Volkswagen Mexico realized their vision for a highly integrated approach to vehicle logistics

VW Mexico wanted a transport management system that allowed them to organize all of the processes in the yards as well as the transport and to show these transparently in one system. It’s a complex task, as a glance at the figures shows. The yard directly alongside the production hall in Puebla alone can hold over 11,500 cars with a further 8,000 spaces available in external yards. In the port of Veracruz another 12,000 cars can be held awaiting import and export. Yard spaces are a valuable resource. “Around 1,700 cars that leave the production plant in Puebla every day are joined by around 600 imported cars every day which arrive by vessel from Volkswagen Group production sites around the world”, explains Beckmann, who is responsible for the logistics planning at VW de Mexico. In order to avoid overcrowding in the yards, a smooth daily shipping of vehicles is of crucial importance for the entire logistics process. “We ship around 1,200 cars per train from Puebla every day. 600 of these are sent directly to North America and the other 600 to the port in Veracruz from where they are shipped to Europe“, explains Hector Romero, responsible for the yard management in Puebla.

On top of that, around 100 trucks leave the yard every day to deliver cars to the ports or directly to Mexican dealers. These so called “Madrinas” are giant trucks with a capacity of up to 15 vehicles. This means that a total of around 2,500 cars start their journey in Puebla every day.

Results

With INFORM's software solution for Vehicle Logistics, VW has a highly integrated system which synchronizes and transparently controls all of these processes. The system is easy to operate so that it is widely accepted by VW employees after a very short familiarization period.