LOGISTICS TO TRANSFORM BUSINESSES — Antony Riley

28 MARCH 2018

LOTS Group, an independent part of the Scania and Volkswagen Group, is busy empowering companies to set up and operate sustainable and highly-advanced logistics systems.

Lean Optimised Transport Systems (LOTS) says it all. Scania has long worked with Lean principles and now, in its work with LOTS Group, the Lean process has been digitalised. LOTS Group helps to provide information that can transform businesses by contributing insights that can dramatically reduce waste and increase efficiency.

“We are convinced that the transport sector is on the verge of major change,” says Scania President and CEO, Henrik Henriksson. “We want to undergo this change in close collaboration with our customers and their customers to produce better solutions in both transport and logistics. By combining the experience of Scania with haulage companies’ local and sector knowledge, LOTS Group can achieve a more efficient flow of raw materials.”

LOTS logistics: the ultimate ‘helicopter’ view

Magnus Lindholm, Managing Director of LOTS China and Head of Operations at LOTS Group, is standing before a screen showing a satellite image of China. We see small icons in an area on the coast. As he zooms in it becomes clear that I am looking at a port.

“This is where the paper mill is,” says Lindholm, indicating an area coloured yellow on the image, “…and these are the trucks.” The trucks are represented by small arrows to give the viewer a clear understanding of which way they are facing. It is visualised information at its most powerful. By working with LOTS Group, the client, global forestry company is currently identifying bottlenecks in its operations, and doing so in real time.

From a ‘control tower’ typically three screens that display the data and show exactly what is happening to a customer’s fleet at any one time clients can monitor and improve the day-to day-flow of their fleet. LOTS Group can advise on how to improve the flow by not only identifying the weak points but also by recommending possible tailored solutions, such as the best possible trucks for the work.

How it works: Data and transport transparency

“We have a data warehouse, into which goes a great deal of information, such as all the information from our connected trucks, information from our fuel partners, and other key data that supports our optimisation activities,” explains Lindholm.

“Then we use the Lots Transport Management system to visualise where the trucks are and how much fuel they consume, and where there is waste such as unnecessary waiting times.” LOTS has a central IT team which has developed these tools to best visualise the data.

“You should be able to see and steer your fleet from pretty much anywhere in the world,” says Lindholm.

The statistics are fed into software which allows the customer to drill down further into the numbers and see what is happening year-to-year, month-to-month and day-to-day. Working with the customer, targets can be established and, from a starting point of transparency, LOTS Group can help to reveal where there is waste and inefficiency in the extended logistics chain.

By taking a holistic view, looking to reduce waste and increase efficiency, and through continuous improvements, LOTS Group is supporting customers to truly streamline their flow and discover how to improve their daily operations.