Seifert Logistics GmbH
International logistics company inspires employees and customers thanks to digitisation
What is the specific challenge?
Seifert Logistics is a medium-sized, family-owned company with a focus on transport and logistics services throughout Europe. With its 2,000 employees and continuous growth, the company sees real opportunities in the area of digitisation. With solutions such as smapOne, Seifert Logistics is targeting process optimisation and increased efficiency. It should be possible to integrate new locations as easily as possible, and employees should quickly become familiar with the most important processes.
The company is not the only thing that is changing; the market is too. Customer relationships are becoming increasingly short-lived, and an ever-increasing number of processes have to be adapted in an agile and flexible way – based on customer requirements. Axel Frey is certain that "good corporate development over the long term is only possible through intelligent digitisation".
What does the solution look like?
To address these challenges, Seifert Logistics chose smapOne. Many processes related to picking services, quality checks and delivery documents were critically reviewed and adapted accordingly.
The time saved ranges from a few minutes to 20 hours per week (depending on the process). And the greatest added value: the usability and sustainability of data. Whereas in the past this information was recorded manually and only digitised with a great deal of effort, today this can be done within a few minutes and evaluation is also much better.
The journey towards the productive use of smaps, with a high level of acceptance among staff, took in three preparatory introduction stages. Remote workshops and the on-site hackathon by and with smapOne led to a uniform understanding of the new method of data collection. In addition, training was provided to give staff an idea of where to look for possible areas of application and use. The employee creativity that emerged during this process was encouraged even further in an internal competition in which everyone – from trainees to management – could build and submit their own smaps. In the end, almost 90 smaps were gathered, of which the best three were awarded the title of TOP SMAPS. These are already in daily use and are being rolled out to all Seifert Logistics locations. Each location has a selected team for this purpose, which ensures the correct use of the smaps, takes up ideas from colleagues for new smaps and checks their feasibility on a wider scale.
Customer benefits – what has improved?
- Faster data recording: Easier data recording allows tasks to be processed more quickly and additional information (such as images) to be attached simply.
- Better decisions thanks to better data: The end-to-end collection of data digitally makes processes a lot more transparent. Customer queries or ambiguities can be solved easily and quickly.
- Identification of employees with the company: smapOne has led to a real rethink in the company. Staff are now reviewing their own work for optimisation potential and better understand why agility and flexibility are of enormous importance.
- Perception as an innovative partner for customers: The logistics company's end customers also experience the process improvements. They save time and money with their own dashboard and get the KPIs they want in real time.
Alex Frey is convinced that "a good smap saves money" and sees potential savings in the six-figure range: purely by optimising and improving processes and production flows using smapOne.
How does the digital transition work in the company?
Within the company, the digital transition is a success. Today, around 100 Seifert Logistics employees are active users, and the number is growing daily. They're also tackling the generation gap. For example:
About 50 of the company's trainees (apprentices, interns, working students) are on the way to becoming key users. They pass on their knowledge to colleagues and assist in building the smaps.
"It was clear that we would only be able to use smapOne successfully if we involve all colleagues, take their concerns seriously and process them, and let them know that they can actively participate. This has worked extremely well." As a result of the internal app competition in particular, in which every employee of the company could participate, many felt heard and valued, and this made an enormous contribution towards acceptance of the solution.
