Transportation optimization meets material planning software
Material planning and transport planning are often separate processes. Material planners don’t know transportation capacities, and transportation planners can’t see their impact on inventory. This lack of visibility leads to ineffective plans and lots of last-minute changes.
Discover a new approach with software for integrated material and transport planning. By considering transportation constraints like capacities and costs earlier in your supply chain, you can optimize call-offs, make reliable plans – and reduce transportation costs by 10%.
Cutting-edge planning software
Powerful optimization algorithms ensure reliable planning and on-time availability of goods and materials. The software considers real-world transportation factors such as available lanes, transportation costs, and equipment restrictions when generating material orders.
Optimize transportation efficiency
You can automatically group orders into efficient shipments to maximize transportation utilization and reduce transportation costs. Direct benefits include increased FTL utilization and fewer trucks on the road for a more sustainable supply chain.
One smart approach to material planning, two solutions to fit your IT architecture
If you use Kinaxis Maestro™ (RapidResponse®)
Kinaxis TLO by 4flow
This embedded MaestroTM (RapidResponse®) application brings the power of transportation optimization to the Kinaxis concurrent planning platform – empowering you to increase planning efficiency, achieve significant costs savings and reduce carbon emissions.
If you use an ERP system
4flow TORO
Plug-in solution for MRP optimization
This plug-in solution fits in seamlessly to your existing landscape – so you can start optimizing material call-offs and achieving cost savings, no matter what software you already use.
Industries
Automotive
Manage even the most complex global networks and counteract volatility. You can optimize transportation in complex networks to create significant cost savings, efficient supply chain processes, and end-to-end transparency with transportation and material planning software from 4flow.
Consumer goods and retail
Ensure reliable on-time delivery of high-quality goods, reduce complexity, and save transportation costs with one solution. You can tackle changing consumer demands and increased transportation and shipping costs with 4flow’s material and transportation planning software.
Discrete manufacturing
Build a resilient supply chain with reliable availability of components for on-time manufacturing. You can overcome supply chain volatility, from raw material shortages to shipping container delays, with 4flow's software solutions for integrated transport and material planning.
Benefits & features
>15% CO2 reduction
Cost savings of up to 10%
End-to-end transparency and
confident decision making
Improve transportation utilization
by up to 20%
Eliminate silos and ensure
supply chain resilience
Automation and optimization
of material planning
The powerful algorithms can also be applied to the following
Additional use cases
FAQ
1. What are the differences between a TMS and transportation planning system?
A TMS enhances day-to-day visibility, assists with compliance, provides documentation and supports the timely delivery of goods. On the other hand, transportation planning software focuses on automatically optimizing material call-offs considering both inventory and transportation constraints, allowing planners to consider transportation factors and material constraints simultaneously.
2. How can transportation planning software enhance a TMS?
Considering transportation planning and optimization already in the material planning phase makes planning more flexible and efficient. Implementing transportation planning software alongside a TMS enables smoother execution by ensuring actionable plans, maximizing utilization and minimizing inefficiencies like last-minute changes and back-and-forth communication.
3. How does transportation planning software work? What kinds of factors are considered?
Transportation planning software automatically runs an additional optimization in the demand planning calculation. It prepones and/or postpones orders to consolidate demand and create fuller, more efficient loads. Transportation and inventory constraints are considered simultaneously, so planning results are feasible and cost-efficient, and material arrives on time.
Depending on the specific industry, processes and customer requirements, different transportation factors need to be considered in the optimization, e.g. incompatibilities, priority and transportation capacities.
4. How can I be sure that my optimization potential is significant for my use case?
Our 4flow experts can calculate your optimization potential for you free of charge based on a sample of your call-off data. Contact us to discover your optimization potential.
Access download area
- Access our on-demand webinar recordings on most common use cases
- Download industry-specific case studies showing how 4flow solutions supported customers from various industries
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