LOGISTICS TO TRANSFORM BUSINESSES
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.
- this article originally appeared on Scania Group website
PLATOONING A STEP CLOSER
One hour west of Stockholm, on a frosty but bright and sunny morning, four articulated trucks pull up onto a disused runway and come to a halt. All the trucks have drivers, but not all the drivers are driving. Today the runway is operating as the test site for Scania’s latest semi-autonomous truck platooning trial.
Scania believes that a sustainable transport future will be a reality through the use of multiple solutions. Platooning is one solution and may be one of the most effective ways to optimise logistics, transport flows and systems.
Up to date innovations
Platooning involves the use of smart technology and the most up to date innovations in autonomous vehicle technology.
Gunnar Tornmalm, Head of Pre-development Automation
On today’s test track, the vehicles drive together in one unbroken line. Each vehicle is, to the casual observer, simply driving one after the other. Gunnar Tornmalm, Head of Pre-development Automation, explains the reality of the situation. The first vehicle, he explains, is the ‘lead’ and the driver is the only driver driving manually. Christoffer Norén, a Development Engineer and one of Tornmalm’s team, sits in the third truck.
Norén is very pleased with the technology: “It was very relaxing giving control to the system,” he says.
Slipstream benefits
The system uses wireless communication so the trucks can follow the leader at a close distance in a safe and efficient manner. All the trucks which follow the lead truck benefit from the slipstream created.
During the test, to further show the robust nature of the system, Tornmalm drives an ‘intruder’ vehicle. This shows how the trucks adjust when a car drives between them. The trucks automatically create a gap into which the vehicle can drive and then when it leaves they automatically make up the gap again. Brake tests are also conducted to show the effective response of the system when the lead vehicle brakes. Once the braking action is communicated to them, the following trucks respond instantaneously.
A step closer to public highways
During the trials the technology proves to be effective. It not only assists the four trucks to operate as one in a steady semi-autonomous platoon, but is also shows that it is ready to tackle unplanned, real-life, interruptions. These tests show how ready the system is for public road testing. Each test takes platooning a step closer to public highways.
“I would like to see pilot tests on a larger scale on public roads in three years,” Tornmalm says.
The continued success of the trials, and the benefits that platooning can bring to logistics, as well as the overall sustainable nature of the system, strongly suggests that Tornmalm may well soon see the system in full operation.
Platooning in brief
Platooning is a method that allows vehicles to travel in close formation on the road thereby increasing road capacity. Scania has been developing the technology for several years and is well positioned at the forefront of autonomous vehicle research and development to take platooning to the next level.
— Reporting for camera (interviews) and written content for Scania.com
THE ELECTRIC REVOLUTION
From Tesla to Uber and pretty much every automotive manufacturer in between, it seems the smart money is on electric vehicles (EV’s). This is also good news for Gränges, according to Colin Xu, President for Gränges Asia.
As sustainable transport is increasingly in the spotlight, statements from vehicles manufactures ranging from Volvo to Scania, Toyota to BMW are all coming into line with government, and non-government thinking— the future must be electric. Battery prices are dropping by about 20 percent a year, and automakers have been spending billions to electrify their fleets. The reputed business and financial services company, Bloomberg, reports (2017) that Volkswagen AG is targeting 25 percent of its sales to be electric by 2025 and Toyota Motor Corporation plans to phase out fossil fuels altogether by 2050.
Says Colin Xu, President Asia Gränges, “Right now, electric vehicles (EV’s) are basically the hottest topic in China, and China is definitely the biggest producer of EV’s in the world today.”
This is significant, given that China is Gränges most important market, due to both market size and growth potential.
Around 50 percent of Gränges’ present sales are to customers in the automotive industry. Over time, by growing with the Chinese automotive market, Gränges has established a strong position in Asia. The internal combustion engine relies on a number of heat exchangers for cooling the engine, transmission mechanisms and engine oil, air conditioning systems, and in some cases, batteries. More modern vehicles typically contain up to ten different heat exchangers. As a result, and as a world leader and global supplier of heat exchanger materials Gränges plays a vital role in modern car production.
“The question – as we move towards EV – is whether the type of heat exchanger will be changed in the electric vehicles, that will, of course, impact the demand of material,” says Xu.
Essentially the material will need to be light, thinner, stronger and with better corrosion performance. Gränges aluminium solutions do fit these requirements. However, nothing is absolutely certain about exactly how tomorrow’s car or mobility solution will look.
Aside from fully battery driven EV’s is the question of ‘the bridging technology’ such as plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV’s). PHEV’s require a dual system, both an internal combustion engine and a small battery. As Xu explains, “you may need a dual thermal management system to deal with the two systems, so in the short term if the PHEV’s have a boom in growth then, of course, the demand for heat exchanger material will also boom.”
Although the future looks encouraging, Xu is cautious, “There are a lot of uncertainties and the technology is still rather vague so we have to be ready for any eventuality.”
“On the other hand, if we can follow up on the technology side, I think things will go well. I believe the consumption of aluminium will be even more in the future than with the combustion engine that exists today.”
FACTS
The rise of electric cars
· In July 2017, the production and sales of new energy vehicles in China reached 59 thousand units and 56 thousand units respectively, increasing 52.6% and 55.2% year on year.
1. By 2030, electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids will become fully cost-competitive with internal combustion engine cars in Europe, where fuel taxes are estimated to be high and vehicle attributes (namely power) more favourable to electrification than in other regions.
2. Several countries have banned sales of petrol and diesel cars by 2040, including France and Britain.
3. Volvo recently announced that all the company’s cars to be electric or hybrid from 2019.
Sources: 2015 China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, Global EV Outlook 2017, The International Energy Agency (IEA), The Guardian
SOLAR POWER TO THE PEOPLE
With his work on the viability of solar cells, PhD student Nelson Sommerfeldt is shining a light on the sustainability of this renewable energy source for the Swedish housing market.
Despite Sweden being a country that’s renowned for its unpredictable weather, integrating solar photovoltaic (solar-cell) systems into Swedish cooperative family housing has long been considered a viable and sustainable energy option.
However, the Bostadsrättsföreningar, the councils which manage this type of housing, have to make decisions on which energy providers or power systems will be of greatest benefit to their members. And they need the right information, because a significant amount of each housing council’s budget is spent on their energy supply. They can’t afford to get it wrong.
Yet, little independent information has been available about how, when or where to install solar-cell power technology. That is, until American PhD student Nelson Sommerfeldt stepped in.
By the time Sommerfeldt arrived at KTH from Michigan, funding had already been put aside for a project to investigate solar-cell systems. But with the lack of guidance for potential users it quickly became clear that the project needed to focus on empowering the decision-makers with the facts they needed to allocate their energy budgets. Sommerfeldt takes up the story:
“Three of us have been working on the project: me in Energy Technology and two researchers from the School of Architecture and the Built Environment (ABE), one of whom looks at Real Estate Economics and Management, while the other looks at Building Technology.
“Initially I was solely focused on technique and the application of the solar technology, but that soon changed, as I’m a bit of an economics geek, so I also grabbed onto the economics of the project. We began to try and discover exactly why the councils choose the systems they did.”
Having the correct information on initial, running and projected costs is a key concern. When Sommerfeldt began his research he soon became aware that most of the information concerning the economic viability of solar power was in the hands of energy companies. He could see that there were few independent bodies providing substantial data on the cost efficiency of solar power.
“We did four or five case studies and I looked into the tech and economics,” he explains. “It was a three-year project which finished last spring. Part of the project was to produce a handbook as a first point of information for the housing councils to get practical information about solar power.”
Although only a short report was required, Sommerfeldt believed that something a little more in-depth was necessary and so the team produced a longer report in English to reflect their work.
“The project was supposed to be finished in December 2015 but we decided to wait and present it in the spring of 2016. We did that on a beautiful sunny day in April–excellent conditions for discussing solar energy,” he says, smiling.
Sommerfeldt and team were overwhelmed by the response.
“We published the report online at the same time as the print copy was released and we held a seminar here at KTH. There were more people at the seminar than we could actually fit in the room. We had people travelling from all over the place to attend. There were a lot of energy managers from municipalities there, but the head of research from Vattenfall, CEOs of tech start-ups, and a number of politicians also attended, so we were very happy.”
Between the online and print versions, over 1000 copies of the report have been distributed, giving people more access to information that can enable them to make informed decisions on choosing their energy supply. Now, with the costs of solar-cell technology decreasing, these sustainable and renewable energy systems are becoming more accessible.
And considering Sweden’s goal of relying 100% on sustainable energy by 2040, perhaps the team’s report has come at just the right time.