How DB Schenker Digitilizes Global Supply Chains (Joachim Schaut, DB Schenker)

00:00:02: Hello and welcome to the logistics drive I'm your host boys felgendreher and today I have you asked him shout from DB Schenker on the program.

00:00:12: To talk about how the logistics provider is helping to digitally transform the supply chains of his customers.

00:00:18: Urm leads to companies InterContinental Supply Chain Solutions that's an area where chancre is making some big technology plays and where they have build Partnerships with some state-of-the-art technology vendors to transform the way Global Logistics and Supply chains are managed.

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00:01:00: Alright and now we're on to the show with your him shout from the DB Schenker enjoy how do you I am welcome to the logistics Drive thanks for being on the program thanks for having me.

00:01:10: Excited to have you on I was just looking at your LinkedIn profile and realize that you've been with DB Schenker for what 13 almost 14 years almost your entire career what's going on there yes yes I mean did.

00:01:23: Did many jobs in shankha on various levels started a branch level then National head office Regional head of his.

00:01:31: Now meanwhile since 2 years I'm globally responsible for what we call is see

00:01:36: InterContinental Supply Chain Solutions it's fair to assume that 100% of our listeners know DB Schenker so that we don't need to spend a lot of time explaining what the company does but maybe that part that the juror in charge of the do running the International Supply Chain Solutions what does that part do in essence we look after our big customers.

00:01:54: And had them to shape their supply chain depends on the targets of the customers so cost-savings resilience risk management these kind of topics.

00:02:04: And for that we have in essence free product pillows one is everything about purchase order management especially for import customers,

00:02:12: then we have Freight Management Solutions for customers with direct carrier contracts and the last pillars is everything around supply chain analytics so

00:02:22: how can we help our customers to drive supply chain performance with the means of data

00:02:26: got it so so this is really for the very big daddy so to speak that's for the large globally operating International Global Supply Chain so the big corporations of the world so to speak yes correct or is it also like smaller brands that are sourcing in the Far East for example is it is it fair to assume it's mostly large Global shippers

00:02:44: that are customers of the particular solution it does not need to be necessarily Global can also be a bigger customer on one trade line.

00:02:52: So usually if you want to emphasize usually we start around 2002 you and above Cannon okay and it's also fair to say that

00:03:00: your customers aren't fully Outsourcing their Logistics of Supply Chain Solutions to you but there are always using a combination of different provider so it's like a bouquet of different providers of which DB Schenker is one of them yes yes so it depends on customer by customer everyone

00:03:16: everyone draws his line on what he wants to Outsource in a different way.

00:03:21: That also has to do with the culture of the company and their General strategy this is why we usually

00:03:27: boo solution design workshops with these customers to identify okay where are the Handover points is it that we are managing the whole supply chain or is it other

00:03:36: providers as well in the game so just depends yeah you just said that you you've taken over that department that InterContinental Supply Chain Solutions two years ago and it's probably evolved over time how long has that dead part been in place and how has it changed over the course of the years so the last two years have been have been quite right for anyone in Ocean and Air Freight but also especially for the technology side of things

00:04:02: so the whole digitization Trent was for sure down before but covid-19 or corner

00:04:09: was for sure an accelerator for the whole development so there is really a very very big

00:04:14: push towards digitization of Supply chains and whereas in the past or ship has focused very much on cost efficiency and getting better cost basis or near now things like

00:04:25: supply chain resilience and end-to-end visibility is far far bigger on the agenda of our customers delete.

00:04:33: Used to be two years ago and this is driving a lot of a lot of our destiny at the moment and gives us a very high dynamic.

00:04:42: So we had already a big growth dynamic in ic before but

00:04:47: covid-19 is really pushing pushing the limits on our side as well again it seems like supply chain disruptions they just keep coming and coming right so it's not just covert and overt is over before that it was trade Wars and trade Wars aren't completely over yet.

00:05:00: You know then we had the the Suez Canal we have war on our hands you know it's just.

00:05:05: It's this this gift that keeps on giving it's just never ending right yeah yeah I mean that the beginning everyone was talking about Black Swan events right so Suez Canal for sure maybe that's a Black Swan events but if we look at the others

00:05:17: Port closure in China was at the beginning of the pandemic also considered as Black Swan event

00:05:23: now we need to see okay a handful of positive covid-19.

00:05:29: Tests in a Chinese Port can be to the next loud look down of a certain area so we think what we need to do is we need to start getting out of this firefighting and get to a new normal whatever this new normal is but,

00:05:43: but we clearly need to get out of this file fighting models and their ICC should possible do a very good job in getting out of this and still a lot of shippers are still in the.

00:05:53: And the firefighting modal's and if we if we also exclude the covid cases then we need to also consider all this.

00:06:00: All the small long-term effects like infrastructure topics

00:06:04: in the u.s. like the you mentioned it the war which for sure changes the geopolitical landscape we are all operating in and things like sustainability which will not get less important

00:06:17: overtime so all of this will have a long-term effect and think we are supply chain leaders we need to start really dealing with it than that.

00:06:25: In a more strategic in the more long-term implementation yeah and what I'm what sort of changes and what have you sort of Investments have you a DB Schenker made over the last few years that really sort of

00:06:36: up the game I mean you talked about digitalization so a lot of digital tools have been added to the toolbox I resume you have a lot of external Partners you partner with but also some internally developed tools just give us an overview of where you've made your biggest bets and your biggest Investments over the last let's say two to three years so

00:06:51: so if you talk about digitization then our approach is to build up a ecosystem of Technology

00:06:59: this can be in-house developed this can be also coming from external partners.

00:07:05: If we look at the external Partners site there we really are looking for strategic partners.

00:07:11: You might have seen our announcements with within for Nexus so that's a partner which we are partnering already since since 15 years with and we are where we want to continuously involved.

00:07:23: Our partnership and the reason for this let's say approach that we have both internal and external capabilities.

00:07:31: It's because we really do not want to limit ourselves to let's say our own capabilities to the technology world is just too fast to cope with it as one company

00:07:41: and besides the partnership you might have also seen our shrink eventual so we even have no Venture Capital arm

00:07:47: to really go into this digitization piece in a fast way and therefore we want to get best.

00:07:54: The best Solutions in the industry and then our value added is really to combine this to a solution and then we are combining technology.

00:08:02: With operational execution and both needs to be there what I want to see in the market is that sometimes sometimes there's

00:08:10: this concept floating around which is missing the technology piece which does not really fly and then we have pure software providers which also does not fly so we really think

00:08:20: we need to put state-of-the-art technology together with local execution capabilities because we all know just to put a block form there

00:08:29: in theory it works out but for sure there's always a supplier who does not follow the standard workflow there's always someone who does not remember it anymore and you need to deal with all of this exceptions and

00:08:42: there we have also invested not only in technology but also in a operational setup around I see in the individual parts of the world to really Step Up.

00:08:52: Our operational performance on the solution side as well so.

00:08:56: We invested not only in technology but also on the operational side of things yeah and in terms of investing and trying out and experimenting with new technology dust

00:09:05: DB Schenker considered themselves a Pioneer somebody who tries out new technology first and be the first one to Market with stuff and be an innovator or was it.

00:09:14: Sort of later adopter where do you see yourself on the Continuum to someone that's.

00:09:18: Like really early on to stuff as opposed to someone that's more of a waiting pattern and then bring it on stuff as it's proven itself so to speak I mean as one of the global LSPs.

00:09:29: We need to be front runner.

00:09:31: If it's not if it's not the big players in the industry then these new technologies will never come to light her so.

00:09:40: We are trialing with blockchain together with a project in the European Union.

00:09:45: We have a whole Innovation Department who only focuses on this let's say a longer term.

00:09:52: Investments we have invested in companies like volocopter who drone deliveries so there's a whole variance of Investments which are doing in that space which is more on the long.

00:10:04: Term in order to get this first-mover advantages but.

00:10:08: But I'm I'm really convinced it is the big players who need to shape the technology so that it really has done,

00:10:14: throwing the whole industry yeah where does the competitive pressure usually come from I mean now you've seen the emergence from these so-called digital Freight forwarders that are popping everywhere that get a lot of funding a lot of investment are you are really feeling the pressure or are you saying well the pie is big enough they're not really competitors that they're inspiring how do you look at that

00:10:33: whole emergence of these digital Freight forwarders I mean I mean if we look at the content

00:10:38: then they are doing Freight forwarding as as we and our other competitors are doing as well also and this is also how I perceive.

00:10:48: The new entrance it is a competition and we take it serious like any other competition.

00:10:54: As well what we so far do not see is someone who really is transforming the industry and who is really having a very very innovative.

00:11:03: Approach right so so that's what we,

00:11:06: do not see it is a lot of lot of these new entrants start with her with a only digital approach and then over time you see okay we will opening.

00:11:16: Offices here in there and now they are adding also physical capabilities so.

00:11:21: So that's what Logistics is all about its combining technology with people around the world and physical.

00:11:28: Opportunities to really do something physical with cargo are yeah so we are they are they are new entrance and we take them serious like any others.

00:11:37: So far we do not see anyone who sweetie transforming

00:11:40: the industry yeah of course did the one thing the one advantage they have is that they don't have any baggage right so they can they can start from scratch they can build systems and everything from scratch of course they don't have the physical capabilities like a shank or dies

00:11:51: I guess the only Advantage they have is they don't have to deal with all of this Legacy has built over time how much of that is that a factor.

00:11:58: Inside of chancre when you want to transform the way you guys do business changing the Status Quo and doing things different than you have in the past with this sort of more analog systems that are still in place here and there yeah so if I look at the big LS piece including Shankar

00:12:12: I did not think they transformed heavily

00:12:14: over the last 10 years cell so if we look inside Shankle the way we use technology now compared with already five years ago is a different.

00:12:25: All game the way we do customer visibility the way we operate our processes even the last two years two years of covid shape that completely and and we were

00:12:35: stinker we were able to send all our people to home office everywhere in all modes of transport

00:12:42: and still keeping our Network alive and this was only possible because we did the transformation to the cloud already years ago and we were on their Journey already and I think the

00:12:54: Global LSPs out are transforming themselves very well also.

00:12:59: Can it be faster for sure do we have also changed management activities ongoing yes as well but I would not call our Legacy a purely a package so.

00:13:11: There is this expertise which we are having around the world we know how Logistics works we know how it works everywhere.

00:13:18: We have a Global Network of possibilities so yes it's maybe maybe easier to do change management if you don't have such a big organization but on the other hand if you are not.

00:13:30: Everywhere on this world but people to execute then you also have a problem as so to give you an example on that.

00:13:39: If we look at the trade Wars so

00:13:42: if you are category manager of a shipper then it can happen nowadays that suddenly your product is under a certain band orders import duties and you need to shift your sourcing location from one country to another if you do this with a global LSP with global

00:13:56: coverage like shinka then you can move from one origin country to another.

00:14:01: You have the same experience you have the same systems you have the same processes and you have the same way of operating and that's and that's what we see,

00:14:11: as a very very big Advantage especially the bigger customers are for sure the risking,

00:14:18: they are sourcing strategy at the moment and when you when you look at the technology that's been employed in last few years what's been the biggest game changer like maybe also things that,

00:14:29: you underestimated how impactful

00:14:33: that technology could be in hindsight you were thinking or what this was a game changer and we're glad we're did that that's that's a good question I think it's the ability to move processes to the cloud

00:14:44: Saudi Cloud technology that has really opened up.

00:14:49: A lot of new possibility so that's that we moved away from all of this on premise solution to Cloud solutions that enables a lot of other Technologies and that's the foundation for sure

00:15:02: there is OCR RPA blockchain and so on but this is this is the matter on how you combine all of these different Technologies together to and solution.

00:15:11: But you need to have the fundamentals in the cloud in order to do that on a global level yeah that's I agree with you and I think you know I'm going to just mention briefly my history and background on GT Nexus in the.

00:15:24: But you know if you've been with Shankar 13 14 years and looked at all the different tools and looked at Cloud you know we both experienced a time around two thousand nine ten twelve,

00:15:33: where there was a lot of cloud skepticism in the market right where people did not at all immediately realized the potential of it and there was.

00:15:40: Backlash and there was resistance especially in Germany with German customers for long time so

00:15:45: it happened very gradually all of a sudden had happened very very quickly when I saw the last few years everybody's jumping on board and now people are scrambling to get away from from on-premise to the cloud so you.

00:15:56: You've experienced this firsthand to just like either absolutely absolutely I mean a couple of years ago this was a big theme cyber security data security data privacy and so on but I think meanwhile it got clear that especially these points.

00:16:10: That that they they are far.

00:16:14: It's far easier to manage these type of things in a cloud environment than on-premise I think you are right here so this changed heavily over the last

00:16:22: couple of years yeah let's maybe spend some time to talk about the the solution or the technology provider you picked and you've

00:16:29: worked with a long time which used to be GT Nexus now it's in for Nexus and my background on that I started with GT Nexus in 2009 when when I was a very very small company and the product look quite differently it was a freight procurement tool where you could

00:16:44: you do your ocean Freight tender once a year move away from Excel base 2,

00:16:49: to a more modern online version and it sort of evolved into a full-fledged Global visibility tool and later on we added supply chain Finance function to it.

00:16:59: I'm glad to see you I mean Shankar was an early customer and in many of these aspects and I'm glad to see that.

00:17:05: Still alive and kicking and their partnership is taking it to the next level so talk to us how you maybe the first star is if you remember how it all started and how use of gradually moved all in into this.

00:17:16: That means we set a cloud-based tool a cloud-based platform collaboration tool,

00:17:21: the company used to manage their Global Supply chains how did all evolved from your Vantage Point yeah so as you mentioned we have been pretty early so we have been the first LSP.

00:17:29: On the platform and this yard is developed.

00:17:33: Over time and now fast forward nearly 15 15 years we just end of end of last year came to terms that that we get.

00:17:42: Access to all infinix has functionality so historically there is this let's say an LSP

00:17:49: package of functionality and there's other functionalities and really now came to conclusion hey it actually makes total sense if we say someone wants to digitize their supply chain that we take out this artificial.

00:18:03: Limits right and so we are pioneering I would say with

00:18:07: with them again as we are again the first LSP who is walking in that direction together with infinix aside this this gives our customer the opportunity to really say okay if I look in the market what is

00:18:21: what is the supply chain software I really want to use also in terms of risk management aspect so they don't need to

00:18:28: to tie them to something which they on the long run I'm not sure and then at the same time combine it with the chancre capabilities and this is to really execute Implement designed a solution based on this on this software Pisa so and this is why it is

00:18:42: super potent now that we have this.

00:18:44: This this next level of partnership and took out all of this artificial barriers and I can imagine for any any sharper it must be a major headache are major challenge to

00:18:54: stay on top of all the developing new technologies that out then and all the new players and pick the best ones bring them together.

00:19:01: That's sort of the one approach where you pick the best and you have like 10 different platforms to do things on or

00:19:06: you go with an established platform that offers a lot of functionality that's really close to what you actually need right so I see that the trade-off that people have to make but that's certainly what certainly the decisions you'll have to make right yeah

00:19:17: and that's what we try to accomplish with our ecosystem approach our so that we say okay.

00:19:22: We partner for example within four but we have also other partners which we are bringing to the table and we also have certain areas where we do something on our own way we build Solutions in house.

00:19:34: And the combination of the different solutions is what what what makes our.

00:19:39: Our solutions to watch the market then then hopefully you need care yeah what are some other key tools that are part of the toolbox that you are partner that you're proud of that you're also officially talking about we are for example we work also with copolymer soft on the network design,

00:19:54: aspects of things are so this is something which which which in for Nexus does not have so we say okay

00:20:00: they'll be also it also does not does not make sense to reinvent the wheel internally so we also work with copolymers of this world so to give you one example

00:20:09: yeah that's probably the other thing we should mention and should be very clear there's no one-size-fits-all tool that does everything under the Bell there's no Swiss army knife that solves all of your problems that's just it though customers are looking for it sometimes yeah.

00:20:23: Yeah and it gets promise so many times because some very well-known you know software providers that promise you the world or promise you that.

00:20:31: Oh yeah that whatever that knew,

00:20:33: kid on the Block there is developing that's super shiny we have that in the works just wait a couple years and you have that too that that never shaved out that's just my experience yeah.

00:20:42: Fantastic so you're actually playing this active role of being sort of a a selector or a combinator of all the different technologies that are used to for your customers and you develop Partnerships so this is all comes out of the box so the

00:20:53: the customer gets it through you as a server so to speak right so instead all of that comes out the box and you have all the Integrations and all the.

00:21:00: The way to implement it all all set up to talk to me about that work so when a customer is either an existing customer and comes to you and wants to use some of that new functionality or as a new customer

00:21:10: what's the way to implement all the stuff and how do you work with your partners to get that done on the customer side.

00:21:15: So we have two solution competency on our side so we have a solution designers around the world who work with the respective.

00:21:23: Customers and for sure we also have a let's say best practice background if you want to

00:21:28: call it that way uh so we know if we talk if we talk on platform so we know what works and what does not really work also

00:21:36: we learn from failures in the past and for mistakes and bring that also to the table so even if the customer is suggesting it in a certain way we already know okay this does not work and we can propose.

00:21:47: An alternative which we think it will work.

00:21:50: Then in dies in essence it is a joint effort between us and the customer to this to design the solution and then we hand it over to to the implementation.

00:22:00: Face and then we do all the Integrations on the adhesive side we do all the trainings on the operational side we put all.

00:22:08: Or resources together with Eddie takes to operate the solution and then we start to on board all the partners.

00:22:15: On to our Solutions so Partners can usually not only the customers also suppliers may be other three parties that need access to

00:22:24: to some data and then we onboarding it and then we are handing it over to operations in the third

00:22:30: process step and say okay now it's implemented now it's life and now we need to execute it with high quality and what we drive is the so-called program management approach

00:22:42: where we have program managers for these kind of customers so that we are always up-to-date also as you mentioned Technologies involving there's new features so so all of this then continuous Improvement of the solution happens then through a.

00:22:54: Dedicated IC program management approach and it's also probably worthwhile to mention that as a customer by going with the solution that you provide let's just use in for Nexus as an example as provided through schanker.

00:23:08: I'm not completely locked in hundred percent into schanker because I could I could still use the other logistics providers and Global Atlas piece that I'm using because we said it initially.

00:23:18: In nobody's completely 100% Outsourcing everything to you guys but they're using DHL and other carriers what have you.

00:23:24: In different parts of the world that allows me some flexibility right so as you know there's always this concern on behalf of the customer that don't want to get locked into a technology B just because a logistics providers offering it,

00:23:37: if I want to switch with Justice provider for whatever reason or shift my my my needs changed and I'm not locked in just because of the technology I'm using so there's a.

00:23:45: There's a degree of Freedom that you allow the customer to still maintain

00:23:48: with the systems that you providing correct absolutely and that was the core reason why we said okay do we want to build something on our own in terms of platform or do we go with the state-of-the-art platform which is existing in the market

00:24:02: and we listened to our customers which exactly expressed that concern and we could understand it and this is why we went with a market solution in order to give this flexibility

00:24:14: to the customers yes yeah let's talk a little bit more about the functionality so I briefly described earlier how,

00:24:20: men for next started or gt Nexus started that transformed it in for Nexus what's the capability today I haven't looked in two years so maybe a lot of things have changed and it really has taken it to the next level what's the current capability that you're able to you said it's the entire Suite of things so

00:24:35: I mentioned to be quite comprehensive so take us through the different elements of what the platform is capable of that you're offering to your customers yeah so there's a lot of recent development so

00:24:46: it's everything around all these predictions so how can you look into the future especially in today's world you take us.

00:24:54: Very simple example yeah so before before the capacity crunch which we see in Ocean Freight

00:25:01: it was good enough to know when the vessel arrived at the port and then you could assume okay it gets unloaded now you need to be much more specific now you know that

00:25:10: the vessel is there but is it just a tanker or is it really already at the birth when it will be unloaded what is the congestion in the port so you need to know all of this data and this is one of the.

00:25:22: One of the recent developments which has been been brought into production to really say okay this

00:25:29: this more specific steps we also need to cater for them in order than to feed the predictive

00:25:36: algorithms to save how can we predict at the Final Destination so the predictions are not really a poor but really it at Final Destination

00:25:46: and if we bring that all together then it has been evolved into a solution called control center so this is where you then can connect your selling inventory with your sourcing inventory

00:26:00: to identify shortages or problems way up front and in for this let's say up front.

00:26:07: Identification of shortages there you need the whole end-to-end visibility and then the predictions that makes this this let's say look into the future of possible and it's probably important to mention how crucial

00:26:19: and also how difficult it is for a regular shipper who doesn't have a platform like that to get the visibility that they need they would literally have to consult with each and every carrier right they would have to have Integrations with

00:26:31: any of these carriers to get the visibility that you that you get through a platform like that so it's it's almost impossible even the biggest shipper in the world couldn't do it because of

00:26:41: all the there's so many different parties involved and then you have data quality issue we can talk about in a second but speak to how how difficult it is to actually get that information sound so easy while when the,

00:26:50: vessel drives in the port but having that all in view if you are like a Nestle with four hundred thousand containers in the world for example how difficult it actually is can you can you speak to that yeah and and before I talk to to the data side of things there's also a big operational.

00:27:04: Aspect of it which

00:27:05: has been accelerated through covid in the past you could give a lot to a couple of selected carriers and then you could manage it now

00:27:14: the a location management forecasting which you need to bring to the table then you have your overflows what are you doing with them it's far more flexible.

00:27:22: And you cannot operate this in an environment where you just say okay I'm connected to

00:27:27: two carriers and I split the business 50/50 that does not work anymore and it's not sufficient because what if is Carrie has a plain sailing what if

00:27:36: the carrier is suddenly more restrictive on a location and does not allow flows for you anymore so all of these questions led to a situation where a lot of the big shippers.

00:27:48: Balanced their career portfolio out so more carriers.

00:27:53: Most likely also adding an nvocc capability to it and if you then talk to a global LSP like chancre then we can marriage

00:28:03: we can manage to carry a side of things we are connected with the major carriers with all of them reconnect,

00:28:08: so if the customer doesn't changed and it does not really affect the operations of it.

00:28:13: And we can add this nvocc network as a kind of a safety Network behind it so that that if that if they are really let down by the carriers and this happened

00:28:24: to nearly every customer the last two years at certain stage

00:28:28: then we can support them and keep the supply chain moving so this was the the operational side of triggering it and then as you mentioned data and data quality and data availability yeah it's not sufficient anymore to just get a carrier egi.

00:28:43: So that that was in the past maybe that was that was good enough yeah but now you need to have one you need to have boots on the ground sir to sense all of this and then you need to bring it back into a structured.

00:28:56: Way you need to also for sure work with

00:28:59: pay is data with ship data but also with ports data also ports have data which the carrier's don't have or don't have into its cranial area T which you also need to take into consideration like the port to congestion.

00:29:12: Example which I mentioned earlier so it's far more fragmented and the big topic for our customers is you don't know.

00:29:21: What will be state-of-the-art in a year on six months from now are you don't know if there's a new technology startup evolving bringing something to the table which nobody thought of.

00:29:31: And and yeah and as mentioned this is then our.

00:29:35: Our backbone of the of the ecosystem we bring that partnered and in and then all of our customers have access to it without investing themselves into all of this technology

00:29:45: can you give a couple of examples you know you don't have to mention customers but a couple of examples of how some of your customers.

00:29:52: Have successfully leveraged such a system and what sort of moves they've been able to make because of it

00:29:57: yeah I mean to make it to make it concrete maybe we take two cases one you mentioned the Suez Canal until that a lot of a lot of shippers were managing their supply chains on Excel.

00:30:10: And just just to find out what is in the Suez Canal and.

00:30:16: And I'm am I affected and if yes what is inside these containers is it really now hurting me or not and the next question is

00:30:25: what happens with all the ships that are queuing now behind the Swiss Canal so I'm affected there as well so this was if you if you if you don't have one single version of the truth in a kind of a platform way

00:30:38: then this was very tedious to find out why Excel sheets and in such crisis situations

00:30:45: it is a difference if you need to call your LSPs or carriers and you need to then bring all the data together first and then you lose maybe 23 days

00:30:54: of time which is in this crisis situations really a difference so this was one thing indeed maybe another example when we had the first Port closure with gentian there was also.

00:31:08: A lot of unclarity.

00:31:11: On am I affected or not and there it does not help anymore if you only have let's say container level visibility there you need to know okay how much purchase orders do I have in this area,

00:31:23: where can I intervene Nia can I maybe take this purchase order and reroute it through a different pot maybe then there's more origin Trucking involved but in the end it has my supply chain.

00:31:34: But there you need to have visibility on order and and also skew level which a lot of customers.

00:31:41: Did not have also still scares some customers don't have at the moment that is such a that's such an important point I mean there's so many ways to describe visibility as in container and item level item level ability that's

00:31:55: that's super I mean it's still to this day it's super super rare but super super powerful can you speak to what it requires to actually deliver that why it's so important why it's so difficult also to achieve

00:32:05: visibility on your item level because that gives you a whole different suit of flexibility.

00:32:11: Right to manage your supply if you know where each item is on every container and every shipment can you speak to the what's necessary to actually make that come become visible so what's necessary basically is is for us to get access to the purchase order data.

00:32:26: So this is.

00:32:27: Let's say the only real heart requirement so we need to get excess in an in an electronic way and there it starts for sure with some master data issues of some of our customers sir

00:32:38: so everyone has Master data data issue the question is how big are they in our pre are they preventing

00:32:45: I should go from being able to do that but let's say most of our shippers they have the master data at least.

00:32:52: At least in depth aspect on the control so that they can issue a purchase order in an electronic way and I think that's what it what it really takes and the rest of it is change management.

00:33:05: Then it's really changing the way on how a supplier books changing the way on how.

00:33:11: The internal stakeholders of our ship has received data so then you don't need to go through Excel sheets you don't need to go through a logistics Department you can give a purchaser.

00:33:20: Then direct access to the platform and say hey.

00:33:23: He has a report just for the suppliers you are responsible for or just for the purchase orders you have issued so that they did that they know the status.

00:33:31: Because there's a lot of translation happening.

00:33:34: It's our customers so the logistics guys that are customers they know where the container is and then they try to find an internal way to translate this to a meaningful.

00:33:45: Information to the to their internal stakeholders and and this can be wiped out but.

00:33:52: It really needs change management so so because the beauty is then if everyone is working on the platform and really working on a platform this drives a lot of efficiencies.

00:34:04: But in a lot of cases the requirement number one is can you send me it on an Excel file once we have implemented the platform yes there are cases where this makes sense.

00:34:14: But but this takes away a lot of the advantages so I would say the roadblock number one is not so much technology the roadblock number one is really the willingness to drive this change.

00:34:24: Hmm that's that's where I see the biggest issue yeah let's talk about data quality I know that's been that's been an issue for for many many years it's actually an issue everywhere not just with one particular platform it's an issue across the board because.

00:34:39: You are dealing with so many different parties if you're have a global supply chain you have suppliers you have Logistics providers you have to carry as you have to pour it's all in providing,

00:34:48: information about your supply chain coming out of different sources you have to combine it all make sense of it and use it in a meaningful way can only be done

00:34:56: if the data is accurate up-to-date clean all that talk to me about where the.

00:35:01: Data quality challenges are still today and maybe what what progress you've made and how you are ensuring that the quality of the data that your customers and you.

00:35:10: By extension make decisions on is actually the right the right data and the right information yeah.

00:35:15: So the availability of data is not a problem I of I would even say.

00:35:22: That we have too much data is becoming a problem not in the sense that that that it is let's say not digestible.

00:35:31: But you need to find rules and little algorithms on which data to take so for example let's take an estimated time of arrival.

00:35:40: And if you get this through three four five different sauces at the end you need to pick and choose which one you want to display to the customer.

00:35:50: As let's say your final choice and as we are talking because Supply chains you cannot do that in a manual way that needs to be automated so this is I would say the challenge number one is to decide if you have one,

00:36:04: item out of multiple sources which one do you take care and there needs to be some intelligence behind it because in the past it was more like.

00:36:13: We always take this sauce because this is more reliable but meanwhile this evolved a little bit and with the.

00:36:20: With with new technology especially around Big Data you can do.

00:36:24: You can bring in more intelligence into this decision making process on which data element you then really are.

00:36:31: Displaying towards the customer and enter second part is how do you deal with white spots data Elements which should be there but which which are missing to give you very easy example,

00:36:44: so let's say estimated time of arrival was yesterday and today there is

00:36:50: there's no arrival but also no updated estimated time of arrival is so obviously something is wrong so meanwhile we have the means to identify all of these and then there is it depends on them on the data element.

00:37:05: There's been a lot of things you can do so either you take technology to augment this.

00:37:10: But they really need to be sure that it is not giving you a false positive in the end or you have you have people on the ground.

00:37:19: Well on top of things and who feel these white spots and we are you using both we are using both metals.

00:37:27: Because so far you cannot really you cannot really drive it from a pure technology point of view if they are exceptions.

00:37:35: And there are exceptions in today's world then you need someone who is really looking into it and who is let's say who knows,

00:37:43: who knows about ocean Freight in that in that regard sir okay so you combine your technology with your expertise with boots on the ground that fill in that fill in the white spot so to speak yes and we talked a lot about ocean Freight today but how far does

00:37:56: the capability for example of the complete supply chain visibility extend across modes.

00:38:01: There's always his vision that you have a regardless of mode whether it's real whether it's are whether it's truck or ocean.

00:38:07: You know you have complete visibility end-to-end all of all of those modes how how far are we from that reality.

00:38:13: I think pretty far I think we are pretty far from that because at the moment it is we debated now the last couple of minutes about.

00:38:22: The challenges.

00:38:24: And still did the let's say the lack of ability of a lot of shippers to have real-time visibility for one mode of Transport right so first we need to solve.

00:38:33: This this topic and if we talk then about multimodal.

00:38:37: Then there is there's different infrastructure for sure you can say okay if we take a coyote that we can apply this all on almost of Transport yes yes that's true yeah but the markets are working different if you.

00:38:49: Let's say we take your appeal entrance fault and Global ocean Freight Global ocean Freight you have three alliances maybe two handfuls of key player.

00:38:58: Who controlled the market and if you look at at European land transport that's one hand or thousands of players who are

00:39:06: while having this as a so the average truck provider in Europe has three to four trucks so that's just a very different.

00:39:15: Market environment which makes it hard to come to a solution that fits all lasso.

00:39:22: For sure we try to combine all of this and we are moving in that direction but this is for sure North Star which we all should go too.

00:39:31: I agree but but in a moment we first need to fix the basics in each mode of Transport I would say yeah are you looking to partner with other similar players that offer more.

00:39:42: Visibility in the in the real space and the air freight space or in trucking and other partners or what are you calling you have have coming up on the corporation pipeline so to speak

00:39:53: sure I mean we follow the same the same partnership strategy in all modes of transport.

00:40:01: So for example in the entrance Port we have connect to Shankar that's also multimodal meanwhile and the lantern specifically we have tried for Schenker which is another platform which is based on a collaboration with a with a US based startup.

00:40:16: So yes we are exploring the same fields in all modes of Transport in order to come up with something meaningful for our customer service.

00:40:25: But if you if you if you look at it at the moment it's also.

00:40:29: The customers are also organized I be it's very well that at the customer it's all in one.

00:40:36: Pull it out so if they do let's say an ocean Freight RFQ.

00:40:41: They usually do an ocean Fade Out a few and land transport h q separately are so the majority of our customer does not mix it at the moment maybe in a future that's different but the moment.

00:40:53: There's also no real customer drive for this

00:40:55: yeah maybe the future is a good is a good keyword let them I would be Keen to know what your what Your predictions are for the next five years how will our supply chains in the way that you and

00:41:05: other logistics providers and Global shippers will manage their supply chains what some of the big trends or what are some of the big predictions you would make

00:41:11: I think Logistics in a way that this is organized within our customers our organization.

00:41:19: Is having a far higher importance than it used to be in the past in the past in the past it was very purchasing driven.

00:41:27: In a lot of cases our customers even called it indirect spent and purchased everything which is not material including Logistics there it was peculiar procurement driven approach this will shift to a Ria's voucher management.

00:41:41: Risk management sourcing strategies so this will this will become the big trend,

00:41:46: on our customer side to accommodate with all of these new rules and regulations with all of this trait Awards which are going on new geopolitical environment so you need to cater for that and this.

00:41:59: Will increase the importance of Logistics in our customers then we for sure with see severe effects of sustainability efforts.

00:42:10: So there is no way around.

00:42:13: There is um or targets already for ocean Freight kicking in as of January 2023 there will be Solutions which go far beyond what we see today because simply,

00:42:25: the regulation will force force the whole industry to do that and I think there's meanwhile.

00:42:31: A consensus in a in all major societies that we need to move down that way so it's also a matter of staying relevant and competitive as a company to really engage in the sustainability topic.

00:42:43: And the third thing I still believe that on this digitization piece we are at the.

00:42:51: Yeah we did not see half of the way I think we are in the first half of the transformation this is still change the way we operate and which.

00:43:03: We let's say go to market and offer products completely over the next

00:43:08: ten to fifteen years or so that will remain to be a significant change reason what do you make of this development that handful of very large companies very large shippers.

00:43:21: Have taken matters into their own hands and taking control of more and more of their supply chain and Logistics functions

00:43:27: and sort of becoming a quasi 3pl in the process do you see more of that Trend happening I mean are you ready for a future where a lot of your customers say oh we don't need to thank you any longer we would just do it ourselves

00:43:38: yeah I don't see that extreme I see everyone beefing up their Logistics departments.

00:43:43: But not in a way that they want to take more in house it's more about getting more knowledge and as mentioned to move away from a procurement.

00:43:53: Mindset to a Supply Chain management mindset term so we see this here and there where where are some big shippers.

00:44:02: Start to create new Shipping Lines or start to Charter ships or something like this but there's there's huge challenges with that tasso

00:44:11: what we see in the market as well is is.

00:44:14: When the when the capacity crunch was at his Peak really not a lot but but the significant amount of customers were trialing with.

00:44:23: Chartering complete ships but they are not doing it anymore and it is.

00:44:29: Because of because of it's not it's not so easy right to to deal all of this containers if you have a whole ship you.

00:44:36: I cannot simply be late by one week right so there's a lot of lot of services and processes which happens at the LSP and carrier side.

00:44:46: Which you all should need to take over if you want to completely endorse this and.

00:44:51: I don't think I think it was a panic reaction of some of the customers but I don't see this as being a long-term Trend I still think that.

00:45:00: That there's a very valid room for LSPs to be in the market okay

00:45:05: okay so we're going to see Shanker another hundred years around our however long you've been on the market we are chatting 150 DC is 1 in 5000 big anniversary this year so 150 years and and for sure we take that.

00:45:20: We take the act as with with pride and for sure we want to

00:45:25: you want to shape the next hand 150 years as well and Logistics area yeah what's up with all these Logistics providers to turn 150 I was just recently talking to you and figure yeah from figure logistic they're also turning one 150 years next year so.

00:45:38: I wasn't it wasn't aware of that it was it was a good year on a 50 years ago to start a logistics provider seems like it seems like it.

00:45:44: Awesome you are him thank you very much for the interest exciting interesting conversation very much appreciated thanks for your insights and hopefully we'll talk talk again soon thanks for the invitation

00:45:53: all right that was the logistics tribe podcast episode with you our him shout from DB Schenker if you enjoyed Today's Show please make sure to subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss any of the future episodes I'm Boris felgendreher until next time.