BMW partners with 4flow to improve inbound logistics efficiency across Europe
Under a new partnership, supply chain solutions provider 4flow will collaborate with BMW to reduce costs throughout its transportation network.
4flow TORO transportation and material planning software has been implemented at eight BMW plants across Europe
BMW Group
BMW's partnership with 4flow began with the implementation of the latter's transportation and material planning software – 4flow TORO – at eight BMW plants across Europe. After initial deployment, the system became fully functional at the first plant within six months.
According to 4flow, this software has already allowed BMW to " significantly reduce transportation costs and increase the average size of individual shipments".
The 4flow TORO software is able to connect "seamlessly" with BMW’s existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, integrating transportation and material planning to enable cross-functional optimisation of material orders, while taking planning constraints into account automatically.
Deployment of this software should support BMW in consolidating shipments and reducing transportation costs, without impacting material availability or significantly increasing inventory requirements.
“4flow TORO supports BMW in transforming its inbound logistics," commented Felix Prestel, partner at 4flow. "The expanded optimisation functions enable cost reduction and increased transportation efficiency."
4flow has confirmed that going forward, BMW intends to roll out 4flow TORO software to other plants in its network, while extending how it uses the software to include full truckload (FTL) shipments. BMW's global transportation network spans over 140 countries, with 30 production plants and over 2,000 suppliers around the world. Every day, around 30 million parts move through this network.
