Every year, Indaver manages and processes over 5 million tonnes of waste at various sites both at home and abroad. This waste must be supplied and removed using lorry transport and this adds up to a number of logistical challenges. By optimising the in and outflow with a global Logistics Management System (LMS) from EQUANS, Indaver has succeeded in improving its efficiency, capacity and security at multiple sites.
Indaver asked EQUANS to find a solution that would allow several of the logistical processes at the sites in Dunkirk, Doel and Willebroek to be automated. This included an option for drivers to register themselves, access controls for visitors and partners, the weighing and administrative processing of loads, communication and monitoring of security requirements on site, and more. To this end, EQUANS used a central communication and orchestration platform which enabled improved collaboration between the various sub-systems in the supply chain. The system is 100% integrated with the ERP system and the existing back-end and front-end solutions from Indaver.
It’s an all-in solution
Marcel Grondelaers, business development manager for EQUANS: ‘What makes our system unique is that we are the only supplier in the market that can offer an effective, all-in solution. Customers can come to us with all their logistical needs. We begin every project with a consultancy period, provide suitable hardware for the integration of the system, take responsibility for automating the processes, and offer service 24/7 to all sites. This also means that they only need one point of contact.'
Modular system
The logistical needs of Indaver are different for each site. But the LMS system is ideal in this type of situation, according to Nathalie Vasseur, project manager for Indaver. ‘We wanted to find a solution that could fulfil the specific needs at each site. The fact that the LMS solution from EQUANS is modular allowed us to choose what was appropriate to us. The registration and weighing system, for example, was fully automated at sites which process few loads. At other sites, such as Willebroek, we wanted to triple our processing capacity. So we optimised the flow in order to shorten the time it takes to process the lorries on site. Indaver can thus process three times as much PMD using the same number of logistics employees.’
25 years of logistics experience
The fact that EQUANS has over 25 years of logistics experience and expertise gave Indaver confidence when considering a collaboration. Grondelaers: ‘You need more than just technical competencies to complete a project like this. We succeeded in talking the customer’s ‘logistics language’ and quickly identified which solutions Indaver could provide to create an optimum supply chain. Our experience, references and the international nature of our activities also played a role in convincing the customer. And, of course, in ensuring this task was completed successfully.’
Indaver is happy to confirm this: ‘We are delighted with the result. Thanks to this system, we have taken an important step in the automation of our logistics processes. Furthermore, we will equip our new processing and recycling sites with this as standard. We can thus operate our sites in the safest and most cost-efficient manner,’ explains Vasseur.
Contact our experts
If you have questions about what we can bring to the table, if you need more details or you need a counterpart to bounce ideas off, send us your question and we will get back to you asap. Contact us today for further details. We are happy to sit down with you to look into how we can be of assistance for your bulk goods automation project.