Celonis logistics mission control app will drive network efficiency to ease supply chain pressures

Even by recent standards, supply chains are under extreme pressure right now. On the one hand there’s geopolitical disruptions. These are compounded by extreme weather events, fluctuating consumer demand, transportation bottlenecks, and work stoppages at critical ports.

These are just some of the factors threatening the normal free flow of goods and materials.  But there’s no help like timely help. That’s why Celonis’ new logistics-focused Load Consolidation App will be particularly welcome to supply chain leaders.

The App was launched at the Celosphere 2024, Celonis’ annual user conference, alongside a suite of other Process Intelligence innovations. Integrating ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) data with TMS (Transport Management System) data, the app generates a comprehensive overview of an organization's logistics network health. But more than that, it provides predictive, actionable insights to generate value, reduce costs and create more effective, flexible transport processes.

The Load Consolidation App: Overcome the challenges of traditional transport solutions

Traditional transportation management systems often lack the flexibility to adapt to real-time changes in logistics operations. They can struggle with ad-hoc modifications, such as unexpected carrier capacity limits. Similarly, planning systems are designed for bulk consolidation and often can’t respond on demand when changes occur.

This rigidity prevents logistics professionals from efficiently responding to dynamic market conditions and identifying areas for improvement in their logistics network. As a result, these systems hinder rather than enhance the key objective of ensuring efficient and timely transportation of goods. They can actually drive cost and inefficiency into supply chain processes.

Mission control for your logistics processes

The Load Consolidation App not only enables organizations to absorb any unexpected changes in transportation circumstances, it actively seeks value opportunities hidden in logistics processes.

Built on Celonis’ object-centric process mining technology, the app integrates ERP and TMS data – uniting multiple logistics and logistics-related objects such as sales orders and shipment documentation, creating a cohesive overview.

It helps users identify load-consolidation opportunities across planned and unplanned shipments. 

How you’ll benefit from the Load Consolidation App 

The app will analyze every single shipment across each stage and process in your network, seeking to identify areas of potential improvement (such as load-consolidation opportunities to reduce transportation costs). Its core features include:

• Overview of load consolidation opportunities and their savings potential. 

• Load consolidation opportunities across planned and unplanned loads, surfaced by a mathematical optimization model that considers constraints like delivery due date, carrier capacity and more. 

• Write-back functionality to consolidate loads immediately in the necessary system.

In practical terms, this allows you to improve the effectiveness, performance, and health of your logistics network by pursuing value-adding initiatives such as:

• Ensure costs are reduced and service remains constant across planned and unplanned shipments with load consolidation recommendations that consider constraints like delivery due date, weight, volume, carrier capacity, customer priority. Could add emissions.

• Ensure cost-savings opportunities are fully realized by monitoring the impact of each individual shipment adjustment.

A suite of supply chain solutions

The Load Consolidation App is just the latest in a series of purpose-built Celonis apps designed to enhance our clients’ supply chain transformation and resilience. We’ve got every link in the supply chain covered, with solutions from order to cash, and procurement to distribution. These currently include our:

• Open Order Processing app

• Material Allocation app

• Open Purchase Requisition Processing App

We are also able to offer solutions across procurement, inventory management, and order management. Supply chain management is one of the most important, and effective, use cases for Process Intelligence, so keep checking back for further bespoke solutions.

Bill Detwiler

Senior Communications Strategist and Editor Celonis Blog

Bill Detwiler is Senior Communications Strategist and Editor of the Celonis blog. He is the former Editor in Chief of TechRepublic, where he hosted the Dynamic Developer podcast and Cracking Open, CNET’s popular online show. Bill is an award-winning journalist, who’s covered the tech industry for more than two decades. Prior to his career in the software industry and tech media, he was an IT professional in the social research and energy industries.