Partnership on equal footing

inconso in conversation with Mario Kaimberger and Karlheinz Venter, Logwin AG

Mario Kaimberger
Director Operations
Process Development
Logwin AG

Karlheinz Venter
Director Business Development
and Information Technology
Logwin AG

Logwin positions itself as international logistics service provider with a special focus on integrated logistics and transportation solutions. Which competitive advantages is your success story based on?

Karlheinz Venter: Our core business is comprehensive solutions – from procurement logistics through production related services to shipping. Closeness to our customers, their markets and industries for us is the basis for our success. Logwin combines the advantages of an international group with those of a medium-sized company based locally. For our customers, the number of services does not count, rather the quality and the fit for their requirements. We do not offer the same solution at a lower price. Rather, we want to continue to think together and develop alternative solutions. Our aim is to increase the efficiency in logistics. This is the only way to create a future-oriented win-win situation. As an experienced logistics service provider, whose roots go back to 1877, we know that the today’s solution may be different tomorrow. With high flexibility, short decision paths, custom solutions and partnership on equal footing, we differentiate ourselves from the competition.

Mario Kaimberger: Given these individual solutions, the biggest challenge is to offer and provide these efficiently and cost-effectively in spite of customized processes and services and thus attractive for the customer. In addition and especially for our business, standing still means falling behind. That means for Logwin that we are not content just having won a customer, but are constantly working to improve our services. This is, on the one hand, our internal standards and on the other hand, driven by the very competitive market environment. We must always keep moving and progressing.

How important is information technology for Logwin?

Karlheinz Venter: Information technology is an integral part of Logwin in the provision of our logistics services, or in other words, "without any IT – no logistics services." It is also the IT that helps existing businesses expand and generate new business. Accordingly, investments are required to have a direct exchange of information via interfaces, to have a tracking and tracing system and to handle logistics processes more efficiently, for example, through a consistent use of scanners or Pick-by-Voice solutions. If we know at all times, which orders are in which processing status, we can continually optimize our personnel and resources utilization and provide ongoing warehouse services to the conditions required by the market. Here, the operational requirements increase through a growing product variety and customer individuality. While in previous times, it was sufficient to hang out some work instructions in the warehouse, the processes today must now be coordinated with different partners and to be mapped in the IT system in order to be able to connect these then to the customer systems.

After working together for many years in various projects, Logwin and inconso entered into a cooperation agreement for strategic partnership in April 2011. What were the reasons for going this route with inconso?

Karlheinz Venter: At the end of the day, the consistently high quality of the long-standing collaboration with inconso tipped the scales to enter into the long term strategic cooperation. The experience is not limited only to the quality of application systems, but also includes the expertise and flexibility of inconso. The partnership experienced in the past also correlates to our understanding of customer orientation. It was very important for Logwin that the partner understands the requirements and the financial scope of a logistics service provider.

With joint development of a standardized template tailored to Logwin’s requirements, a new path was taken. What were the reasons and has the approach been proven in practical use?

Mario Kaimberger: Together with inconso, we have preconfigured a highly flexible, powerful system so that a very low implementation cost results. Even more important is the opportunity to grow the Logwin locations flexibly with the business. If Logwin wants to represent a client on multiple warehouse locations, this can be done easily. If a location wins an eFulfillment customer, the standardized processes and interfaces can simply be used. Another driving aspect behind the development and use of the business template was to standardize the logistics processes across the enterprise as much as possible. On the one hand, this enables the efficient implementation of customer requirements. On the other hand, all locations can profit directly from further developments. The business template is the right approach in order to implement the project "Standardization of WMS systems and storage processes," to the full extent successfully. The concept and use have been proven from the beginning! With the go-live in the second location, warehouses could already take advantage of the respective developments.

How can the required flexibility still be maintained when using standardized templates?

Karlheinz Venter: The approach was to design the business template so that a very wide process range is configurable. This makes the system very flexible and can be adapted to the needs in different locations, yet still remain a "standard". For example, the warehouse layout, storage and retrieval strategies, the picking sequences and other customer-specific requirements can be configured for each warehouse.

Close to a year after the start of the strategic cooperation - how do you evaluate the experience with inconso and the team?

Mario Kaimberger: In the extremely successful first rollout year, an amicable and constructive co-operation has developed into a more intensive partnership that benefits both sides. Logwin has undertaken to convert all its warehouse sites to inconsoWMS X until 2015. We are very proud that, thanks to the smooth cooperation between inconso, the Logwin customers and internal departments at Logwin, we are ahead of schedule.

What are your business expectations or goals for the coming years? For which changes in the area of logistics service are you prepared for?

Karlheinz Venter: As a global company, Logwin wants to continue to grow profitably and sustainably. We prepare ourselves more for the growing wish for individuality and flexibility of our customers. The developments in recent years lead to an expectation of further increased cost pressures and make further efficiency gains necessary. However, the risk protection is also playing an increasingly important role. In the meantime, very closely planned supply chains, flexibility and stability are needed to cushion the negative impact of rising volatility in the markets. We see good growth opportunities in the emerging countries of Eastern Europe - for these markets, we need systems that are operated cost-effectively and their implementation can be done with little effort - in other words, we need the business template.

Mario Kaimberger: One of the major changes in the market is that the implementation timeframes for new businesses are getting shorter. There is no more time to develop new systems or processes. In the end, this means that we either have a very efficient returns process at a warehouse location or, for example, you don’t need to participate in any tenders for eCommerce eFulfillment anymore. In summary, we can say that the tension between efficient and standardized processes with the required speed and flexibility as well as the consistent use of growth opportunities as an exciting challenge that we gladly accept.