MTU Aero Engines AG reduces significant truck throughput times of inbound traffic
MTU Aero Engines AG, Germany's leading engine manufacturer, has expanded longterm collabotation with INFORM with the time slot and yard management system SYNCROSUPPLY.
The increased production volume led to growing logistical challenges for MTU in inbound traffic and longer waiting times for truck drivers. The introduction of the system was intended to equalise traffic and reduce waiting and throughput times.
Truck throughput times reduced
"We have transparency about who is in the plant, when and for how long, handle transports more efficiently, and have been able to significantly improve our throughput times: from an average of 56 to 46 minutes."
Florian Wohlgemuth, Project Manager Logistics Planning, MTU Aero Engines AG
The incoming truck traffic from around 500 service providers mainly reached MTU in the mornings, with a total of around 60 deliveries per day at four ramps. Delivery peaks presented the company with logistical challenges, which led to waiting times for the truck drivers during employee breaks. As there are also construction sites on the factory premises, the volume of traffic in the factory should be reduced and incoming forwarders have to go through certain registration and security processes, the waiting area for trucks had to be moved to the road outside the factory premises. MTU opted for SYNCROSUPPLY from INFORM in order to distribute the workload at incoming goods more evenly throughout the day, to reduce waiting and throughput times, and to create end-to-end transparency.
Ramp Optimization
The system is used to book and plan time slots for incoming trucks as well as to optimize the allocation of these to the correct ramp. From now on, every incoming goods shipment is stored in the system with a journey. Forwarders and their subcontractors who regularly call at MTU log in via a web-based portal to announce their journey, transmit data about the freight, and book a suitable time slot. Anyone who arrives spontaneously at the gate is allocated a time slot on site.
In addition to the planned equalization, which was already clearly noticeable shortly after the system was introduced in 2021, the company is also generating more and more data on inbound traffic, which can be used in the future for information to authorities, capacity utilization forecasts, or the needs-based provision of forklifts and drivers, for example. Once you have received your time slot, you can register at a self-check-in terminal that is connected to SYNCROSUPPLY. This is followed by identity and sanction list checks before the driver is allowed to return to the truck with a pager. If the correct ramp is available for the relevant time slot, the truck is called up and guided through further processing on site.
GOALS ACHIEVED
- Significant shortening of throughput times
- Reduction in the volume of traffic on the factory site
- Levelling of delivery peaks
- Homogenous utilization of incoming goods
- Consistent transparency in the yard
MTU has been using the intralogistics management system SYNCROTESS since 1993. Today, the system handles 560,000 transport order annually, and rising.
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