|
(FEB. 2008) MARS, FORMERLY KNOWN AS MASTERFOODS, has implemented Transvision Route Planner to optimise the routes of 22 Swedish salesmen, 20 Danish salesmen, and 11 Norwegian salesmen.
Mars is a world leading manufacturer of snack food, pet care, food and drinks that distributes products in more than 100 countries. The company employs more than 40,000 people worldwide, and the global sales amounts to a total of approximately $21 billion annually.
Mars has already implemented the Transvision Route Planner in Sweden and Denmark and Norway will follow shortly. The salesmen visit major retailers, convenience stores, kiosks, gas stations etc. on a daily basis, and this results in a high numbers of site visits on each daily route and over an eight weeks period.
Mars’ main challenges in route planning is to use the correct frequencies/visit patterns for the shops concerned while respecting the agreed visit hours at the customers. In addition, Mars needs to create balanced districts for each sales person and efficient plans with appropriate time of visit at each customer based on customer size, type and driving time between stops.
The savings derived from Transvision Route Planner for Mars Sweden has already been measured and is considered to be impressive. Mars Sweden has been able to reduce time spent driving and mileage of approximately 5% while reducing the numbers of routes from 38 to 35 in each eight week period. Furthermore, the productivity of salesmen has been improved as the number of days in the car has been reduced, thereby allowing for full days to be used for administrative tasks, canvassing or handling major merchandising activities. In general, the route quality has improved by building smaller, compact daily routes, and service levels have increased as the salesmen now find it easier to meet the promised visit time at each customer.
|
