for the optimum management of incoming and outbound materials in the VW group. At their yearly congress, AKJ Automotive gives the elogistics Award to “innovative concepts and solutions in logistics and production management in the car industry”. Back in 2008, INFORM and VW Mexico received the prize for vehicle distribution (Finished Vehicle Logistics). This year, Klaus Mennenga and Alexander Stadler from Wolfsburg logistics planning, Gustav Achtermann from Konzern IT and Matthias Berlit from INFORM have been presented the award at AKJ Automotive’s yearly congress gala by Saarland Minister for Economic Affairs, Dr. Christoph Hartmann. SyncroSupply is an established solution in the car industry and many other branches, which plans and manages in its entirety the processing of incoming and outgoing material deliveries by HGV.  With its optimisation process, the software sees to it that current internal capacities and demands are synchronised with daily HGV arrivals and loading bay capacities.  

In order to manage all of the material delivery and despatching processes optimally and fully automatically, SyncroSupply integrates all internal and external information from the hauliers concerned, as well as from the HGV drivers and employees in the management and loading areas. So, at the front end of the plant, a time-frame matrix is set up on the basis of existing loading capacities and material requirement planning and is communicated to the hauliers via the SyncroSupply web portal. The hauliers then confirm the time-frame via the portal and provide additional information on the delivery. SyncroSupply then sends an e-mail with an attached pdf document to the haulier the evening before the day of haulage. This document contains a barcode showing the transport ID and is printed out in order to make it easier to check in at the gate. On the day of delivery the HGV driver receives a mobile phone with an integrated GPS module upon registration of the transport ID at the gate. This mobile then uses SyncroSupply to automatically send the driver announcements and release orders in his mother tongue. SyncroSupply receives status information in the form of GPS coordinates or from the entries made by the driver or loading bay employees.
These telematic components are to be upgraded throughout the course of the year so that in future the SyncroSupply application will also work on the hauliers’ mobiles. In this manner, the HGV can be included in planning immediately after loading at the suppliers. Furthermore, the task does not have to be carried out using VW’s own equipment and the arrival process at the gate can be sped up with this „Quick Check-in“.
To sum up, the greatest advantage of SyncroSupply lies in the clearly reduced processing times, improved ability to plan and reliability of the agreed deadlines and delivery times. The haulier is therefore in a position to plan the use of his HGV better and the plant also benefits from reduced demurrage and lower cargo rates.

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