Ford and Penske Logistics have been jointly awarded this year's European Award for Logistics Excellence by the European Logistics Association (ELA) at an event held last week in the Ukraine capital Kiev. The award recognised their jointly-developed Network Integrator concept, which provides a single distribution platform for a number of different carmakers in Europe that are able to collaborate in optimising the supply of spare parts. Penske works with Ford's European Customer Service Division (ECSD) on the solution.
The companies report that the application of the concept has led to transport savings of more than 25m truck kilometers, based on the Smartway European Standard, and a reduction of more than 10,000 tons of CO2 emissions each year, based on an assumption of 750,000 shipments annually.
The awarding jury recognised the challenges of redesigning a spare parts supply chain to include other brands in the same logistics network in Europe. "This supply chain is particularly complex, due to the high number of unique items to be managed, the heterogeneity of those items, and the extremely short lead times that dealers require," said the judges in a joint statement. "The industry-wide cooperation makes the Network Integrator a state of the art example. This excellent concept produces excellent results in cost reduction, increased customer service and advantages for the planet through deep collaboration. On top of that it delivers several exemplary models for the future."
Ford said the concept was part of its effort to reduce the environmental footprint of its products. "Our goal is to continue expanding the concept and encourage other companies of the automotive industry to join the network, and further leverage economies of scale - to the benefit of each partner participating in the Network and to the environment," said Raymond Damerow, director of Parts Supply and Logistics at Ford ECSD. "Last but not least, the customer benefits as well, as we can provide the highest service level through a stable network."
Brian Ruprich, Europe's managing director for Penske Logistics, said that Ford and Penske had worked together globally for a number of years on developing supply chain solutions. "The Network Integrator model has evolved into a solid solution that is delivering results and that has exceeded expectations for some time now," he said. "It also proves smart solutions can contribute to a greener supply chain at lower costs while maintaining high services level. We are sincerely honoured to receive this award, but it would not have been possible without the close, long-term collaboration with the Ford team."
