How Electrolux Is Optimizing Operations with Supply Chain Visibility

  2021-02-18-Electrolux-Webinar

Amid a growing homebody economy, consumer goods companies are under pressure to meet rapidly increasing demand. 

Peloton has made headlines over the last few weeks as customers frustrated with slow and delayed shipments have led the home fitness equipment manufacturer to significantly increase supply chain spending. While many face struggles to produce quickly enough to meet demand, transportation delays are also a big piece of the puzzle. 

As many global shippers have started incorporating supply chain visibility into their tech stack, these initiatives are quickly accelerating to ensure shipments stay on track while also providing customers with updates. 

In November, Electrolux joined project44 for a webinar, How Electrolux Is Optimizing Operations with Real-Time Transportation Visibility, to discuss why they prioritized visibility and how they have started to implement a real-time and predictive solution. 

Experts on the webinar included Giuseppe De Vincenzi, IT Manager of European Transportation Applications at Electrolux; Raimond van Kampen, Sales Director at Flo Group; and Michel Stekelenburg, Director of Strategic Accounts at project44. 

Here are some highlights from their conversation. 

Why Supply Chain Visibility Is No Longer Optional 

Just a few years ago, supply chain visibility providers like project44 had to evangelize the idea of real-time visibility. Those days are behind us. Now, customers are requiring real-time and predictive insight into their shipments and executives are seeking a unified view of transportation activities across the supply chain. 

The market – whether it’s B2C or B2B – is asking for visibility in real-time,” explained Stekelenburg. It’s not just about being able to see where my truck or my shipment is located. That’s important of course, but visibility comes with a lot more value.” 

He explained precise and predictive visibility insight unlocks increased efficiency, decreased safety stock, decreased late penalties, and improved customer experience. And there are a few criteria to achieve this value. 

You need visibility across all modes and geographies. This will allow you to have a single source of truth in real-time,” said Stekelenburg. Second, you need to focus on exceptions and receive notifications when an exception occurs to proactively react to those situations and inform your customers of a potential delay. It needs to be intuitive.” 

How Electrolux Leverages Supply Chain Visibility 

Electrolux turned to supply chain for the same reasons we hear from many global shippers. 

We wanted to use real-time tracking for operational efficiencies. We want to increase predictability,” said De Vincenzi. When we started thinking about solutions like project44, we were applying real-time visibility to our factory distribution. Groupage has been our main focus.” 

Through project44’s connections to their carriers, Electrolux seamlessly accessing the real-time data through their system of record. 

Carriers are the source of the GPS information, as well as GPS disposable devices, which we can use to track our products. And this is very important because in certain cases, especially for multimodal routes, we need to track the trailer rather than the main truck,” explained De Vincenzi. All of this information is consolidated by project44 into a readable format, which is in the standard of OTM and interfaced with our applications.” 

As Electrolux continues to embed visibility throughout day-to-day supply chain operations, they’re not only able to reduce costs and increase efficiency, but they can enhance their customer experience. 

A Successful Supply Chain Visibility Configuration 

With a proactive strategy, global shippers can start seeing results from supply chain visibility quickly. Electrolux worked with Flo Group to help them integrate project44’s visibility solution with their Oracle Transportation Management (OTM) system and develop a custom approach to maximize results. 

We see that a lot of companies now want to have real-time visibility, but when they get all the data into their systems, they don’t really know what to do with it and how to use the data,” said Van Kampen. Before you’re going to deploy and implement real-time visibility, you need to know how you’re going to use the data internally as well as with your customers.” 

For example, there are several different ways to access data whether it be through project44’s Visibility Operation Center, through a TMS, or a combination of both. Flo Group helps shippers figure out how to configure their technical set up based on how they want to use the data. 

The biggest challenge we see is that they see visibility as a solution to solve a lot of issues. On one hand, it’s true. But you also need to know how to handle the data, explained Van Kampen. Once they get the data into the system, they need to know how to leverage data day to day.” 

The quality of the data and how it’s used is just as important – if not more – than having visibility. With connectivity across their carrier network and high-fidelity API or ELD/​telematics connections, global shippers can transform their supply chains to meet these customer needs into the future. 

Watch the webinar recording to hear more about how Electrolux is using project44 to gain supply chain visibility.