SABMiller (Mozambique)
For those who have visited Mozambique, the words 2M and Laurentina should sound familiar. 2M is a well know brand of beer from Cervejas De Mocambique (CDM), an SABMiller subsidiary. Laurentina, was, up until March 2002, the brewery for the famous Laurintina beer brands. In May 2002 CDM acquired a controlling interest in Laurentina. The Laurentina brewery was subsequently closed down, and all brewing, packaging and distribution of the products where moved to sites on or near the Mac Mahon brewery in Maputo.
OPSI systems was placed in contact with CDM in early April through the SABMiller Africa and Asia office. The acquisition of Laurentina, now means that distribution of two branded products and two fleets of vehicles have to be managed. Philip Norley, the commercial director of CDM, recognised that as the two brands are distributed to many of the same customers, that there is potential for increasing the utilization of the fleet by combining the distribution process.
With data supplied by CDM regarding customer types, coordinates and average consumption, FLO was used to generate a set of routes for each of the three main classes of delivery. It is hoped that using these routes as a starting point, a clearer picture can be acquired of how to deploy and manage the fleet. Such studies, have the added benefit of allowing companies and distribution teams, to recognise the importance of certain categories of information; and for making knowledge surrounding the scheduling process explicit, rather than implicitly distributed among a number of people.
