#WeAreDigital

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Óscar López Tresgallo
Welcome to We Are Digital. With us today are María José García and Philippe Le Bail, logistics supervisors in different Repsol divisions. So, thanks very much for coming here today for this talk, in which we’re going to discuss and get details about an initiative that you are running in Repsol, that focuses on the digitalisation of transport processes and also some areas of logistics, and is a project that came about with the aim of looking at safety, improving safety in transport processes. I think it then got much bigger and ended up turning into a total transformation of your transport processes, a total digitalisation of your transport processes. What was this experience like for you? Did you really feel that you were pioneering this transformation process, not just because of the process itself, but also because of its sheer scale? I think it was a challenge, a major challenge.

María José García
What was it like for us? Well, I think you’ve said it all. I do think we’ve been pioneers in terms of the scale of the whole process. Yes, these types of initiatives were already around, but in our case we have to remember that we were dealing with a multi-customer and multi-service company. We might have to deliver polymer asphalt to somewhere difficult to get to, packaged and palletized in different countries, across Europe or across the world.  This meant that the challenge was obtaining a tool that was able to cope with all of these different scenarios. At the same time, I feel we were pioneers in the change and in persuading our suppliers to embrace this change. For the same reason, because of the number of suppliers we have and the diversity of means that we use.

Philippe Le Bail
Yes, similar tools are already in use in the transport sector. Hauliers have the means of tracking their operations, they have embedded devices, traffic management software, etc. And this changes the equation or, let’s say, the basis of this project, radically. What matters is being able to rely on it and integrate these data into the project. And then, I would say that this project is so innovative because it’s driven by the loader, not so much the haulier but the loader, and another fundamental consideration is that it really is the first tool that simultaneously combines tracking geolocation and handling events. This really is an innovation in the sector. Something else that is important and innovative is that this type of, let’s say, feature exists in B2C, but not in B2B. And in my opinion, this is something fundamental.

 

 

Óscar López Tresgallo
Yes, I agree, it’s an important consideration. Effectively, as users in the B2C context we are used to receiving this kind of service, this kind of information in real time, but it’s not at all the norm in the B2B context and I think this is a significant step forwards, applying the consumer market model to the business sector is a very significant change. In addition, it’s a model that adds a great deal of value. I’d like to go back a bit to the beginning of the project, above all to know what your objectives were, because we’ll talk about how the whole process was as we move on in our talk. So I’d like to go back to the start. What objectives did you set yourselves? I mean, what idea did you have and what expectations did you have in Repsol when you launched this initiative?

Philippe Le Bail
OK. First, we wanted to improve the safety of operations. At Repsol, safety is hardwired into our DNA. It was therefore a crucial focus. Then we needed to get customers involved, place them at the heart of operations and share total traceability and visibility of operations with them. This was a core area. So for us it was very important: transparency, and then other areas such as improving efficiency and optimising operations. Our initial focus was on all of these features.

Óscar López Tresgallo

And taking a look at something that I think is very… very relevant and perhaps sometimes… companies that may be launching or thinking about launching an initiative like yours often don’t understand, for example, enhanced safety, which is one of the primary objectives that you’ve mentioned. I’d like to go a bit more deeply into this. How does a tool like this, a transport digitalisation tool, really support, improve… make an improvement to safety?

Philippe Le Bail
It’s very simple. It’s based on obtaining full traceability of operations, being able to track any movement of goods in real time, locate them in real time, we can even track and control other transport parameters like temperature, external pressure of these types of goods, or even handle incidents, increase our ability to react, track this information, we basically achieve almost total control of operations, this was a clear goal from the outset, and we have achieved it.

Óscar López Tresgallo
I suppose that… in the situation we’re currently in, that among other things means we have to be sitting here wearing face masks and this distance apart, I gather you’ve also had feedback or input, even that somehow… I don’t know, you’ve felt privileged, in all this situation, you know, that there have been changes to a lot of ways of doing things, a lot of ways of operating, lots of interactions that before were done by exchanging physical documents, with a lot of physical contact and all that… if having this tool, this already being digitalised, has enabled you to adapt to this new situation in a more… agile, more simple way.

María José García
We were at a stage in the project where we were already able to handle these situations without any decrease in the level of service and ensuring that products were delivered to our customers in the safest conditions, avoiding as far as possible any paper documents being exchanged or any kind of contact, our teams were even able to manage all routes or all transport remotely. This was possible because this project sits inside another key project for us in Repsol, the customer-driven project, whose main insignia or major avenue of communication is the customer communication portals.

Óscar López Tresgallo
What has the project been like in practice? How have you experienced it, the project that we have often referred to as the journey towards digital?

María José García
Just like any challenging, interesting journey. The same as with any project, we began by assessing all of the processes, the scope we wanted it to have, weighing up our options. And here, I have to say, being able to rely on a supplier like you, with years of experience in this kind of project and in the sector, was key. And once you have the partner with whom you are going to make the journey we’re talking about, then you come up against the barriers, that I think are key in this this project, aren’t they? We came up against a lot of barriers of different types, both cultural and technological, even management, or purely economic in terms of being able to manage the project. And the challenge is being able to deal with all of them and overcome them.

 

 

Óscar López Tresgallo
It’s not all plain sailing. Obviously all of these projects, which as you rightly say are a challenge, present different situations that need handling, and I’m sure that at some point… in a challenge like yours, we’re talking about 130 transport companies providing you services in your transport processes and over 120,000 shipments a year, the challenge was huge and I’m sure that at some point you had your doubts about whether you were going to be able to pull it off.

María José García
Oh yes, absolutely. There were definitely times when we said we’re not going to manage this, or it’s going to be incredibly tough. What I can share with you, what I can share now… I remember that at the beginning, at the conceptualisation stage, I don’t know if you remember, the issues and problems we had as regards what technology to use, it was precisely because we were in it together and were working together and relying on your experience, we solved the problem, and then…what I already said, you know? I mean, I think that another key moment was when we had the tool, we had defined the scope, we had got everything ready and we took the plunge, and then what I would call the major challenge of this project reared its head: the cultural change. Not what we were talking about earlier, our suppliers, but also even our customers and ourselves, I mean the people in our organisation who had to change their whole management approach.

Philippe Le Bail
I think this is something that always happens in this type of project, mainly because we’re working with other companies. So the company profile or user profile varies greatly depending on their line of business, their level of technology, etc., it’s something we have to deal with. Something else that’s important to bear in mind is that there’s a natural resistance to supervision, control and even real-time location tracking. There’s a natural resistance and that’s something we have to take into account. And then obviously there’s the question of company commitment. The commitment of a company we work with isn’t always what it might be. So we have to deal with that as well. And we deal with it using our company’s determination to make this project a success. We need to have, how can I put it, a very clear objective and successfully impose that objective. So we have to get the message across that this is not a trial, right? Visibility and traceability are not optional, this is simply a foundation for building improved quality, traceability and visibility, and obviously all of this enhanced safety that we have as well.

Óscar López Tresgallo
You’ve mentioned something that, in my opinion, is fundamental: ultimately, this is a technology-driven project where perhaps the key issues are not exactly technology. And one of the issues is the one you mention. Clearly, and I often say it, visibility and transparency are very welcome when you’re on the receiving end, but nobody is so keen on offering it because at the end of the day, as companies we all have our little inefficiencies and naturally we don’t like everybody else to find out about them. That’s the way it is. But on the other hand, this leads us to thinking about which roadmap we need, what’s the answer to this issue? And that’s exactly what you’ve been talking about. It has to be an initiative with massive backing that’s not negotiable. That is to say, we’ve decided to make this transformation, make this change and furthermore share it with the companies we work with, share it with customers. Everybody has to realise that there’s no turning back on this one, that it’s not open to negotiation. And in my opinion, this takes you to the next stage, as you said to me, María José, effectively there comes a time when you say to yourself, what have I got to do, what have I got to manage, I have to achieve a paradigm shift, all of the colleagues, customers, etc. And I think this is absolutely paramount in the project. So, please tell me, as far as you want to, what was the strategy like for this, how did you develop this change management strategy?

María José García
Of course. The strategy has been crucial. I think ours is an example worth sharing. First, it’s about choosing the means, the right tool. And here, I think the Repsol Tracking ‘Track And Trace’ tool has been fundamental. Why? Because of the two ways it offers to interact with all users, either through integration for suppliers who have similar tools in place or via an APP, for suppliers who have no prior experience of this kind of tool. And this means you put them all on the same level, the same starting point as far as the technology goes. And then the next step of the strategy is how to implement it, you know? What I mean is, once you’ve got the tool, you’ve chosen it, then you have to make it work. The key factor here is finding out how to achieve the greatest impact in the shortest time possible. And as we said at the beginning of this talk, with the added complication, in our case, of the huge diversity of scenarios and customers and different means of transport that we can use. So in view of this, we used, we started off with a pilot, a kind of MVP in which we identified, both for suppliers who were going to use the integration option and suppliers who were going to use APP, a series of representatives that were included in this pilot. How did this help us? By identifying what problems might crop up during implementation. What grey areas, what development requirements might come to light throughout this strategy and with this pilot, this MVP that we used, it helped to expand and roll out all of the implementation with all the other suppliers. Our initial focus was always on the suppliers who run the most routes with us, because if we managed to get them on board first, the impact on managing our routes was going to be much greater. And then in addition, using this pilot helped us identify a set of indicators that subsequently became the indicators currently used in the project.

Óscar López Tresgallo
There’s obviously a technological leg to this strategy, as you’ve said. It needs to be something that all of your network can sign up to in a model, in a different model, that gives you flexibility, that provides alternatives. This model needs validating, as you did through the MVP, and then what you really need to do is test it, and once you’ve tested it and validated the whole model, then obviously perfect strategy:  first I’m going to focus on… If I think there are two legs, where can I have the most impact or where is it easier? Because sometimes, some suppliers are less complicated than others.

María José García
In our case, it was seeking the greatest impact. That is to say, the suppliers running more routes, so working from the top down and having progressive control of our operations.

Óscar López Tresgallo
And to round off here, this MVP serves to define the KPIs you’re then going to need so you can check that everything is going as planned. I’d like to know, now we have some hindsight after months of running in and operating the solution, what have the real day-to-day changes been? Your teams? Your customer relations model? What has this involved for you?

Philippe Le Bail
For us, obviously our day-to-day has changed. We’ve managed to improve, and above all optimise and plan our operations at the same time. So, just having real-time location information and events handling means that we can plan better, organise ourselves better. Pretty much all of our goods need preparation time before being shipped to customers. So we can organise and plan loading operations better and save time through this planning. By the same token, the haulier can also plan their loading and unloading operations better, and at the same time the customer also benefits from this optimisation. In terms of safety, our response capacity is also a lot quicker today. So this is the fundamental point. Then another point, a clear example we experienced a very short time ago, is Brexit. Thanks to this feature, at a given moment during Brexit we were able to know exactly where our goods were, which has been massively important. As regards responding to customers, we just changed the model. Now, instead of managing each operation, we manage by exception, we are able to concentrate on operations that really need some kind of action, of intervention. And through our portal, through Química Online, customers themselves can access this information directly. They don’t need to call us, because they can use the Química Online portal to access information and thus plan their operations, manage their inventory, their operations, their processes, etc.

Óscar López Tresgallo
I think you’ve touched on an area that was also kind of in the objectives we’ve talked about often during the project, the idea of management by exception. And in this respect, that has an impact above all on your in-house teams, your management teams, I’d like to know a bit more, you arrived at this model of management by exception, this homogenisation of the model, day-to-day processing of information, of real-time supervision, what has this really given you and how has it changed the way your teams operate?

María José García
Yes indeed. I would say that this model has a defining characteristic, I think it’s a proactive model, that is to say it enables you actually to act, instead of reacting to a situation. Why? Because it’s a model which is based on making maximum use of a piece of data, and it provides you with data at all times, as Philippe said earlier on. That is to say, it doesn’t just enable you to perform pure route management from time of loading so you can plan the loading, shipment or unloading at customer facilities, so that the customer knows when the product they have ordered is going to arrive, but also, it provides information on all areas that enables you, by putting this in a database and setting the parameters, to anticipate any possible incident and handle it with a database and background knowledge. So we have switched to a proactive, not reactive, model. This is the big difference.

Óscar López Tresgallo
Yes, this really is one of the fundamental aspects, not just having the data, but being able to consult them or exploit them. Absolutely. And I think there’s something else we’ve touched on and that I think is important, and that’s the digital management of documentation, which also relates to other issues, you know, other buildings, from the efficiency point of view. But moreover, we’re also talking about sustainability. We all know we talk about paperless a lot. We’d all love to reach a scenario that is one hundred percent paperless, where paper management has disappeared from logistics and transport management, for all sorts of reasons that I’m sure the people watching this talk know about first-hand. Well, we’ve got some way to go before we reach a hundred percent, but I do think that this kind of tool is letting us progress and is laying the foundations in this respect. Would you mind telling me what benefits you’ve obtained, and at what stage of development you’re at right now?

María José García
Yes, I agree with you that we still have a little way to go before we achieve the paperless model, but I do think we’re on the right track, this tool, or using similar tools, is key for reaching this goal, which people realise is necessary not just because of sustainability questions as you rightly say, but also because of… because of the situation we’re in with the pandemic today, and being able to have digital documents and… sooner or later reaching this situation, which I am convinced we will, will depend quite simply on coordination and cooperation between all of the stakeholders in the process. Whether loaders, shippers, or even the legal area, international regularisation and legislation.

Óscar López Tresgallo
You’ve already mentioned some customer-related areas. Could you maybe expand on this, or describe how customer involvement has been? Customers who have… who have been involved in the project directly, who have embraced it more strongly? How has all this changed? And how has the process been?

Philippe Le Bail
Of course. The first thing we noticed was that there was customer demand for having this kind of feature, so we decided to make the most of it. Some customers were even involved in designing and preparing the project. So for us it was a vital consideration. And for customers, now that they can effectively use our customer portal and get real-time information on their deliveries, they can plan, they can manage their inventories, their own processes. For us this is a benefit, it’s added value for our customers. There’s an important point to make here too: information immediacy. What I mean is our customers, instead of having to contact us to get this information, they can get it directly and immediately themselves via the portal. So this is another big plus for our customers.

Óscar López Tresgallo
Organisations or the idea of customer-centric is something highly relevant for company strategies and indeed, in this case, you’ve managed to integrate customers into the process and in addition to visibility they get other benefits too, as we mentioned before… they have visibility and this lets them plan better, i.e. not only do they have a guarantee of safety, they can even improve my own processes, and I think this is a huge added value for your customers. Philippe, if you had to choose 4 or 5 points by way of summary, what would they be? Regarding everything we’ve been talking about.

Philippe Le Bail
I would say that the change has been technological, but also cultural. I believe digital tools have arrived and are here to stay. So our colleagues, or let’s say the companies who use these digital tools, are competitive today, and companies who don’t, at some point they’re going to be overwhelmed or will stop being competitive in the market. This is a very important point to bear in mind. And it leads me to one of the project’s key points, which is change management, change management from both within and without, which is directly connected to the company’s determination to carry out this project and has been the fundamental consideration. So if I had to give advice to a company getting involved in a similar project, I would say first be determined and then make sure you know your processes inside-out. Know the companies you work with and their level of technology very well, their degree of commitment to us and then, obviously, have a robust team, well-coordinated between the company itself, the companies it works with and the technology partner such as Fieldeas, in this case.

Óscar López Tresgallo
You’ve achieved this, you’ve implemented the solution, and ultimately you’ve managed to lay a foundation, I think this is how you see it and how an initiative like this one has to be approached, we have achieved digitalisation and now we have a foundation to build on and grow. María José, how do you see this growth over the coming years? I mean, what initiatives do you have in mind right now? How do you view your medium-term strategy for this digitalisation?

María José García
I think you’ve defined it with what you’ve just said. This is the foundation, the first stone, the start of digitalisation projects. Today we’ve been talking about what digitalisation means in transport, but there are plenty of other processes that can be digitalised. Everything to do with process optimisation and digitalisation is here, and here to stay. Either you get on board, or you stop being competitive. Not just in transport, but also in management with our customers, in internal process management. Where do we need to go from here? Standardisation, homogenisation, virtual credentials, blockchain projects? That’s the direction we’re headed in.

Óscar López Tresgallo
We believe that regarding blockchain and this idea of digital identity stroke digital credentials, there will be a dramatic improvement process, a dramatic optimisation of processes…

María José García
And renewal in the way we manage everything.

Óscar López Tresgallo
Yes, absolutely. You can even create that network idea you’re looking for, where these types of process are shared between different organisations and the benefit is amplified. I also think there will be major improvements in respect of digital documentation. Regulations are under way and we hope that by 2024, there will be homogenous regulations in Europe.

María José García
You’re right.

Óscar López Tresgallo
So e-CMR management, do you have a vision for that too?

María José García
Yes we’ve been working on this, effectively, by the end of 2024, beginning of 2025, when there will be a European regulation for digital waybill management or e-CMR. So we’ve got time, but we need to get on with it. What I mean is, using the waybill is something that requires already having in place tools such as Track and Trace, that allow you to use a digital waybill and make sure that not only are you able to manage this digital document, but also that your customer accepts it. As we said earlier on, we need everybody participating in the project to be involved in it.

Óscar López Tresgallo
Yes, we have time to manage the change before 2025 comes around. María José and Phillippe, we really appreciate your being with us here for this edition of #WeAreDigital, and that you’ve been so frank and gone into so much detail about the intricacies of an initiative like yours. I think it will be enlightening for a lot of companies who may be thinking about this kind of initiative themselves. I also feel that you have told it like it is, it’s not all plain sailing and there are complex areas that need to be managed. These projects are not solely about technology, technology is an important part of them of course, but there are a lot of other areas to consider too: contractual areas, cultural areas, these all need managing and supervising. We appreciate your talking about it all so frankly and in so much detail. Thank you very much.

Philippe Le Bail
Thank you.

María José García
Thank you for inviting us.