Integrating services to provide complete logistics solution
AFTER THE successful completion of a six-month pilot phase, Lufthansa Cargo officially launched its business partnership programme - a new form of co-operation between airlines and forwarders - on July 1.
Since January, Lufthansa and four different types and sizes of forwarding operations have been testing out the partnership concept and have accumulated experience in diverse areas of co-operation, marketing member of the executive board, Stefan Lauer, told FTW in Frankfurt last week.
The programme encompasses a dozen areas of co-operation, he added, including quality management; capacity and potential planning; joint product development; information technology and communications; export and import processes; and marketing and training.
The goal of the project is to integrate the services provided by Lufthansa Cargo and its airline alliance partners, and those of the forwarder partners, according to Lauer. In this integration, he said, we are aiming to provide a complete logistics solution.
Companies will need to offer integrated systems if they are to survive future competition.
By optimising intra-company business processes, we are improving the efficiency of the transport cycle dramatically.
The four partners in the pilot project are Hellmann, Jet Speed Air Cargo Forwarders, Expeditors International and the Air Express International (AEI) corporation. These four companies are to continue with the programme now that the test phase has been successfully finalised.
A number of other forwarders are expected to be signing up in the next few weeks, according to Lauer, who highlighted Kuehne & Nagel, Schenker International, Panalpina and Danzas among them.
By Alan Peat
