Logistics and its systems - from TMS to MCN and AX4
The problem: one example among many
Does this situation sound familiar? I have some production lines in my factory that are critical in supply or are simply too expensive for me to afford to stop them. My analyst, Wilson, tells me that there is a risk of a stoppage due to lack of material. We check the ERP and there's a Purchase Order that was generated and accepted by the supplier 15 days ago and is due to arrive today. It's supposed to be perfect and not stop my factory. But the risk is too great, I need to know if the cargo is on the road and I ask Wilson to check his emails with the supplier (he follows up regularly with suppliers) to see what the latest update was. After a few minutes he tells me: "Three days ago it was in the final operation before packing!". Gee, that's no good. We decided to call the supplier and, after 3 attempts and 30 minutes on hold, we found out that there had indeed been a delay and the cargo is leaving today and will arrive here tomorrow. Now I have to reschedule the factory with other products to try not to stop it. And hope that transportation goes smoothly.
This story is a small sample of the day-to-day life of most industries which, working in a disintegrated way with their supply chain, lose agility and precision in decision-making, generating impacts on service levels and efficiency, which damage costs and revenues, as well as generating immense stress in operations, wasting a lot of time to get basic information.
MCN, TMS and the Control Tower with AX4
This type of problem gave rise to the concept of Multi-enterprise Collaboration Networks (MCN). According to Gartner, MCNs are solutions that support a community of business partners of any level and type who need to coordinate and execute business processes that span several companies. Gartner considers cloud-based MCNs an essential technology for coordinating, orchestrating and automating an organization's extended supply chain within the overall business ecosystem in which they operate. The main features of MCN solutions include three layers: network representation and management, application functions, integration, analysis and intelligence.
O software de gestão logística AX4 do portfólio Siemens Digital Logistics (SDL) é uma MCN, permitindo colaboração entre a indústria, seus fornecedores e transportadores através de workflows desenhados para automatizar e otimizar os processos logísticos entre os diferentes stakeholders. Por exemplo, você pode definir via sistema quais são as ações necessárias após o faturamento de carga do seu fornecedor, que notificação ocorrerão e para quem, assim como definir um fluxo de ações para casos de exceções, como um extravio ou avaria em um transporte. Os usuários estão conectados na plataforma em seus desktops, mas também em seus aplicativos mobile, para facilitar as atualizações dos transportes pelas transportadoras.
Além destas funções entre empresas, o AX4 é um software para gestão de transportes, atendendo também os requisitos de um software TMS (Transportation Management System) tradicional que, segundo a Gartner novamente, é uma categoria de sistemas projetados para gerenciar níveis crescentes de complexidade de transporte em vários modos de transporte e regiões geográficas. A solução da Siemens executa as funções de gestão de transportes inbound e outbound, gerencia tabela de fretes, o fluxo de compras e, inclusive, o agendamento de docas colaborativo. Mas como não poderia faltar a cereja do bolo, o AX4 é ainda uma solução integrada ao Opcenter APS, o que permite que qualquer atualização na previsão de um transporte seja automaticamente refletida na disponibilidade de materiais em uma programação de fábrica feita pelo PPCP.
Em resumo, ele habilita uma Torre de Controle logística da empresa e, por apresentar a execução tradicional de um TMS com a colaboração na cadeia de um MCN em uma plataforma 100% cloud, o AX4 se torna uma tecnologia em logística extremamente diferenciada.
But what results can we expect?
Quando falamos do AX4, estamos nos referindo a uma solução com mais de 20 anos de experiência, uma base de mais de 600.000 usuários e mais de 50.000 transportes diários gerenciados. As empresas que aderem a uma plataforma deste nível têm impactos sobre o seu status quo em diversos aspectos, como:
A more resilient logistics chain: Through the visibility and collaboration provided, which allow the flow of work and information between the different stakeholders in the production chain to occur in an agile, unified and therefore reliable manner.
Redução de custos: se a informação está disponível antecipadamente (lembre-se da nossa história do início), evitamos má utilização de nossos ativos, pagamentos de multas por atraso, taxas extras de caminhões no pátio, pois os carregamentos estão mal organizados, custos de fretes incoerentes com contratos, e assim por diante;
Risk mitigation: in today's global environment with trends so acute that they have earned a nickname, the so-called VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity), being prepared for the most diverse situations that your production chain can be subjected to (wars, strikes, weather disasters, accidents, among others) means mitigating risks that can unexpectedly generate stratospheric costs. After the problem, the medicine can be very expensive and bitter. That's why your operation's ability to react quickly and assertively with the help of technology is crucial.
Digital Transformation: more than a jargon, it is a change in the way your operation works, eliminating extremely manual activities and transforming mechanical work into analytical work. In addition, this movement brings about a structural change in the relationship between companies, from paving the way for the development of better partnerships between them to reducing the costs of various interfaces between different systems based on the simplification of a unified system for common use. Finally, AX4 enables companies to rely on real (and voluminous!) data to improve their management, because let's face it, analyst Wilson's inbox or his spreadsheet don't transform the way we work with data.
Of course, not all of these impacts are ends, some are means. However, these means of getting where we want to go will soon be imperative for anyone who wants to remain competitive. Simply put, anyone who doesn't know and develop their operation well through good use of data or doesn't adapt to the new sustainability regulations will be out of the game. And since we know that in the industry nothing happens overnight, it's a good idea to go to sleep thinking about this as soon as possible.
Precisa de uma orientação técnica para saber como seria implementar esta tecnologia logística em sua indústria? Fale com a NEO e um de nossos consultores especializados entrará em contato com você para te apresentar os caminhos.