POSSIBILITIES OF RFID ENHANCED REVERSE LOGISTICS IN THE DURABLE OFFICE EQUIPMENT INDUSTRY M.W. Ludema, Delft University of Technology (Technology, Policy & Management) J. van der Leur, Ricoh NRG Direct Ltd.
Introduction and background The life cycle management aspects for Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM s) of durable office equipment are an important part of their business. To manage the process of reverse flows of products by means of reverse logistics, information becomes crucial. Currently information systems for reverse logistics do no exist, are not very advanced and typically not integrated with other business applications. When products are retrieved from the market a decision must be made about their further life and finally they must be processed in a cost efficient and above all environmental friendly manner. Better information may lead to better decisions concerning the further life of a product. Information is seldom fully available or just partly and reprocessing operators must retrieve the information manually by means of physical inspection of the product. The ultimate solution is an information system where product information is captured per unique identified product and that is accessible throughout the supply chain. This requires a system in which each unique product is identified throughout the several stages in the supply chain. It is practically impossible to establish this situation with current identification technologies. By means of Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) products can be identified without a line of sight or execution of a manual action. RFID seems the most promising identification technology available to establish a system in which each unique product can be identified throughout the supply chain. RFID seems to be an ultimate solution nevertheless precautions must be taken. To determine if RFID can really optimise the reverse logistics processes for each specific situation feasibility studies should be executed. When RFID tags are integrated with the distribution or consumer packaging these RFID tags will become useless and thrown away when the packaging material is removed from the product. For reverse chains the implementation of RFID integrated with the physical product should be considered. Research objective This research will focus on the possibilities RFID can have for reverse logistics processes within the office equipment industry. Within this research a case study discussing the possibility and feasibility of introducing RFID within a restricted reverse logistics flow of a specific product-market combination of the Ricoh Family Group was conducted. Office Equipment Industry (OEI) Office equipment can be divided in machine products, supply products and peripheral products. Machine products pose a large part of the turn-over in the industry. Machine product group is divided
in several sub-groups, usually divided in the Low-end, Middle-end and High-end product segments. This categorisation is based on the number of copies per minute. The low-end categories are the products for the home or small offices and the high-end machines are sold to repro-centres, copyshops and other heavy users. Each of the individual products, especially the machines, is composed of a large number of several smaller parts. On average a machine will be succeeded by a new model every 18 months. Because of the large life cycle of office equipment, the average time that machines are placed in the field is around 2-9 years, so peripherals are important. Supply products represent the products that are consumed when using the machines. Besides paper a machine also uses toner or developer. Often the toner and developer is sold in cartridges that can be returned when they are empty. Toner and developer however are also sold in disposable containers and little bags. A general machine product is a multifunctional photocopier with functions like: printing, copying, scanning, faxing and the availability of software for document control. The type of machine is built from several units and consists in total of approximately 1000 components. Table 1: Machine components Table 1 shows an overview of units that are part of such a machine. Each of the units in the machine has a predetermined location. The majority of the components contain plastics and metal but more important is the fact that the different kinds of materials are used throughout the machine instead of concentrations of certain materials on a few locations of the machine. When checking the technical feasibility of applying RFID-tags on the machine and/or on the components it is important to understand the technical construction of the machine and to have certain knowledge about the kind of
materials the machine is built from. Interference must be avoided and the RFID tag must be placed somewhere on or in the machine where it can be read best by the RFID readers. Trends in the office equipment industry Technologically advanced copiers or multi-functional devices are commonly connected to companies' computer networks and are capable of scanning documents and sending faxes and e-mails. For this type of product it becomes more and more important to differentiate the processes in accordance with logistic requirements. The lease market becomes more important for high-end machines than machines sold to customers. Pay-per-click (page/copy) is the most popular method of signing contracts and putting machines in the market. Service and maintenance costs are typically included within lease contracts. Predictability, reliability and visibility become highly important in the office equipment industry. Onsite installation in collaboration with the customer s IT department is becoming more and more common. Reverse logistics for RMO becomes important. Managing the RMO processes effectively is important to maximise the up-time of the machines because every minute of down-time means that the equipment is not generating turnover for companies that leased this equipment. Maximising up-time can be done by means of quicker repair but also by the execution of preventive maintenance. Knowledge of the failure characteristics proves the possibilities to control this up-time management. Service engineers are becoming more and more an extension of the company because they are the 'ears and eyes' of the company. The specific characteristics of machines are enormous. This results in a large number of additional items that can be ordered together with a copier, printer or multifunctional product. Much time is spent on the configuration of products in the dedicated assembly centres to make the products according to the customers wish. Therefore it is not surprising that one of the trends is to produce universal models that can be customised more easily with less effort and without loosing customer satisfaction. Products will be designed in a more modular way, which will result in a faster and more flexible assembly process. The high tech electronics industry is a prominent sector in product recovery [1]. Many Original Equipment Manufacturers are taking back and recovering their products. On one hand they are forced by the increasing governmental legislation and on the other hand the recovery of product appears to be very profitable in many cases. Many companies are already changing their product design for reusability which is quite a drastic change in approaching the design of a product. Companies within the OEI are active in investigating the possible use of RFID as a tool for supply chain optimisation. Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Lexmark are tagging products for Wal-Mart on product level. HP was one of the first of eight suppliers to successfully ship RFID tagged products to Wal-Mart
and they currently ship around sixty RFID tagged products to Wal-Mart. Océ and Fuji Xerox are involved in RFID pilots. Fuji Xerox has started pilots within their production facilities to manage the assembly and production of multifunctional products and will not only use the RFID tag on machine level but they also apply the RFID tag on the most important components of the machine to monitor components used in their machines. Reverse logistics Beyond all the definitions that exist for reverse logistics a very useful one is [2]: the logistics management skills and activities involved in reducing, managing, and disposing of hazardous waste from packaging and products., reverse logistics includes the flow of goods and information in the opposite direction from normal logistic activities. The driving forces of reverse logistics are: Economics, because it might be cheaper to re-use used materials then to purchase new ones. Besides standardisation enables the re-use of products like transport units (pallets, containers etc.).; Marketing, because green is becoming a normal image for many companies. Customers become more sensitive for buying products that are beneficial for the environment. Especially in industries that have to deal with different kind of waste, like the office equipment industry, it is important to positively influence the opinion of the customers. Legislation, because more and more EU-legislation is made to regulate the waste that is produced and to control the waste quota and the methods of how waste is processed. On the area of reverse logistics important legislation has been made regarding the recycling of packaging materials and the responsibilities of the disposal of returned goods at the end of the life cycle. Environmental and ethical, because despite the problems of economic feasibility of reverse logistics companies are taking more responsibility for reverse logistics because of ethical reasons. Frequently this goes hand in hand with values or principles which are impelled to them by the market or the government. Due to the extended responsibility that companies acquire the need of a good reverse logistics network becomes also bigger and bigger.
Figure 1: Reverse logistics processes [3] After having considered the driving forces of reverse logistics and the variety of returns, the physical process is described. Reverse logistics becomes increasingly important and should be viewed as an integral part of an organisation s overall supply chain. Reverse logistics approach or strategy differs among industries. In general four reverse logistics processes can be distinguished (fig. 1) [3]: 1. Collection, bringing the returned products from the customer to a point of recovery; 2. Inspection, selection and sorting, is important because within this process it is decided what to do with a product. 3. Re-processing (repair, refurbishing, reconditioning, remanufacturing, recycling & incineration) and direct recovery, concerning the collected end-of-use products that contain valuable components which can be re-used or resold. 4. Redistribution is the process of bringing the recovered goods to the new users. Often the redistribution is done via the regular forward supply chain channels. Outsourcing of reverse logistics Outsourcing of reverse logistics processes to 3PLs requires that information is exchanged between the several players. Sharing of information and warehouse facilities always pose some risk. Returns have a lower impact on the profitability of those firms utilising outsourced reverse logistics centres than those not using outsourced reverse logistics centres. Giuntini even calls capital goods producing OEMs stupid if they don't get involved themselves in their reverse logistics processes [4]. By outsourcing reverse logistics companies reverse products are put in the hands of some of these service organisations, so they might learn more about the products than advisable. For companies in the office equipment industry reverse logistics should be seen a strategic proposition and therefore the responsibility for the OEM and not to be outsourced.
Reverse logistics and RFID RFID means Radio Frequency Identification and can be explained as a shared term for several kinds of ICT-applications that make use of radio frequency transmission during the identification of goods and the capturing, retrieving and communication of information. RFID can capture real time information of movements of products without much effort from operators and most important is that RFID is able to uniquely identify products and components in the supply chain. Especially the unique product life cycle information is of crucial importance within the reverse logistics processes. At its most basic level, RFID is a wireless link that identifies unique objects, processes, transaction or events. RFID systems consist of the tags as well as reader electronics to communicate with these tags. The system communicates via radio signals that carry data either uni-directionally or bidirectionally. The readers within the system have to communicate with the business applications (ERP, WMS, TMS etc.) in a multi-directional way (accurate and real time). Middle ware is needed to bridge the gaps between the different systems specialised software. RFID tags can be equipped with or without a chip. When no chip is integrated the RFID tag cannot contain any information. The only status that can be retrieved from the RFID tag is if it is active or not. The chip less RFID tag is used in the electronic security of products (anti theft). The main logistics processes require RFID tags that contain a chip and can carry information. Some RFID tags have an internal power supply to operate the microchip, the so-called active tags. The active RFID tag has its own power supply and is capable of sending a signal to a RFID reader. Passive RFID tags don t have a power supply and instead of this they use the energy from the electro magnetic wave or pulse sent by the RFID reader. Semi-passive RFID tags have a power supply but are triggered by the waves of the RFID reader. This RFID tag can t send a signal when it doesn t receive a signal from the RFID reader. Table 2 shows possible levels of integration of RFID-tags in respect of office equipment (components). Table 2: Levels of RIFD-tag integration RFID is generating an enormous amount of data which has to be transformed into information. Existing business applications like the ERP and WMS packages might not be capable handling the amount of data that RFID applications can generate. Therefore a software application is needed that
is called middleware. First the middleware software is managing the data that is received from all the RFID readers in the field. Then the information that is stored in the middleware database needs to be communicated with the business applications. The information must be communicated both ways because the validations of the RFID registrations must come from the business applications. Reverse logistics and the Ricoh Family Group (RFG) Many products that are returned from the market can be used again. The reprocessing and the reselling of these returns are generating economic benefits. There is also a significant market for second-hand products (especially machines). From environmental point of view the RFG is obliged to take back the machine despite of its condition. By collecting the machines itself the RFG can take care of a responsible method of re-using or disposing of the products. Basically there are two types of basic return flows, the new machines and used machines. After the end of the lease contract the machine is returned and replaced by a new machine. Because the customer leases the machine the RFG sales operating company is still the owner of the machine and therefore also responsible for the return of the machine after usage. The typical lease period is 24 months and after this period the machine is returned and if applicable re-leased again. The life of a machine in the field is between 2 and 10 years. The average period that is taken into account in this research is 2-9 years. In the fiscal year 2004 (from April 2004 until March 2005) in total 500.000 machines (PPC) have been sold and 200.000 machines (PPC) have been collected from the market. These numbers don t include laser printers and fax machines. In 70% of the cases the collected used machines are returned to local facilities in each country. In 2004 100.000 machines have been resold to European customers. All these machines have been collected and reprocessed from the European market. The majority of the 100.000 machines have been reprocessed by local reprocessing centres. In total 5000 service engineers are active in Europe and a machine is visited on average once per four months. Products and parts identification Many points of identification occur during the reverse logistics processes. Normally this would not be such a problem although the identification of machines and products within the reverse logistics processes is primarily done manual. The reading of the serial number on the display is the quickest method of identifying the machine however the machine must be switched on which is not done in many steps in the reverse logistics supply chain.
Figure 2: Identification points of reverse logistics Reverse Logistic process used machines Operating Company Return request 1 Collection order Remarketing (Re) Sales order Invoice customer Planning Return Centre 6 Stock administration Store 7 Pick from stock Check & Recondition units Cleaning Re-assemble Adjust & test disassemble 8 9 10 11 5 Inspection & Sorting Order parts Receive parts Stock administration 4 Receive at return centre 12 Ship out Service Provider Transport 2 3 Selection Sell to broker Waste disposal Recondition Transport & external delivery 14 13 Table 3: Identification points of reverse logistics Figure 2 and table 3 indicate the points in the reverse logistics supply chain where products have to be identified to be able to continue their way in the process. To visualise these points the previous described NRG Benelux process is used as example to visualise the processes where identification activities take place. Every identification point is described more in detail in Table 3. The numbers in figure 3 correspond with the numbers in the first column in the table. Besides the identification points described in service engineers need to identify the machine at each visit. The majority of the identifications are done manually which can lead to increased risk of errors and more time necessary to identify products. Also within the RMO process manual identification activities are necessary at the
moment. The machines must be identified manually every time a service engineer starts with the activities. This is done to verify if the correct machine is visited. The accessibility of product information is vital during the reprocessing of used machines and components or during the execution of service and maintenance processes. Important decisions in the reverse logistics supply chain are made on basis of all kinds of information. Some of the decisions are made beforehand without having seen the machine at all but in majority the decision of the route of the machine (reprocess or not) is made with help of the inspection information that is manually gathered. Decision making process is supported by means of information that is captured in various systems within the sales operating companies. If information is not available concerning individual machines and components at the moment the reprocessing is executed. Vital units may be replaced or revised despite the fact that they could have been replaced only a short period ago by a service engineer. The machine is collected for reprocessing and it appears to have an average age and therefore it is decided (based on age) to dispose the machine. It is not known that only a short period ago some valuable components where replaced that can easily be re-used during the reprocessing of other machines. If information is available before the collection and inspection then no time has to be spent on the inspection of each particular machine or component. It can even be decided to ship the machine directly to a recycling company or broker which will save additional handling at the reprocessing centre. These two situations clarify that due to the lack of product life cycle information for individual products, opportunities are missed for the active recovery of machines and components. Of course the information that is necessary for making reprocessing decisions can be gathered manually; this will however cost a lot of time and will indirectly make the reprocessing less feasible. The longer the information gathering takes the less profitable the reprocessing will be. RFID scenario for the RFG There are many possibilities to apply RFID in the reverse logistics supply chain. For the RFID scenario described in this research the EPC standard is used in combination with a UHF compatible passive RFID tag. No product information is stored on the RFID tag except for the unique EPC and the RFG serial number. All related data and underlying hierarchies between the different products are stored on a central place. By means of the unique EPC information can be retrieved from any place in the RFG supply chain, this means the regular supply chain running from manufacturing towards the customers as well for the reverse supply chain.
Business case RFG Reverse Logistics RFID application The business case is conducted because it is likely that multiple benefits can be gained from the appliance of RFID technology within the RFG reverse logistics supply chain. The expected benefits of the RFID solution are process improvements and information improvements. It is assumed that the machines and the most important components have a RFID tag before the machine is delivered to the end-customer and thus before the products enter the reverse logistics system. This implies that no RFID tags have to be applied to products in the reverse logistics supply chain. The RFID solution will be used for a long period and therefore also the business case is spread over a relative longer period. In the business case a calculation period of 10 years is used. It was indicated before that the average time that a machine is placed in the field is 2-9 years. For the contracted machines this period is often shorter (1 year). The Net Present Value (NPV) method was used to calculate the return on investment of the RFID solution. The NPV method is commonly used to calculate the long term benefits and feasibility of investments made for ICT applications. The advantage is that the cost of capital (interest rate) is taken into account in the calculation and that future cash flows are discounted to present values. The NPV is calculated over a period of 10 years with an interest rate of 9%. The input of the system is the number of installed machines at the customers and the number of collected machines. The total number of machines that is used in Europe is not exactly known because products are also sold via dealer networks. The total MIF of the complete RFG supply chain is needed which means that the number of MIF of the Ricoh sales operating companies must be derived from the number of MIF of the NRG sales operating companies (200.000). The total number of MIF of the Ricoh sales operating companies is estimated at 200.000 bringing the total number of MIF to 400.000. The number of machines that is installed in 2005 in the EU is 100.000.. Within the RFG (Europe region) 5000 service engineers are servicing the machines in field. Each machine is visited on average once in two months. A service engineer is executing an average of 5 calls per day and therefore the total number of service calls that are executed per year is estimated on 5000 x 5 x 220 = 5.500.000 visits per year. It is estimated that a service engineer works around 220 days per year. The total number of collected machines is derived from the RFG Global Recycle database and is estimated at 200.000 collected machines (Ricoh, NRG and Lanier) in Europe. The number of reprocessed machines in 2004 was 100.000 machines. Due to the increased sales and increased
importance of the reprocessing of products the number of reprocessed machines will follow an increasing trend. The current costs that are made in the RFG reverse logistics supply chain are derived from figures of May 2006. Comparison with other months learned that this is a representative month to extract information from and that the total reverse logistics costs (excluding transport) per year can be estimated at 6.000.000,- in 2006. This figure is excluding transport costs that are made to collect the products. The RMO costs are excluded from the reverse logistics costs. The recovery of components is done for the PCB products. Around 150 PCB items are subject for repair and the total number of collected PCBs is estimated at 2.000 per year. The average value of a PCB is 100,-. Only the PCB products are taken into account as components in the business case because for other components no information is available. To calculate the return on investment period a spreadsheet is made in where the costs, benefits and other parameters are included. Within the spreadsheet the Net Present Value (NPV) method is used for determining the overall feasibility. A period of ten years is used to calculate the return on investment. Within this period the benefits cannot be gained immediately because of the previous mentioned delay period. This implies that in year 5 after the implementation of the RFID solution the full number of benefits can be gained because then all the machines and applicable components in the field contain a RFID tag. This ratio has been estimated based on the MIF figures, the total number of machines shipped in the EU and the average time that a machine is placed in the field. Most of the benefits have been expressed in time savings. Due to the lack of information it was impossible to determine benefits concerning other factors such as the increase of reprocessed components. The following additional input has been used for the business case: The cost of investigating and handling an error is 50,- per error and the average hour rate that is used for calculating the benefits is 25,-. The total benefits per year have been estimated at 3.118.567,-. Especially the benefits concerning the RMO processes for machines are large. This is the result of the high number of service visits the service engineers execute every year and the high time savings per service visit. The benefits that can be realised during the reprocessing of machines and components are 662.000,-. This is 11% of the total yearly reported reverse logistics costs within the RFG (excluding the RMO processes). Another remark must be made concerning the marginal contribution of the benefits of the reprocessing of used components. Due to the limited number of components the benefits are not high when compared to the other processes. Almost all benefits are expressed in time savings that are
established by using RFID technology. In most cases the time savings will not result in the decrease of employees however it will result in a higher efficiency and productivity and will make sure more work can be done with the same number of employees. The return on investment is determined by calculating the costs and benefits over a 10 year time horizon. It is estimated in RFID cost benefits analysis that the costs for RFID tags and other RFID equipment are split over various actors in the supply chain however in this business case 100% of the costs will be taken into account. The results of this calculation were: The total Net Present Value is: 5.537.515,- The total investment is: 9.207.529,- The Return on Investment is: 60% Payback period: 5.4 years It can be concluded from the calculation of the NPV that the RFID solution is profitable and that the investments will be paid back within a relative short term. A set of analysis has been done to observe the sensitivity of the NPV in case of different input variables. One of the trials has been done to check how the NPV calculation is reacting on a price decrease of the RFID tag. The NPV will increase when the price of the RFID tag is decreasing. Conclusions From the results of the business case it becomes clear that RFID can improve the reverse logistics processes of the RFG. The majority of the economic benefits are gained from the improvement in the RMO area of the reverse logistics supply chain. The Net Present Value method is useful to calculate the feasibility and the return on investment of the RFID solution. By means of RFID processes can be improved by making them more efficient and accurate. RFID can improve the availability of product information in the supply chain. By means of this available product information better decisions can be made concerning the reprocessing of machines and components. Another advantage of the extended product information is that the repair and reprocessing activities itself can be optimised because the operators will have more knowledge available. Last but lot least it can be concluded that implementing RFID widely has several business and technology aspects not addressed in this study.
References [1] Thierry, M., M. Salomon, J. van Nunen and L. van Wassenhove Strategic issues in product recovery management, California Management, 37 (2):114-135, 1995. [2] Kroon, L. and G. Vrijens Returnable Containers: An Example of Reverse Logistics, International Journal of Physical Distribution and Logistics Management, (25:2), pp. 56-68, 1995. [3] De Brito M.P., and Dekker, R. Reverse Logistics, a framework, 2002. [4] Giuntini, R.A. Introduction to Reverse Logistics, Total Quality Environmental Management 5.3: pp 81-87, 1996. Endnote Due to confidentiality reasons some of the figures in this paper are changed from real figures.
SAMENWERKING MET KENNISINSTELLING SUCCESVOL BIJ IMPLEMENTATIE VAN KETENINNOVATIE IN DE LUCHTVRACHTBRANCHE S. Hoogervorst, Hogeschool van Amsterdam B. Radstaak, Air Cargo Netherlands O. de Graaf, Hogeschool van Amsterdam D. van Damme, Hogeschool van Amsterdam
Inleiding Samenwerking in de kennisbrug Duurzame Logistieke Kwaliteit tussen Air Cargo Netherlands, Syntens en de Hogeschool van Amsterdam zorgt voor een succesvolle implementatie van het Documentloos Goederen Volg Systeem op Schiphol. Dit artikel gaat over twee typen van innovatie. Een technische innovatie in de vorm van het Documentloos Goederen Volg Systeem. Een innovatie op het gebied van samenwerking tussen bedrijfsleven en onderwijs in de vorm van het structureel inzetten van studenten bij innovatieprojecten. Toenemende concurrentiedruk voor de luchtvrachtketen Voor de concurrentiepositie van Schiphol is de kwaliteit van het luchtvrachtproces van groot belang (Air Cargo Netherlands, 2004). De verwerking van luchtvrachtgoederen wordt door zeer diverse partijen verzorgd die tezamen de luchtvrachtketen vormen (zie afbeelding 1). Afbeelding 1: De luchtvrachtketen Exportketen Agent weg Wegvervoerder - verlader Verlader loods Loodsafhandelaar - Lucht- Vaartmaatschappij vaart vaart- lucht Lucht- Vaartmaat- loods Loodsafhandelaar - maat- sc happij maat schappij douane Douaneexpediteur - weg Wegvervoerder - ontvanger Ontvanger Importketen Hoewel de partijen gezamenlijk een goede doorstroming van luchtvrachtgoederen moeten verzorgen, hebben zij veelal geen directe relatie of contractuele verplichting met elkaar; het gaat dan om autonome bedrijven die binnen de keten soms zelfs elkaars concurrenten zijn. Supply chain management in de luchtvrachtsector staat dan ook nog in de kinderschoenen (Andriesse, 2005). Er is sprake van wachttijden, gebrek aan planning, gebrek aan systeemkoppelingen, afstemmingsverliezen en claims, die een zeer negatief effect hebben op de doorlooptijd, betrouwbaarheid en efficiency van de luchtvrachtketen als geheel en daarmee op de concurrentiepositie van Schiphol.
Supply chains vragen tegenwoordig steeds meer om frequente, tijdige en betrouwbare leveringen tegen lagere kosten (Van Damme, 2005). Daarnaast ontwikkelt de vraag naar luchtvrachtvervoer zich wereldwijd in de richting van gespecialiseerde dienstverlening en integrale logistieke diensten. Dit stelt hogere eisen aan de dienstverleners, maar vooral ook aan de wijze waarop de partijen in de luchtvrachtketen samenwerken. De traditionele luchtvrachtbedrijven hebben om de bovengenoemde redenen veel volume verloren aan de integrators die een gesloten door to door vervoerstraject aanbieden met tracking en tracing mogelijkheden (van 20% in 1995 tot ruim 50% marktaandeel op dit moment). Willen de traditionele bedrijven in de luchtvrachtketen een rol van betekenis blijven spelen, dan moeten ze een antwoord hebben op de door de markt gestelde kwaliteitseisen van betrouwbare door-to-door leveringen (Van Eekhout, 2001). Ketenbrede initiatieven noodzakelijk Samenwerking tussen alle partijen in de luchtvrachtketen is noodzakelijk om de positie van de Nederlandse luchtvrachtindustrie veilig te stellen en verder uit te bouwen. De toegenomen concurrentiedruk en de gevolgen daarvan hebben in 2003 geleid tot een bundeling van de belangen van de Nederlandse luchtvrachtindustrie in de brancheorganisatie Air Cargo Netherlands (ACN). ACN profileert Schiphol als de Smart Air Cargo Gateway to Europe en werkt aan kwaliteit, veiligheid en efficiency in de luchtvrachtindustrie met als doel Schiphol de beste cargo hub van Europa te maken. Dit vraagt om een goed samenspel tussen alle partijen in de luchtvrachtketen, zowel onderling als met de overheid en de diverse inspectiediensten. Keteninnovatie en verdere samenwerking door middel van het DGVS De succesvolle invoering van de Vrije Zone type II met het bijbehorende Documentloos Goederen Volg Systeem (DGVS) op Schiphol toont aan dat de doelstellingen van de overheid en luchtvrachtindustrie uitstekend gecombineerd kunnen worden door een ketenbrede aanpak en vormt een eerste stap in het proces van totale ketenmeting en beheersing. Een Vrije Zone is een aangewezen gebied waarbinnen douanegoederen vrij vervoerd mogen worden. In een Vrije Zone type II is er geen hek met fysieke controles van de in- en uitgaande
goederenstroom, maar vindt de controle plaats aan de hand van voorraadadministratie, waarin de ingaande en uitgaande goederenstromen worden bijgehouden. Men spreekt ook wel van een virtuele Vrije Zone, met het DGVS als virtuele grensbewaker. Het DGVS bewaakt de aansluiting tussen de opvolgende schakels in de luchtvrachtketen en biedt de douane inzage in de vervoersstromen en voorraadadministratie van de deelnemers aan de Vrije Zone (Van der Laken, 2006). Dankzij de Vrije Zone zijn de deelnemende bedrijven niet langer verplicht om aangifte te doen voor het vervoer van goederen tussen deze bedrijven onderling. Per jaar maakt de Vrije Zone circa 300.000 aangiften overbodig en levert naar schatting 4 miljoen euro aan lastenverlichting op voor de gehele sector. De grootste impact van de implementatie van het DGVS bestaat echter uit het feit dat de verschillende partijen in de luchtvrachtketen in tegenstelling tot vóór de implementatie heel direct en duidelijk met elkaars acties geconfronteerd worden. Bij de werking van het DGVS systeem staat namelijk de correcte invoering van zendinginformatie en aantallen in het systeem centraal. Wanneer deze informatie niet klopt van de overdragende partij naar de ontvangende partij, geeft het systeem een mismatch aan en legt de Douane boetes op indien deze mismatches niet binnen een vastgestelde tijd gecorrigeerd worden. Juist om extra controles en boetes te voorkomen moeten partijen meer met elkaar communiceren en samenwerken. Bovendien noodzaakt het bedrijven het luchtvrachtproces als een geïntegreerd systeem te beschouwen in plaats van alleen naar het eigen domein te kijken. Snelle kennisopbouw en circulatie door de kennisbrug Dit proces van communicatie, afstemming en verbetering werd in het najaar van 2005 versterkt door de inzet van studenten van de Hogeschool van Amsterdam die een belangrijke ondersteunende rol vervulden bij de implementatie van het DGVS systeem bij een aantal deelnemers aan de Vrije Zone. De studenten maakten deel uit van de kennisbrug Duurzame Logistieke Kwaliteit. Deze kennisbrug is een structureel samenwerkingsverband tussen ACN, Syntens en de Hogeschool van Amsterdam (zie kader 1).
Kader 1: Kennisbrug Duurzame Logistieke Kwaliteit Met onder andere een eigen luchthaven vraagt de regio natuurlijk om kennisontwikkeling in de logistieke sector. In 2005 zijn de Hogeschool van Amsterdam, Air Cargo Netherlands (ACN) en Syntens daarom een meerjarige samenwerking aangegaan. Doel is om op het brede terrein van de lucht- en zeevracht innovatieprojecten uit te voeren. Projecten die kennis opleveren waarmee individuele bedrijven en de branche als geheel hun concurrentiepositie regionaal en internationaal kunnen versterken. De Hogeschool van Amsterdam biedt als kennisinstelling de mogelijkheid om studenten in te zetten. In overleg met de brancheorganisatie ACN worden studenten ingezet bij leden van ACN met een stageopdracht die zowel van belang is voor het individuele bedrijf als voor de branche als geheel. De uitkomsten komen in eerste instantie ten goede aan het individuele bedrijf en worden later gepresenteerd en gepubliceerd ten behoeve van andere bedrijven uit de branche. Samenwerken in de keten levert voor individuele bedrijven en voor de branche als geheel grote voordelen op. Kennis delen en kennis uitwisselen zijn daarbij van cruciaal belang. Het lectoraat Logistiek speelt vanuit de Hogeschool van Amsterdam een centrale rol binnen de kennisbrug. De belangrijkste doelstelling daarbij is het opzetten van toegepast onderzoek om te komen tot kennisontwikkeling en in het verlengde daarvan kennisuitwisseling. In enkele maanden wisten de studenten vele fouten bij het gebruik van het systeem aan te wijzen en hebben zij communicatiefouten en misverstanden tussen verschillende partijen snel blootgelegd. In samenwerking met ACN is een voorlichtingsbijeenkomst georganiseerd toen het aantal mismatches te hoog opliep. Bij deze voorlichting werden de eerste bevindingen en slimme oplossingen door de studenten aan alle DGVS deelnemers gepresenteerd. Doordat de studenten zich bezighielden met hetzelfde systeem en dezelfde problematiek, waren zij in staat zich de materie sneller eigen te maken en tot concrete oplossingen te komen. Kennis werd sneller gecirculeerd en ook de deelnemende bedrijven konden hiervan profiteren. Door de inzet van de studenten bij verschillende bedrijven werd het DGVS veel beter uitgedragen binnen de sector en was de drempel voor de follow up van de mismatches tussen bedrijven minimaal. De studenten kenden elkaar immers en namen veel gemakkelijker contact met elkaar op, waardoor
fouten sneller bespreekbaar en opgelost werden. Mede door de inzet en betrokkenheid van de studenten en de nadruk van ACN op het slagen van het DGVS voor de gehele branche, was de eerste implementatiefase van het DGVS succesvol. Dit heeft ertoe geleid dat na het vertrek van de eerste groep een tweede groep studenten vanuit de Hogeschool van Amsterdam is ingezet bij de verdere vervolgstappen van de implementatie en het vervolmaken van het DGVS. Er komen nog steeds nieuwe zaken naar voren die de sector helpen de keten transparanter en beter beheersbaar te maken. Tevens worden onderlinge samenwerking en afstemming bevorderd door de uitwisseling van de opgedane kennis. Bij de bedrijven waar de studenten zijn ingezet is het onderwerp zeer actueel en zet men zich actief in het systeem te verbeteren. De ambitie is om alle relevante bedrijven aan het DGVS te laten deelnemen en de implementaties bij nieuwe aangesloten bedrijven sneller door te voeren (zie afbeelding 2 voor een overzicht van de deelnemers aan de Vrije Zone). Afbeelding 2: Deelnemers aan de Vrije Zone op Schiphol (zie www.acn.nl) Schiphol Yusen Van Esch Road Express Air KDS / Racon SDV ABX Airport Exel Swiss Port Cargo Expeditors Hankyu Bos DHL Int l Transport VCK L&A DHL Avia Trading Global Menzies Forwarding WFS KLM Jan de Rijk Fresh Port Cargo Skylink Masters Copex Nippon Bax Global Express Panalpina Kamerman AG MAT Nagel Vd Put Wilmink Kintetsu UPS SCS Ziegler Fast Forward EGL ITG Unique Triple TNT TNT Aerocar Hellmann UTI Traffic Cyber Avia Transfairways Freight UPS Geologistics Rockwood SCS Partner Hoektrans Met behulp van de reeds opgedane kennis door studenten, die zij actief verspreiden door middel van seminars, workshops en voorlichtingsbijeenkomsten is een snellere implementatie een haalbare kaart. Bovendien zijn de belangrijkste do s en dont s door de studenten voor alle nieuwe deelnemers beschikbaar gemaakt door het ontwerp van een online quick reference card (zie www.cargonaut.nl/dgvs).