“Reliability of delivery is crucial to a company like ours, " says Kim Karlov Nielsen, CFO and IT Manager at Vraa Dampvaskeri A/S in Vendsyssel. The company launders and delivers work clothes and other laundry services for some 5,000 companies around the whole country.
“Customers must be able to rely upon us delivering the right quantities at the agreed time. Our company is entirely dependent upon us being in control of things,” Kim Karlov Nielsen points out.
And that is quite some job! There are about 500,000 items of clothing in circulation in addition to the large quantities held in stock – ready to be delivered if customers need new clothes.
Smart clothes
About 34,000 employees of Danish companies have their working clothes delivered directly to their lockers. Each person has his or her own clothes, so there is plenty for the supplier to keep track of.
In 1992, Vraa Dampvaskeri was one of the first Danish companies to have all clothing labelled with an integrated chip sewn in. The chip contains information on the customer, the personal user, clothing size, when working clothes should be checked for wear and tear, etc.
“This technology represented a major step forward,” says Kim Karlov Nielsen. “And we really started to benefit from the system when in 2000 we went over to Microsoft Business Solutions-Axapta. Today we are up to version 3.0. Axapta aids us in planning production and meeting requirements for reliable delivery. In a company like ours the sorting system is pivotal. When we receive laundry it is sorted and divided into 59 categories each with its own laundering process."
"Previously, registration was carried out manually – now it has been integrated into our ERP system, and our production flows as never before. For example, we obtain data updated online between Microsoft Business Solutions-Axapta and our production facilities. Previously, it was only transferred once a day, and this often resulted in inefficient production.”
Highway jigsaw puzzles
Collection and delivery from and to some 5000 customers spread around the country makes great demands on route planning.
“And things are not made easier by customers having widely divergent opening times,” adds Kim Karlov Nielsen. “If we do not have key arrangements, we must make sure we arrive while the customer is open. It is somewhat of a jigsaw puzzle, but we have purchased the Roadshow software system, which allows us to manage both time and capacity per van."
"As a result we can now, to within 30 minutes, inform customers when we will be arriving. The system is integrated with Axapta, and our carriers have GPS, so we automatically receive reports when they have visited a customer. Thus we can always document to customers when, for example, we have visited them to change mats, etc.
Competent supplier
Columbus has been the supplier since the company changed to Axapta. Kim Karlov Nielsen says, “Columbus has been involved from the first tender round, and they seemed the most competent to me. And I have not been disappointed. I am extremely satisfied with the way we collaborate. Among other things we have a regular skilled programmer who is here a couple of days every month, and with whom I collaborate directly. Columbus is skilled both in the business side of things and the technical aspects of the installations.”
Vraa Dampvaskeri
Vraa Dampvaskeri serves the whole of Denmark and has distribution centres at several locations around the country. It has a staff of about 100. For many years the company has enjoyed calm, steady growth within its three business areas: Clothing, Linen and Mats & Mops. In 1998, the laundry was the first company in Denmark to introduce an environmental management system in accordance with the EU EMAS scheme. This means, among other things, that the company must publish green accounts on an equal footing with the traditional annual reports.