CRC Services[1] has developed a model to help companies to mutualize their flows for the last 100 km of goods delivery. The model allows suppliers to deliver goods from their distribution centers in collaboration with other supplier and to make savings by optimising orders and vehicle loads.
ADEME in France (Agency for ecological transition) enabled the development in a first place. ADEME selected industrial and logistics partners proposing sustainable solutions to be developed in the framework of collaborative projects, with other industries and operators. CRC Services has been working on the collaborative model, in “project mode”, for 5 years with the support of ADEME. This model has proven to be more efficient for small orders in the industry, improving the performance in economic and environmental terms. The project´s full trucks optimise the service by 10 to 15 points and reduce GHG emissions by 20 to 30 %.
After this project CRC Services expanded to the north of France.
To improve the model, CRC Services thought about the need of having not only a physical approach but a digital one, introducing algorithms to optimize the delivery and all complex activities as well as show the performance to all the actors. With his in mind, CRC Open Network Project was born, partially funded by the French Government (2016-2018). The partners, 4S Network, CRC Services, GS1 France, ARMINES and TAB (https://librairie.ademe.fr/mobilite-et-transport/559-crc-open-network.html), aimed to set a digital platform to put all the algorithms and KPIs to help people to collaborate.
CRC Open Network project started with a physical approach to turn into a digital approach. The project implemented several use cases being CRC Services one of them. After 6 months the use case started to go into the market with the interest of 2 companies. The first one a supplier of sandwiches and salads (with a few hours of goods duration). In this case, an algorithm to analyze historical data and optimise the economic performance of deliveries was implemented. The company could organize the deliveries by themselves (optimizing the in-bound full trucks) and save money. The second use case was the “Mut@Log” project, initiated by Leroy Merlin, a French multinational company specialising in DIY, construction, decoration and gardening. The company wanted to improve the delivery of their suppliers to a delivery service of 97-98%. The painting material was delivered directly to the shops from the producer (around half pallet daily to all the shops). The company wanted the suppliers to deliver full trucks as much as possible and use the free space for other shops if possible. From this success, two new implementation cases for CRC Services came along.
CRS Services was born as a subsidiary of 4S Network to operate sustainable supply chains working in loop, setting up plans to reduce the carbon footprint. Many people were contacted in the field to better understand their activity and to integrate them into the use cases. An important asset to the success of CRC Services was the large number of interested contacts and the right time for this kind of developments in the companies. CRC Services knew that it was important to reach the market and to have implementation cases with potential customers.
Key for the success of CRC Services. Combination of research and development with applied use cases in companies. These implementation cases allowed CRC Services keep working with the companies after the success of the cases overcoming the general barriers and hurdles found in collaborative models. It is also worth to mention the importance of customers in the developments. Retailers are the ones initiating the projects to meet a specific need, then the shippers are involved and contracts are stablished between them and the carriers and/or logistics providers, the retailer not being directly contractually. The Retailer is “just” the prescriber of the project and drives the overall performance.
The partners involved in the project that enabled the developments used by CRC Services were a mix of small and medium-sized enterprises as well as larger groups and research organizations. These partners covered all the roles and profiles needed to the success of the development and worked together in the research part (Academia) but also implementing and creating business models. The communication between the research and the market implementation was crucial for the success of this case, speaking the same language and pursuit the same goal. This collaboration is the solution to go from research to implementation, as for funding for this step is not easy to obtain and is not affordable for all the companies (usually a mix of grants and repayable advances), CRC Services has found a way to accelerate this uptake by effective implementation cases, continuation of the services and sustainable relationships with the companies.