Going green with SAP Transportation Management: the future of sustainable logistics

Apr 03, 2023

operations
IT
discrete manufacturing
SAP

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Sustainability is no longer a buzzword; it's becoming a necessity for companies to maintain a competitive edge...

...As consumers become more environmentally conscious, companies must find ways to reduce their carbon footprint, minimise waste, and operate within a more sustainable parameter.

Gearing up for net-zero

One of the most significant contributors to a company's carbon footprint is through the movement of goods and resources, with shipping emissions currently estimated as being roughly equivalent to that of a medium-sized industrial nation. SAP Transport Management (TM) is an end-to-end multi-modal, multilevel solution that helps organisations, shippers, carriers and forwarders to better track, plan and optimise transportation processes.

The road transport sector currently accounts for almost one fifth of Europe’s greenhouse gas emissions, hence the European Union’s efforts to encourage a modal shift of freight from road to rail and inland waterways.

Road transport is the biggest emitter in the EU’s transport sector and accounts for nearly three-quarters of transport-related greenhouse gas emissions.

Picture of a white lorry driving on a road next to green fields

Lower emissions

SAP Transport Management can help businesses plan and schedule transportation more efficiently through shipment and transport consolidation, reducing the number of empty runs and idle time promoting the maximisation of capacity. This will help your business reduce fuel consumption, emissions, and operating costs by ensuring trucks and containers are fully loaded before they leave a warehouse or distribution centre.

Minimise waste

SAP TM provides real-time tracking and monitoring of vehicles and shipments through event management, allowing your business to respond quickly to any disruptions or delays. This will help you reduce waste within your processes, avoiding unnecessary transportation and emissions whilst subsequently leading to cost reductions by limiting the risk of demurrage, storage, and port fees. The solution will also generate reports and analytics on transportation performance, allowing your business to identify areas for improvement and make data-driven decisions for peak efficiency.

Compliant, but cost-effective

With the use of Vehicle Scheduling and Routing Optimisation in SAP TM, you can assign freight units to capacities in a cost-effective way whilst adhering to constraints which can be categorised as soft or hard - depending on their importance. The constraints can consist of pre-determined or custom criteria like, a vehicle’s weight capacity, dangerous goods and ADR requirements or even with, SAP’s new feature, driving time and working hours. It is crucial to ensure compliant due diligence within your transportation processes due to the introduction of new and evolving legal instruments and legislation like the recent EU Mobility Package which surrounds the regulation of cabotage, rest-times and driving hours.

3 solutions to enhance your sustainable enterprise

We've aligned 3 key solutions to our sustainability offering that will help your business achieve its ESG goals and initiatives:

These solutions enable your organisation to track and monitor operations from sourcing and procurement to production and distribution. Using SAP S/4HANA, you can gain real-time visibility into your supply chain processes, ensure continuous improvement, and make data-driven decisions to optimise your processes and enforce a circular supply chain.