Agility wins sustainability award from major customer Nokia

By Exhibition and Event Association of Australasia, 10 February, 2014

BAAR, Switzerland – February 07, 2014 – Agility was recently awarded Nokia’s annual sustainability award for a supply chain innovation that helped the global telecommunications company slash costs and CO2 emissions.
 

Nokia presented the award to Agility, a global logistics leader, for developing consolidation hubs designed for high-efficiency packaging in India, Hungary and Brazil. Agility’s Goods-in-Transit Centers (GIT-Cs) reconfigured shipments of goods arriving from Nokia production plants, cutting the carbon footprint of the shipments by 6% to 9% without increasing delivery times.  
 

Nokia cargo arrives at GIT-Cs on wooden pallets packaged for standard overland and air freight shipment. Specially trained Agility teams break down the shipments and reconfigure them into densely packed air pallets.
 

By repackaging at GIT-Cs, Agility has been able to reduce the space needed aboard aircraft and cut Nokia’s transport costs. The consolidation and repackaging also reduces Nokia’s CO2 emissions by enabling the company to move more cargo in a single journey.
 

Technology plays a key role. A strong IT system helps Agility identify consignments that can be reconfigured, co-packed safely and shipped together.   The same specialized IT system also produces necessary shipping documentation, merging the original packing lists and airway bills so that multiple consignments can clear customs on a single pallet.
 

“We are pleased to recognize Agility for their support in providing innovative solutions to our supply chain that significantly contributed to Nokia’s ability to reduce our carbon footprint at the same time as enhancing the supply chain effectiveness.  The collaboration between the two companies is a good example that global companies still have an opportunity and an obligation to drive sustainability.  It has been a mutually satisfying relationship with the innovation team of Agility,” stated Pia Kantola, Vice President, Customer Logistics and Continuous Improvement, Nokia.
  

GIT-Cs are in place in Nokia’s inbound supply chain in the southern Indian industrial center of Chennai, and in Manaus, the capital of the Brazilian state of Amazonas. A similar hub is being used by Nokia in Komarom, Hungary.    Nokia is exploring the possibility of establishing a GIT-C for outbound freight  transported to Buenos Aires, Argentina.
 

Michael Blaufuss, Agility Vice President Air Freight, accepted the sustainability award at Nokia offices in Helsinki as part the company’s annual Nokia Collaboration Day. 
 

“We pride ourselves in finding innovative ways to help customers cut costs, improve efficiency and reduce their impact on the environment,” Blaufuss said. “The Agility culture is one in which we challenge ourselves to re-examine what we do and figure out how we can do it better, as we have done with Nokia and the GIT-Cs.”
 

Agility’s development of the GIT-Cs demonstrates its ability to bring customized, strategic answers to customers across the world.

Source: Agility Logistics