Transparency meets efficiency: 11.8% savings potential in the Dutch healthcare network
A supra-regional hospital provider in the Netherlands commissioned FIEGE Consulting to analyse its delivery shipments and simulate sustainable network variants. Objective: significant cost savings, stable service levels and a setup that covers both B2B clinic deliveries and time-critical B2C shipments (e.g. homecare patients).
The customer's initial situation
The Care of Clinics and HomeCare Patients requires several hundred trips a day with different transportation requirements — from temperature-controlled drugs to radioactive shipments for nuclear medicine. Between January and June 2024, a total of All logistical services are recorded and mapped in GISto maintain a transparent status quo. This revealed significant volumes and utilization differences between the B2B and B2C segments. At the same time, the existing fleet reached its limits when additional delivery windows had to be met at short notice.
Intensive data processing — heterogeneous delivery scans and route logs had to be standardized.
Timefrack-based planning — hospitals require fixed delivery slots, HomeCare patients require flexible delivery times.
Largely existing depot & location structure — optimization had to be feasible with existing locations.
There was also the challenge of Mixed Fleets & Dangerous Goods — Radioactive Shipments, General Cargo and Standard Packages in a Network.
The project had a clear goal: A service-stable and cost-optimized delivery network at the same time, which covers both highly critical hospital care (B2B) and time-critical homecare shipments (B2C), achieving lasting double-digit savings without loss of quality.
After a complete data cleansing, six work packages were implemented to determine the savings potential — every step combined with clear customer benefits:
Our Approach
- Data & process preparation: Consolidated trip and shipment data provided the basis for reliable cost and performance indicators.
- Current analysis — route calculation: The detailed cost analysis immediately showed where vehicles, routes and time windows were disproportionately expensive.
- Fleet analysis: Transparency about operating kilometers and capacity utilization enabled the reduction of empty kilometers and precise fleet orientation.
- Reference date determination: A statistically typical delivery day served as a reliable starting variable for all simulation scenarios.
- Simulation of several network variants: Four scenarios — from location optimization to the separation of B2B/B2C — visibly delivered the highest cost effect.
- Calculation of cost effects: Each variant step was assessed in € and% values in order to create an investment-secure basis for decision-making.
“The rapid response, process understanding, basic work and the patient processing of the data have given us comprehensible results and important basis for decision-making.”
Outcome of our collaboration
- 11.8% lower transport costs — the preferred variant reduces annual delivery costs by approx. 700 THOUSAND € While maintaining the same level of service.
A clearly assessed portfolio of variants, transparent cost drivers and an implementable action plan provide everything that is necessary to quickly realize savings potential — while fully focusing on the critical supply security of hospitals and patients.
Contact us — we are looking forward to talking to you!
Contact us — we will be happy to guide you on your way to efficient transport and last-mile logistics
Contact us — we will be happy to guide you on your way to an optimal delivery structure!
