Organising transports and meeting lots of specifications: Freight forwarders earn their money with a combination of experience, knowledge, physical movement of goods and excellent execution. What the range of services looks like in concrete terms often has to do with tradition, region, and specific customer clientele. In line with this specificity, the companies develop individual business processes to precisely meet customer requirements and enable efficient operations. Their processes are characterised by an important level of commitment and close observation and are precisely tailored to the local conditions as well as the resources of the often medium-sized logistics service provider. Neither the invested development time and creativity nor the high degree of individualisation want to be wasted on the way to digitalisation. Therefore, they sometimes shy away from the introduction of standard software and platforms – and thus forfeit efficiency gains. They are hardly aware of the advantages of no-code programming.

Adaption

No-code programming relies on configuration

Transport Management Systems (TMS) are the most widely used application in logistics. Since their origin in the seventies, their development has been characterised by the fact that more and more functions and special workflows are being integrated into the software code. The term workflow management, on the other hand, refers to solutions that focus on standard functionalities and can be configured in detail. With this approach, they offer the possibility to support and digitalise almost any individual process. They are based on the idea of grouping logistics processes into individual work steps with small-scale statuses. These can be recorded during the process, especially with mobile end devices, transmitted to the TMS and used for transport progress. The functions of the devices act as key elements in the workflows. This is because the workflows themselves are created by no-code programming, i.e., by configuring and combining the technical possibilities. They are created in a user interface that allows modelling of the existing processes. Programming skills are not required, and no new software code needs to be generated. They thus enable the simple digitalisation and automation of existing structures.

Information

Up to date, transparent and linear

From the start of a transport order to successful delivery, the work on transport processes follows a linear structure consisting of individual steps. These are each linked to data that specifies a concrete requirement and to actions that are documented by each new status. With data collection in mobile apps, commercial processing is also making progress in addition to physical transport. Examples of this are the maintenance of the fleet with data from the truck's telematics, the recording of working hours and calculation of truck drivers' expenses, as well as the fast, correct, and complete billing of all services provided during the transport of a shipment. Workflows determine the order of processing, and at the same time they serve as a framework for status documentation. If a freight forwarder gains new customers or wants to offer additional services, these can be flexibly adapted by inserting additional work steps using no-code or low-code programming. Even if the logistics service provider introduces a tool for loading equipment accounting, for example, and precisely controls exchange processes with mobile apps in a paperless manner, the corresponding steps can be added in an uncomplicated manner.

Real-time

No-code programming speeds up processing

Because information can be exchanged in real time via mobile apps, digital transport processes are completed significantly earlier. This is because they reduce the effort for subsequent status documentation and data transfer via paper documents. At the same time, this means that the processes are finally completed with the proof of delivery (POD), and invoicing can take place immediately. For the drivers, this also makes tour completion and vehicle handover much easier. And fleet managers can use the data transmitted during operations to coordinate maintenance processes with the current order situation. Everyone involved in the transport company benefits from more efficient processing

Conclusion

Digitalisation succeeds through mobile apps and no-code programming

Finally finishing work earlier: Logisticians achieve this goal using mobile workflow management and apps that control, map, and document processes in real time. They become effective through no-code programming, which transfers processes into digital sequences through configuration. Accelerated in this way, all employees, but also customers and partners, benefit from the digitalisation of logistics. Without additional software development.