A truck-load of benefits
At DACHSER Feldkirchen there are rows and rows of large, dark yellow cardboard boxes stacked neatly on top of each other, waiting to be inspected and repackaged. They have just arrived by truck, but this was only the last and shortest leg of their long journey. This global automotive supply chain actually starts in the East Indian mega city of Chennai.
There, in the former Madras, each cardboard box was packed with 42 to 56 high-quality brake shoes for drum brakes. They were then shipped on to Hamburg, then transported from the port by rail on to Munich and then taken from the freight yard by truck to the Feldkirchen warehouse of the DACHSER branch in Munich. Here, at the 15,000 square meter hall, there are boxes as far as the eye can see in two 50-meter long and five-level high storage corridors. The drum brakes from India are intended for a commercial vehicle manufacturer who is one of DACHSER’s major customers.
Inspected and repackaged
The Feldkirchen team provides a special contract logistic service: “All the boxes are opened by our staff, who examine the breaks visually for any places where rusting may have occurred. We remove any affected parts. Then we pack the brakes in wire mesh crates, as standard in the vehicle manufacturing industry. This is done according to a very special packaging protocol with reusable shelves,” Gerhard Leutschaft, Head of contract logistics at the DACHSER Feldkirchen warehouse explains. “This means they arrive in “bite-sized portions” at the customer and can be used right away on the assembly line.”
All the boxes are opened by our staff, who examine the breaks visually for any places where rusting may have occurred. We remove any affected parts. Then we pack the brakes in wire mesh crates, as standard in the vehicle manufacturing industry. This is done according to a very special packaging protocol with reusable shelves
Value-Added-Services reduce workload
Inspecting and repackaging are not the only DACHSER services that the automotive suppliers and commercial vehicle manufacturers alike have come to love, though. First of all, the duty on the goods is not paid until they leave the bonded warehouse in Feldkirchen for delivery to the commercial vehicle manufacturer – this means a major cash flow advantage for both partners. And there are even more benefits: “We relieve both sides of a lot of work. For the automotive supplier we also compile the invoices to the vehicle manufacturer, based on the outbound goods,” Stefan Steinbeißer tells us.
He is responsible at DACHSER for taking care of daily business for the customer, checking in the system of the commercial vehicle manufacturer which parts are needed and then sending them on their way. They are delivered according to the ABC model: On day A they are prepared at DACHSER, on day B they are collected by the customer’s logistics team and on day C they are delivered to the different production plants in Germany.
Good reputation established
he cooperation dates back to 2008. “Back then we started by delivering one part, now it is eight different items. At the beginning we delivered on a weekly basis, now at least one truck with around 15 tons of goods goes out each working day,” says Stefan Steinbeißer. Two other suppliers – from Turkey – now use DACHSER to complete their deliveries. This figure may well increase in the future.
Gerhard Leutschaft sums it up: “We have established a very good reputation thanks to our full service approach. This lays the foundation for further growth in the demanding automotive business.”
