Loss of material due to improper opening.
Mr. Fuentes as Logistics and Loss Prevention Manager of Fletes Andrade is responsible for ensuring that each package sent reaches its destination on time and in the exact quantity, just as they are received and recorded at the time of loading onto the trucks.
Fletes Andrade won an important contract for a large construction company in the country. As part of the contract, Fletes Andrade was required to deliver 200 sacks of cement daily from the company Ingeniería ICT, which would be doing renovations in the northern region of the country, an area with a higher influx of tourists. The distance between the distribution plant and the work site is 630 km. The logistics plan established loading in the afternoons and a nighttime departure (approximately at 7 pm) to make the trip overnight and deliver the material first thing in the morning at the work site.
The material from Ingeniería ICT comes in 4 pallets distributed and sealed with plastic, so individual counting of the sacks was not done, but the record made was for 4 pallets with 25 sacks each. In December, after 2 months of operation, a shortage of material was reported.
Upon arrival at the destination, only 196 out of the planned 200 bags were delivered, which led to a customer complaint claiming that 4 bags had been removed from the pallets. At that moment, there was doubt as to who had made the mistake, whether it was the customer when counting and packaging the material or if the driver had opened the truck and removed the bags before reaching the final destination.
In response, the company decided to pay for the missing material and look for solutions to avoid losses and mistrust in the future. However, there was a second incident in which 8 bags were lost, which intensified the customer’s complaint and led the company to conduct a more detailed investigation to determine the root of the problem. The company decided to cover the cost of the lost bags and continue working on solutions to avoid future losses.
In a meeting with the owners of Fletes Andrade, Mr. Fuentes expressed his concerns about the incomplete delivery of goods. Although the pallets are counted, there is no individual record of the delivered bags. The truck has GPS that records the driver’s route and stops, and the key to the lock is held by the driver.
Mr. Andrade mentioned a successful project that reduced failures in a fuel distributor by implementing Bluetooth locks and provided Mr. Fuentes with a contact to explore this solution.
Mr. Fuentes called the manager of Ekspresa, a telecommunications and IoT solutions company, and presented his case. The manager proposed using the ACSYS Bluetooth locks for this case. He indicated that with this implementation they could do the following:
- }Block it so that the lock can only be opened at designated locations.
- Allow a user to open it as long as they have authorized access, but keep a record of the location and time when it is opened or closed.
- Allow access to multiple users.
Mr. Fuentes presented the solution to the owners and the features of the ACSYS solution, and they agreed to implement the solution on 20 of the active trucks and evaluate performance before extending it to the rest of the fleet.
Three weeks had passed and no incidents had been reported. Some saw the lock as just another lock, but at 2:30 am one night, an alert sounded on Mr. Fuentes’ phone indicating an unauthorized opening. Upon reviewing with the key management personnel, they identified that the truck carrying cement bags had opened the lock and kept it open for 38 minutes. It was decided not to inform anyone else in the company or the driver and to wait until it reached its destination.
At 9 am the next morning, Mr. Fuentes received a call from Mr. Andrade: “Fuentes, the new locks didn’t work either. ICT just called us and they’re missing 10 bags.” To which Fuentes replied: “You’re mistaken, boss. They worked perfectly. I received an alert last night about an unauthorized opening and was monitoring to see what was happening. I will proceed immediately with internal security. I was ready for this call.”
After this, there were no more incidents of missing materials or unauthorized openings, and Fletes Andrade installed the ACSYS solution in its trucks, warehouses, and distribution centers. Mr. Fuentes managed to keep his job.
Contact us and avoid material shortage due to unauthorized opening in your deliveries.
