new in the geis group: general Transport ag

10 | road serviCes
roller-bearing round-trip
Two plants – one solution: In Schweinfurt and in the Italian town of Airasca, SKF manufactures a whole range of different
types of roller-bearings. Geis now organizes just-in-time round-trip deliveries between the two plants.
Balls, cones,
and the like
The term ball-bearing
is often used colloquially
as a synonym for rollerbearings.
Strictly speaking,
however, ball-bearings
are only one type of
roller-bearing. This is
because the rolling
elements inside a rollerbearing
come in a range
of different shapes:
cones, cylinders, needles,
barrels – and balls,
of course.
even in the morning in Schweinfurt. In SKF’s
largest factory anywhere in the world, preparations
are underway for the next roller-bearing
round-trip delivery. SKF employees load a Geis
truck with pallets holding wooden crates packed with
roller-bearings. And they’re heavy! Once loaded, the
trucks, at around 24 tonnes, are usually at their weight
limit.
puncTual & TransparenT. A short time later, the
vehicle heads south. After a maximum of 23 hours it
reaches its destination, some 800 kilometres away in
the Italian town of Airasca near Turin in northwest
Italy, where SKF Italy has a production site. The roller-bearings
from Schweinfurt are either used directly
in the factory or are handed to an Italian forwarder,
who transports the goods to customers or distributors
– and herein lies the challenge: “As the forwarder
needs to start delivering the goods on the same day,
shipments to Italy have to be just-in-time operations”,
explains Peter Gayer, Head of Key Account Management
at Hans Geis GmbH. “To guarantee this, we
track the location of our trucks between Schweinfurt
and Italy and pass on this information to SKF Italy,
Germany and the head office in Sweden. We also do
the same in the opposite direction, between Airasca
and Schweinfurt. This means that the customer is
always in the know as to the current delivery status.”
efficienT roTaTion sysTem. After being unloaded,
the truck starts its return journey. Its return load to
Schweinfurt comprises products only produced in
Airasca and required by SKF plants, dealers and cus-
tomers worldwide. These are mainly roller-bearings
for the automotive industry, as many well-known
luxury and sports car manufacturers are customers of
SKF.
The round-trip deliveries are not always perfectly balanced
however, because demand for the goods from
the other locations varies a great deal. Each day one
or two trucks leave Schweinfurt; from Airasca it can
be up to five trucks. “For the vehicles coming from
Schweinfurt there is usually a return load from Airasca.
There are also individual loads from Airasca for
which there is no return load from Schweinfurt”, explains
Peter Gayer. “The uneven and irregular nature
of the round-trips means that our team needs to be
extremely flexible, with each operation having to be
planned precisely and individually to ensure maximum
transport efficiency.”
on The road worldwide for skf. Geis has
been organizing round-trip transportation between
Germany and Italy for SKF since June 2011. The
two companies began cooperating in 2004. Besides
the roller-bearing round-trip transport operation,
Geis now also organizes transport services for SKF
to Austria, the Czech Republic, Belgium and Turkey.
Round-trip runs are only organized to Italy, however.
Meanwhile a return load of roller-bearings from
Airasca has arrived in Schweinfurt. SKF employees
unload the pallets from the vehicle, and the truck is
immediately prepared for the next trip to Italy. The
round-trip trucks are never stationery for long. —