NETWORKERS - dachser.sk

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COVER STORY In Scandinavia, new long trucks already have right of way The networkers from Dachser’s head office in Kempten: Thomas Schmalz, Jörg Herwig (front from left), with Christina Müller, Wolfgang Janda and Silvia Bauer (back from left) Dachser Nordic managing director Pedersen at the Copenhagen head office Finn Skovbo Pedersen, managing director of Dachser Nordic A/S, which incorporates the national companies in Denmark, Sweden and Norway. Up until five years ago, he was director of Haugsted, one of the oldest forwarding companies in Denmark. Dachser acquired 100% of the shares in the renowned family enterprise in March 2005. Back then, the Kempten-based company had already been active in the Danish market for several years. Haugsted brought 238 employees, 11 locations in Denmark, Sweden and Norway and some 2,000 customers into the new venture. The move to Dachser catapulted the import and consolidated goods specialist to a new level of logistics. Haugsted became part of an internationally operating logistics provider with full-coverage systems freight services and state-of-the-art IT logistics. Nerve-racking transition Pedersen describes the run-up to the takeover as “pretty nerve-racking”. At the time, there was a fair amount of upheaval in the logistics sector. “Whenever one of our partners was bought out by a third party – In more and more hh logistics markets, a full-coverage, where possible seamless service for many countries is expected Prof. Peter Klaus which happened quite a lot – we quickly had to find someone to take their place or make sure we already had another partner up our sleeve,” Pedersen recalls and explains: “We struggled to ensure our customers stayed with us and didn’t go with the partner.” What’s more, the market was making ever higher demands on technology, including “Tracking & Tracing”, which would have forced Haugsted to make major investments. “A lot of companies,” Pedersen remembers, “wanted to take us over at the time.” But it was Dachser that proved to be the partner of choice. Above all because of its extensive European network. The Kemptenbased logistics provider had more than 750 different national connections within Europe
on its books. Whether a delivery needed to be made from Denmark to Portugal, from Ireland to Bulgaria, or even from France to Estonia: “In all 28 countries, we follow standardized procedures that have been jointly approved,” stresses Wolfgang Janda, manager of the European Logistics Network Management/Production division at Dachser. “Our uniform IT system has been installed in 17 European countries.” The other countries work according to the same IT standards and are integrated via interfaces into the standardized data interchange. “The information flow runs in both directions,” Janda explains, enabling Tracking & Tracing data to be accessed from anywhere. “Wherever in Europe a customer places an order, the consignment is transported from customer to consignee. The respective data are transmitted to our data interchange centre in Kempten and from there to the receiving terminal.” A unique spirit These possibilities convinced Haugsted to look to its own future within this strong network. In a first step, a detailed status analysis paved the way. Next, bilateral teams developed a target concept. At Dachser, the rules for this integration process are clearly defined. It should take place within the scope of an intensive, honest dialogue between all stakeholders, with one coach never instructing more than three people at a time. The philosophy behind this is clear. It is not about imposing Dachser’s systems at all costs. This integration approach is appreciated in particular by family-run companies, where from experience mutual understanding plays an important role. Like this, Dachser sows the seed for the unique Dachser spirit, the Dachser DNA. A positive experience for all stakeholders was made in 1999 for example, with the partner integration in Hungary, followed in 2003 by a merger in Austria. In subsequent years, integration of the partner in Slovakia was on the agenda, in 2005 in Denmark, Sweden and Norway, one year later in the Czech Republic and in 2009 in Romania. Uniform rules “In more and more logistics markets – from groupage via CEP and numerous special markets – a full-coverage, where possible seamless service for many countries is INTERVIEW Managing complexity COVER STORY The network offers many opportunities. Jens Müller, Network Management Organization division manager at Dachser, talks about how high standards and clear rules create efficient logistics. What challenges does a pan-European network pose for a logistics provider’s organization? Those out in the lead in Europe need clear rules. Our homogenous structure gives us advantages over group companies and forwarding cooperations. With entargo and groupline, we can offer our customers standardized products. Uniform processes and streamlined quality management increase efficiency just as much as high building standards. What prerequisites must customers fulfil to enable them to reap the benefits of the network? One of the key factors is long-term partnerships: Customers should be open to innovative developments, especially in information logistics. This includes promoting transparency. Successful projects are based on trust. How will a cross-border flow of data change logistics processes in the future? Optimized data flows lead to additional synergies and – fully in line with the idea of sustainability – to better utilization of transport capacities. This does not prioritize making logistics faster, but more efficient. Concentrating on essentials makes complexity manageable. This stems the flood of data and directs it into the right channels. Under the lead management of Jens Müller, the teams headed by Ingo Müller, Thomas Jäger and Elmar Fünfer develop innovative and complex solutions within Dachser’s pan-European network. expected,” explains Peter Klaus, today a lecturer at Boston University and author of the definitive annual study “Top 100 in Logistics”. The academic, who in 2009 was admitted to the “Logistics Hall of Fame”, sees two reasons for this: one of them being the declining importance of political and language barriers in Europe and worldwide. The second is “the trend away from storing products in regional and national warehouses, in favour of central logistics centres”. Michael Schilling, managing director of Dachser’s European Network Management & Logistics Systems business unit, observes a similar trend. “An increasing number of customers manage their procurement logistics via our network,” Schilling says. � Dachser Nordic A/S’s new head office in Copenhagen, Denmark DACHSER magazine 17
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Page 7 and 8: INTEGRATION Vive la chance Intellig
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Page 21 and 22: h 15 September 1950. Etienne Westli
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