The Flemish Institute for Logistics has just completed a research project investigating the business case of Self-Service technology in logistics environments. By means of two pilot projects at Scania and Unilin, in which Peripass was used as service provider, VIL together with the University of Antwerp confirmed the favorable impact on the cost structure of site logistics.

GOAL

Within the project, VIL mapped out the entire process of reception (access control, follow-up, yard management,…) at the participating companies. The objective is to convert the manual aspect to a semi- or fully automatic whole. By introducing self-service in logistics, a more efficient and safer yard management will be achieved through, among other things, technological support. The focus of ‘Self-service In Logistics’ is on the technological side and not the process side of the reception of people and goods.

RESULTS

Within this project, VIL carried out a market study into the state-of-the-art technologies that can fully automate the reception of persons, goods and parcels.

The systems can be divided into five types:

1. Time slot booking includes software that allows carriers to reserve in advance the time slot within which they will arrive at the warehouse.
2. Yard management system consists of both software and hardware. The hardware usually consists of a self-service login kiosk. This solution collects and combines as much data as possible digitally and thus eliminates manual work, making the reception process more efficient.
3. The time slot booking system and the yard management system are complementary in terms of the problems they solve. A combination of both systems will therefore yield the greatest profit.
4. Visitor management is the only technology category specific to visitor flow. This category can be compared to a ‘yard management system for visitors’. The system also uses self-service kiosks where visitors can register.
5. The parcel locker is the only solution for the parcel flow. The best-known lockers are the Cubee’s from Bpost, which are already in many public places. But there are also specific solutions for companies.

Successful business cases, coupled with two Proof of Concepts, were developed at both Scania Parts Logistics and UNILIN. The elaboration of the business cases and the accompanying Proof of Concepts show that the automation of these manual and outdated processes is indeed financially attractive. Even minimal interventions already lead to significant time savings that significantly increase efficiency. With a positive return on investment after just 5.6 months, excuses are no longer accepted.

With this project, report and the developed ROI tool, VIL provides the tools to make a thorough reflection on the added value of certain forms of automation.

Read all the details of the study and download the full report (for VIL-members only) on https://vil.be/en/project/self…

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