The Art of Supply Chain Orchestration
As Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise ’ s 4PL provider , Kuehne + Nagel leverages its data-centric IT architecture and its global control tower footprint to support ALE ’ s competitive positioning .
In December 2019 , Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise , one of the world ’ s leading networking , communications and cloud solutions , chose Kuehne + Nagel as its 4PL partner for Europe .
Kuehne + Nagel maintains a network of partnerships with other supply chain operators , innovators and disruptors throughout the world – customers can achieve a distinct competitive advantage by leveraging its Software AND a Service delivering three key advantages , visibility , resilience and sustainability .
With ALE , seamless integration is ensured using a full EDI set up ( based on EDIFACT messages ) between the two partners , the European Distribution Centre , and carriers , explains Mark Edenburg , Global Business Manager High Tech at Kuehne + Nagel .
“ ALE has full visibility on all events in our visibility portal ’. We use advanced tools such as a Transport Management System ( TMS ) with strong dynamic planning and optimisation capabilities to automate processes , and our own in-house collaboration platform for customer service , which provides a single point of contact for all requests and deviations relating to order life-cycle execution . The ability to execute request trend-analysis and determine rootcauses really drives improvement !”
Kuehne + Nagel ’ s flexibility of service makes its customer ’ s supply chain more resilient . For example ALE ’ s volumes fluctuate , with peaks at year- and quarter-end . ” We have a transactional model in place . The shared multi-customer environment in our Luxembourg control tower is a key enabler when handling these spikes in volumes ”.
Kuehne + Nagel takes the burden from ALE in a multitude of ways , such as managing its relationships with carriers , KPIs , the lifecycle of complex tariff arrangements and , very importantly , continuous improvement ( CI ). “ CI is the next step in the evolution of our partnership with ALE ,” says Edenburg . “ It ’ s key , especially in these times , to concentrate on supply chain optimisation and – together – find effective answers and solutions .”
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