Tricking the system

In the spring of 2020, most business in Italy, Spain and France was at a complete standstill. Because of strict lockdowns in regions heavily impacted by the ­virus, companies were forced to close from one day to the next, not even able to accept deliveries. Endress+Hauser was in a position to react quickly in this situation, with the European logistics hub in Frankfurt, Germany playing a key role. Like eight other hubs around the world, this facility collects delivery-ready measurement instruments from various production centers and ships them to customers from a central point using a completely digital and automated process.

At the heart of this process is a software system with the flexibility to find the best logistics provider for each ­delivery. “Our sales centers stored the postcodes for the lockdown regions in the system, which then automatically warehoused ­deliveries destined for the impacted regions at the hub,” explains Stefan Kern, IT & Data Analytics Manager at Endress+Hauser.

Around 8,800 such deliveries were held back during the lockdown. As soon as lockdown restrictions were eased, the sales centers ­released the corresponding postcode. The system then immediately sent the instruments on their way. Since the selection of a freight forwarder was automatically controlled through intelligent algorithms, the instruments often arrived at the customer within 24 hours.