Supplier Community Event: Customer voices and supplier feedback on Transport Management
The Supplier Community Event on the topic of Transport Management was a complete success. Valuable tips and tricks paired with practical insights from Bosch Building Technologies and ZF Friedrichshafen — discover all the highlights of the event here.
As Manager for Supply Chain Collaboration and Transport Management, Martin gave the opening speech of the event. He pointed out the benefits for suppliers when using the solution: seamless communication centralized in one place and traceable for both sides at all times. This is because the demand and ordering processes intertwine:
- almost all FPAs (Forwarder Pick-up Advices) are based on previous demand notifications
- and the ASNs (Advance Shipping Notification) are then based on the FPAs
This eliminates both media breaks and double entries.
Insights from customer voices
Christian Schwab (Head of E2E-Logistics) demonstrated the comprehensive and successful use of the Transport Management solution at ZF Friedrichshafen: both inbound and outbound transports are managed centrally, regardless of the type of transport — whether land or sea freight. ZF relies on the cooperation of suppliers and a holistic approach. Around 50 plants are currently fully connected to the solution, handling around 1,000 shipments per day. Impressive figures, but there is more to come: Christian is planning further expansion towards a seamless, worldwide usage.
Alexander Radtke (Vice President Logistics) presented the use of SupplyOn Transport Management at Bosch Building Technologies – from the initial motivation to the planning and strategy for 2024: Nowadays, the solution is used in inbound and resource planning, in manufacturing as well as to improve the ecological footprint. Alexander incorporates supplier feedback into further solution development. On request, the booking of transports was recently optimized and simplified for suppliers. The goal for 2024: 100 % coverage of inbound transport.
Life hacks around Transport Management
It wouldn’t be a Supplier Community Event if tips & tricks for even more efficient use of the solution weren’t also on the agenda. Daniela and Matthias ran through typical scenarios from everyday supplier business and revealed helpful life hacks on…
- Using views and filters sensibly
- Copying, cancelling or deleting FPAs
- Setting up warnings
- Printing labels
Automation with EDI
Speaking about effective usage, Andreas, Manager for EDI, presented the benefits and requirements of an EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) integration. Here, one system sends data automatically to another, avoiding manual data entry. This saves time and effort and is also less prone to errors.
New feature, yes or no? Suppliers voted
Who could give a better outlook on the further development of the solutions than Mirjam, the Product Manager herself? Firstly, she presented the planned new functions. She then asked the audience to vote on whether an address book feature for carrier data would be helpful and should be realized. The majority of the community voted in favor of introducing the function. We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for taking part in the poll and look forward to incorporating user feedback into the development of the solution.
However, it is not only during the Supplier Community Events that suppliers have the opportunity to contribute to product development. As Mario, founder of the Supplier Community and Head of Supplier Management, reported, suppliers can currently vote for the next feature to be implemented in the Supplier Forum.
We would like to thank everyone involved in this event for their contribution to making it a complete success and are already looking forward to the next one!
