Digitising last-mile delivery

As an enterprise whose core business lies in distribution, digitising our last-mile delivery is key to addressing some of our biggest challenges; high delivery volume and cost, process optimisation and slow sales recognition. The digitising of supply chains has been an increasing trend in recent years, with international giants like Amazon and smaller local firms like Ninja Van jumping on board.

The ultimate business goal of a digital supply chain is to deliver the right product into the customer’s hands as quickly as possible — but also to do so responsively and reliably while increasing efficiency and cutting costs to achieve total distribution visibility. As one of the largest pharmaceutical distribution companies in Asia, the need to maintain the integrity of products throughout the delivery process and track real-time delivery is a priority.

Zuellig Pharma kicked off our digitisation journey in 2015 with Zyllem, using the platform to design delivery systems and processes for each market. “We went through several solutions available and found Zyllem to be the most innovative and truly customisable to the needs specific to each market. It allows us to manage and operate our entire distribution network on one platform, giving us a macro view of our last mile distribution activities across multiple networks,” said Maikel Kuijpers, Chief Information Officer & SVP Operations.

This partnership also led to the creation of a new feature called Address Validation. Backed by a Global Positioning System (GPS), customer addresses are saved into a system and validated, creating a comprehensive database of addresses. We are now able to update our address database to generate accurate Driver Compliance Reports, which in turn minimises errors and delays on the ground. The successful trial and implementation of Zyllem in Singapore and Malaysia have seen other markets such as Vietnam and the Philippines coming on board.

“What’s impressive about Zyllem is the level of customisation available. It lets us map out our different delivery processes, monitor our drivers, and offer a control tower view of all deliveries in real-time. We are also mining big data collected from the field, providing us with valuable insights on our last mile deliveries to better our processes, ultimately increasing the efficiency of distribution,” shared Johnny Teo, Category Manager.