Hazardous goods distributor selects Ortec to guarantee safe and innovative planning

To continue to provide the best service to its customers in the current market conditions logistics service provider Van den Anker has decided to work with Ortec. Van den Anker will replace its current planning solution with Ortec's advanced scheduling and routing solution. "We would like to automate our planning further," said Hendrik van den Anker, director. 'The solution we are currently using does not offer adequate support." It is not without reason that Van den Anker's motto reads: 'We make it work'.

Hendrik van den Anker: "Until now, we had always scheduled our routes with a planning system. The only problem with this is that the planner had too much influence on the system. Given our vision this needed to change. We clearly needed a more advanced system that could help us plan even more accurately. After all, we handle the distribution of dangerous goods, such as paint, crop protection agents, engine oil and cleaning agents. The majority of our shipments falls under the ADR regulation governing the carriage of dangerous goods, which not only involves additional requirements for transportation but has also recently been extended to transhipment locations."

Speed and efficiency
Another challenge facing us is that most of our shipments are only available at the Van Den Anker storage sites or our customers' location late in the afternoon or even in the evening. 'This is why activities such as planning, transhipment and driving from one depot to another all need to be carried out in the evening and at night. Speed and efficiency are of the essence if we are to deliver our goods to all corners of the Benelux, Northern France and the Ruhr Valley in Germany the next day."

The most important condition imposed by Van den Anker on a planning solution is its ability to take into account all of the above restrictions and challenges. 'Ortec's solution is truly outstanding in this complex planning environment. We hope that this will enable us to cut costs, and ultimately even generate a higher profit. In addition to cutting costs by 5%, our goal is to put as many parameters as possible into the system so that it will ultimately enable us to arrange the routes differently. The ideal situation would be that when the last order is entered into our system in the evening one touch of a button would be enough to create the right planning schedule and route. It shouldn't have to matter who presses that button either."