How can integrated and digitized logistics networks be realized? In a forum of the BVL Supply Chain CX on 22 October, Marco Rebohm, managing director of Supply Chain and Logistics at Thalia Bücher GmbH, explained how he intends to ensure at the bookseller that returns are no longer viewed as positive, costs are reduced, and the different sourcing channels are better controlled. “Until now Thalia had quite a lot to do manually,” Rebohm said in the forum moderated by Andreas Kick, COO of 4flow SE. It had become clear to them that they could not manage this to the same extent in the current scope.
“Three years ago we began thinking about how we can align our supply chain for the future,” Rebohm reported. The result was the strategy “Logistik 2025,” which is divided into several areas: “In the hardware area we, together with our long-standing partner Rhenus Logistics in Hörselgau, have erected a central warehouse and consolidated other locations. In May we went live with an ‘AutoStore’ warehouse, whereby our figures are already above the contractually agreed. This AutoStore technology fits very well, especially to the order structure in the book sector,” said the supply chain head.
In the future Thalia will also establish a printing operation. “We are building a second central warehouse in Marl,” says Rebohm. Next to it a hall
of 10,000 square meters is being built for the printing topic. “That means we are a retailer that has the corresponding storage capacity, and we offer print on demand.”
Currently Thalia is developing an integrated supply chain control.
“The previous solution based on Excel will be replaced by an Order Management System,” explained the managing director of Supply Chain and Logistics. “With that we create an integrated system control for planning and forecasting.”
At the moment the control system is not yet in regular operation; Rebohm hopes that it will be up and running in the Christmas season. And also for end-customer delivery, Thalia is launching different initiatives and projects.
For the integrated platform, Rebohm is building the organization within the company: “Besides the tools it is important to work with the right people,” said the logistics expert. Two years ago the organization had just under 60 people; by the beginning of 2027 it should be 1,000 people: “We will hire specialists for the systems and project managers,” announced the managing director.
Why is Thalia undertaking this transformation?
“Through digitalization and automation we want to gain process sovereignty,” Rebohm said. “We want to be able to control the entire process chain. Only then can we realize topics such as service and cost reduction.”
Then it also makes sense to collaborate with partners.
In another
presentation at the forum “Integrated, digitized logistics networks: Visions and challenges,” Christian Krebs, head of Logistics Germany at Unilever, explained how the consumer goods manufacturer automated the management of its transport processes. Unilever serves its production in Germany not only from within the Federal Republic but also from Europe and other parts of the world.
“We manage our transports from an Operations Center for all of Europe,” Krebs said. This is located in Katowice in Poland, where Unilever collaborates with a partner. The consumer goods manufacturer uses there its Unilever Transport Management System (UTMS), which comes from Oracle, Warehouse Management Systems, a SAP solution as well as Project44 and “QualityOne.”
“We need a few standards as well as harmonized processes,” said the Head of Logistics Germany at Unilever. “There must be very strong structures so that the processes work.”
For the transport processes in Germany are different from those in France and Italy: “On the one hand we have networks where we work with generalists.” In another model we have allocated our transport contractors on a postal code basis, for example in Germany. “Here we work with a multitude of partners.”
“A large part of our processes is now automated,” Krebs explained. “We use the UTMS not only to plan transports, but we also do the transport invoicing in it and we also use
a UTMS Dock Booking System at the majority of our production sites and logistics warehouses. This gives us a unified data base and a good way to identify many potentials, to optimize further processes and to increase efficiency.”
Thus, in September Unilever managed to plan 60 percent of its transports in the UTMS without any human intervention: The carriers receive their load plans, the information is transmitted via interfaces into the warehouse management systems, and then the goods are transported from the logistics centers to the customer.
“With that we did not settle for that,” explained the head of logistics, “we do a lot with artificial intelligence (AI).” It is important to have forecast accuracy for the required freight capacity in order to strengthen resilience. To this end, Unilever started an AI project: “We take the data from our planning system for the production plants, these are converted into the required pallet demand and from that a weekly forecast for the needed trucks is created,” Krebs reported.
And in a second AI initiative, it concerns inquiries about transports that come in by e-mail. “For that we have activated an AI agent that scans these 50,000 emails and sends the requested information to the sender,” Krebs said. “This helps us ensure that our teams can focus on other tasks such as improvements and further topics.”
