In Wohlen, we play Tetris during working hours

Peter Weingartner

16.12.2020

Translation: Jessica Johnson-Ferguson

Pictures: Thomas Kunz

Until recently, the Swiss Post trucks left our warehouse in Wohlen filled with 70% air. But thanks to a simple trick, we’ve managed to bring it down to 40%. Thanks to Tetris, we’re now releasing less carbon into the atmosphere.

In case it sounds like we’re bored in Wohlen, we’re not: around 60,000 parcels a day leave our warehouse in the run up to Christmas. One year ago, we were happy if we somehow managed to send out 45,000 parcels in one day. Today, we’ve taken up Tetris at work.

But let’s rewind. Until recently, our outgoing goods area was dominated by one thing: parcel trolleys. Those are the metal cages we store our customers’ parcels in before they’re picked up by the Swiss Post. This time last year, our outgoing goods area was more of a trolley traffic jam: metal and cardboard as far as the eye could see. One thing was clear: we’d have to come up with a solution in time for Christmas shopping 2020.

The solution was delivered by Swiss Post and is called open loading. This method means no more space-consuming parcel trolleys in the outgoing goods area; instead a so-called accordion conveyor belt. The belt is made up of rolling elements and a flexible arm that pushes the parcels straight into the postal truck. That’s when our Tetris skills come into play. The better the cardboard boxes are stacked, the more fits into the truck. But don’t worry: once a row is complete, it doesn’t disappear into oblivion to the sound of a Gameboy bleep, but makes it way to the Post’s distribution centre. We still earn points, though. But more about that later.

Tetris inventor Alexei Paschitnow would be proud

Frankly, all those parcel trolleys in the outgoing goods area were a pain in the neck. However, the decision to go for open loading was not a decision based on a gut feeling but on hard facts:

• 75% of our parcels are large, which makes them suitable for open loading.
• 25% of our parcels are small. These will still have to be brought to the trucks by trolley.
• By stacking the large parcels inside the truck, we reach 80% of a truck’s full capacity. With parcel trolleys, we reach a mere 30%.

So, if we stack as many parcels as possible one by one, the average truck load increases to 58%. In other words, open loading allows us to squeeze 60,000 parcels into 28 instead of 72 trucks. Of course, this is just in theory. As great as this may look in an Excel file, in practice, you’re suddenly confronted with many questions. Here are just a few of them:

• What’s the best way to get the parcels into the truck?
• At what frequency do the trucks need to be changed to ensure seamless open loading?
• Is Swiss Post able to accept openly loaded parcels around the clock?
• Which structural changes need to be made in Wohlen?
• Will these changes obstruct escape routes?

As you can see, we’re dealing with a complex system change. That’s why we’re not open loading the maximum number of parcels just yet. But we’re working on it.

To sum up: our new system won’t be earning us any Tetris high scores, but it will give us lots of karma points by reducing our strain on the environment.

Peter Weingartner

Leader First Mile, Last Mile, Trade Compliance and Operational Procurement

Peter.Weingartner@digitecgalaxus.ch

I make sure that our customers receive their parcels on time and in the right place. This occasionally involves me driving around in a car filled to the rafters with parcels. But that’s rare. I usually do my job at the office. For a healthy work-life balance, I do a lot of outdoor sports. Indoors works too. What counts is getting some exercise. more

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