A New Approach to Container Management: How BinMan^® Streamlines Your Logistics Processes

Container management is particularly important for companies that transport large quantities of goods and rely on reusable load carriers. These include automotive suppliers, food producers, and logistics service providers, as well as companies in the mechanical engineering and chemical industries that use specialized containers.

Challenges often include a lack of transparency regarding the location and condition of containers, high shrinkage rates, inefficient return processes, and coordination issues with partners. However, such challenges can be effectively addressed with good container management software such as BinMan^®. For example, BinMan^® offers features for tracking containers (often using RFID), automates management, and improves communication among all parties involved to maintain an overview and prevent losses.

• Increased inventory transparency through coordinated real-time inventories with all stakeholders
• Improved container availability thanks to optimized container flows and demand-based supply of empty containers
• Reduced spending on new acquisitions through verifiable reduction in container loss and damage
• We’re happy to demonstrate in a no-obligation consultation how these benefits can be realized for your specific application. Please contact us at binman@logsol.de

This largely depends on your requirements for a container management system. The BinMan^® standard software can be made available to you one to two months after you place your order. The prerequisites for this are implementation as a stand-alone solution, as well as the complete and qualitatively flawless availability of all necessary master data, and the continuous availability of all necessary project participants. You should allow a little more time if specific software adaptations are necessary in the course of the software implementation. The exact duration depends on the number and complexity of your individual requirements.

During software implementation you will be supported by an experienced product manager. Depending on your needs, your dedicated contact person will assist you with the requirements analysis, any software adaptations, employee training, and the software go-live. In addition, we fully configure the software for you based on your transmitted master data.

To qualify subsequent end users, we apply the train-the-trainer concept. We train your key users and administrators in one or several training blocks on site or via web training in all the functionalities of your future solution. The goal is to ensure that these users have the most comprehensive knowledge possible for your future software solution, so that they can cover level-1 support at your company in future and so that additional users can be trained in-house. Furthermore, BinMan^® has an intuitive multilingual user interface and integrated online help, which allows users to easily find their way around the software and look up the correct application independently. Customized training concepts can also be coordinated and implemented as required.

We operate BinMan^® as on-demand software using the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, meaning local installation of the software is not required. BinMan^® is accessed online via any popular browser and on all Internet-capable end devices. All users can access the software with their login data via a customer-specific domain.

Since BinMan^® is hosted by us as part of the SaaS model, there is no requirement to have your own web server. There are no explicit hardware requirements for end devices operating BinMan^® (terminal PC, laptop, handheld scanner, smartphone, tablet). The end device must have an up-to-date browser and an Internet connection.

We offer BinMan^® as a hosted solution on dedicated servers in a German high-security data center with guaranteed server availability of 99.9% as an annual average. Data transmission is encrypted (SSL) and BinMan^® is accessed exclusively via password-protected login. Automated backups of data protect you from data loss in the event of an emergency. With an ISO/IEC 27001 certified Information Security Management System (ISMS) at both LOGSOL GmbH and the hosting service provider, we place great emphasis on the security of information, data, and systems.

In principle, any other system can be connected to BinMan^®. Ideally suited to this, from our point of view, are ERP or warehouse management systems in which container movements are already recorded, transport management systems that use the data from BinMan^® shipment planning for further transport planning/optimization, or middleware automatic identification systems (GPS, RFID, UWB, etc.). Data can be exchanged bidirectionally between BinMan^® and the other systems via the BinMan^® API or customer-specific configured interfaces.

The BinMan^® software is continuously developed in terms of functionality and general technological and safety-related advancements. Enhancements and improvements are made available to our customers free of charge after an update has been scheduled. The impetus for functional optimizations and further developments mainly comes from our internally defined product roadmap.

Your dedicated contact person is also available to answer any questions you may have after software implementation. In principle, our support team is available to all software users for technical and application-related questions in German, English, and Chinese. With the help of a ticket system, users record their concerns and are continuously informed about the processing status of the support ticket. The contractually agreed Service Level Agreements (SLA) regulate the fast response times of our support team.

BinMan^® can be used across all industries. Its application can be useful for any company that either exchanges its own returnable load carriers with external exchange partners (suppliers, service providers, customers), or uses returnable loan goods from their own customers.

We lease our software using the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model and provide you BinMan^® via the Internet for the agreed contract period (without limitation in terms of tracked packaging types, own company accounts, logins/users, etc.). For the use of BinMan^® we charge you a monthly service fee per site¹ including all user logins, time slot bookings, and server costs with 99.9% guaranteed server availability.

Although we offer BinMan^® as standardized software, the individual business cases are often customized, which is why we can’t make a blanket statement in advance about the expected costs for the implementation of BinMan^®. We are happy to calculate a custom price indication for you. For this we only need the following information:

At how many sites is the container management system to be implemented?

• Approximately how many transactions² do you have per month per site¹?
• How many exchange partners³ will use the software in the future?
• How is container management currently being implemented at your company? Have you already established a solution or is there currently no tracking of reusable packaging movements?

We would be very happy to present BinMan^® to you in a no-obligation consultation by means of a live demo. Please contact us at binman@logsol.de.