Logtrade x Widriksson x Södertörn
Better deliveries, more time for care thanks to Connected Goods.
How Connected Goods supported Widriksson in improving deliveries to Södertörn municipalities while creating more time for drivers and care.
Challenge: Ensure on-time, error-free deliveries.
When school lunches are on the line, getting the right ingredients to the right place on time is a must. Even the smallest fulfillment errors can lead to delays, which is why last-mile logistics specialist Widriksson partnered with Logtrade to improve their delivery performance to Södertörn municipalities. Located in greater Stockholm, the eight municipalities relies on Widriksson to deliver all types of essentials to kindergartens, eldercare centers, and school kitchens.
As a distributor to a public-sector client, Widriksson needs to ensure fully traceable, on-time deliveries, which can be a challenge due to their partly subcontracted fleet.
Before working with Logtrade, time-consuming manual scans were slowing down Widriksson’s deliveries and even impacting flows: if a driver forgot to scan an item on arrival, detective work ensued. Transparency was also a challenge. Kitchen staff sometimes only discovered food substitutions from suppliers when goods arrived, which meant last-minute menu changes.
Approach: Digitize flows by making products and events visible.
That’s where Logtrade came in, to help Widriksson take their digital logistics to the next level. To do that, they chose Logtrade’s Connected Goods. The digital logistics service makes all types of goods or products visible by giving them a virtual ID and enabling them to connect – as active players – to the supply chain through sensor and GPS technology. That way, goods can exchange data autonomously with other assets like delivery trucks and warehouses, making it possible to register events like unloading or cross-docking fully automatically. In other words, the supply chain starts to see and manage itself.
Widriksson can have visibility into routes and scheduled deliveries, and recipients like Södertörn can see inbound shipments, including exactly which goods are arriving.
How it works:
1. Integrate.
Widriksson’s systems were integrated with our platform, so orders could be easily registered in Connected Goods.
2. Enable visibility.
Warehouse staff attach active RFID sensors to pallets. The sensors are scanned to connect them to the Connected Goods cloud.
3. Automate status updates.
All along the route, location data and status updates are sent to the Connected Goods cloud.
4. Simplify delivery.
On arrival, Widriksson’s drivers simply scanned the shipment just once to identify it and hand it over easily and efficiently.
Outcome: Efficient, sustainable food deliveries and a future-proofed supply chain.
In choosing Connected Goods, Widriksson’s main goals were to automate their processes for timelier deliveries and reduce the small handling errors that were impacting flows to the municipalities. They succeeded on both counts and then some. First, minimal scanning shortened delivery times. If a pallet contained 50 items, for example, drivers no longer needed to scan all items individually. Just one scan was enough – and both drivers and end customers could return more quickly to their core tasks.
Second, Widriksson’s delivery performance improved even more thanks to better route planning. Because Connected Goods automatically records delivery events, Widriksson could learn when to allow more unloading time for drivers, and in the process, increase their on-time delivery performance, even when delivering through subcontractors. Drivers experienced less stress en route – and all in all, a smoother delivery experience.
Finally, transparency could be improved, since stock deviations could also be detected, further reducing stress and reporting effort for all parties.
Due to the positive results, Södertörn plans to extend the service and use it for deliveries during off-peak hours. Delivering off-peak generally offers added gains in sustainability, and likely improvements in safety and more time for caregiving by day. Eliminating inefficiencies by reducing shipping errors and paperwork support more sustainable logistics – ultimately, the shared vision of Widriksson and Logtrade.
- Greater transparency into orders and shipments
- Less time spent on manual scanning
- Fewer people-hours spent reporting excursions
- Insights into delivery times, better route planning for subcontractors
- More accurate delivery times for end customers
“By connecting our goods and digitizing the process, we not only reduced human error but even improved our route planning and the driver experience.”
Marcel Nemer
Head of Product at Widriksson Logistik AB
“Connected Goods gives our schools and care centers more trust in the delivery process - they can see their goods and know exactly what’s coming.”
Therese Tibell
Therese Tibell, Controller Central Goods Distribution, Södertörn municipalities
Products used.
All products are compatible with the Logtrade Data Sharing Platform and help solve supply chain challenges, or we work together to develop new solutions.
