Case Study

Pfeifer Group

Mastering spot market volatility with Transporeon Autonomous Procurement

Global logistics requires robust processes to reduce both risks and costs

In markets defined by high volatility, manufacturers like the Pfeifer Group—one of Europe’s leading timber producers—must quickly and efficiently process ad-hoc and spot freight to manage capacity bottlenecks and major fluctuations in customer orders.

To address this challenge and ensure transport assignment was more efficient, Pfeifer chose Transporeon Autonomous Procurement. The goal was to achieve automated, market-oriented assignment, significantly reduce manual effort for planners, and create equal opportunities for more transport partners. Read on and watch the video to uncover the remarkable results achieved.

About Pfeifer Group

The Pfeifer Group is a third-generation family-run company and is among the world’s leading softwood lumber producers (Top 10). The company produces primarily lumber, formwork beams, cross-laminated timber (CLT), and biofuels at 13 locations in four countries: Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic and Finland.

The Pfeifer Group delivers its products to 90 countries worldwide. Outbound logistics is primarily road-based (80% of transports in Central Europe) but uses intermodal (over 4,000 containers, overseas, and breakbulk ships) for long-haul and overseas routes.

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The challenge

The timber industry is characterized by high volatility. Customers often order large quantities at short notice, followed by longer breaks. These strong fluctuations required Pfeifer to balance capacities and volumes via the spot market.

Prior to the introduction of Autonomous Procurement and the use of Best Carrier, spot assignment was highly individualized and handled by plant planners, primarily via email, phone calls and Best Carrier.

The biggest challenges were:

Inefficiency: High manual effort involved in individual spot assignment.
Capacity bottlenecks: Finding sufficient capacity on the spot market.
Transparency and comparison: The number of offers from transport companies was limited, making transparent cost comparison difficult.

It was necessary to automate and centralize assignment to relieve planners and make the process more market-oriented and efficient.

The solution

As a long-standing Transporeon customer, the Pfeifer Group has been using Transport Assignment (including Best Carrier), Visibility (for live tracking), and Network Insights since 2009.

The solution to overcoming spot market volatility was the implementation of Autonomous Procurement to automatically feed excess loads into the spot market.

Implementation and use:

Locations: Autonomous Procurement was implemented for all sites in Austria, Germany and the Czech Republic. Finland is in the planning stage.
Process: Planners primarily assign loads to fixed partners; the excess is pushed to the spot market via Autonomous Procurement.
Control: Logistics management benefits enormously as the process is controlled via price ceilings, which are set weekly (and sometimes daily) based on benchmarks and market analysis.

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By introducing Autonomous Procurement, we have reduced the manual effort in spot assignment and can make the allocation much more efficient. This allows planners to refocus on day-to-day business.

Stephanie Gstrein,

Project Manager Supply Chain Management,

Pfeifer Group

The results

Automating freight purchasing through Autonomous Procurement provided the Pfeifer Group with the following key advantages:

Reduction of manual effort: The manual effort for planning/assignment was reduced significantly.
Automation rate: An automation rate of 84% was achieved, meaning manual intervention is only necessary for 16% of cases.
Shift in focus: Planners can concentrate on solving problems in day-to-day operations.
Market-oriented assignment: Controlling assignment via price ceilings and benchmarks for efficient, unbiased and market-compliant allocation.
Partner opportunities: The tool offers many partners a chance to secure loads they might not receive through manual assignment.

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The conclusion

The Pfeifer Group has overcome the challenges of a volatile industry and fluctuating spot market through consistent automation. By implementing Autonomous Procurement, the company significantly reduced manual planning effort and achieved an automation rate of 84%. Assignments are now more market-oriented and efficient, with precise price ceilings ensuring optimal control. This transformation demonstrates how even traditionally managed logistics departments can future-proof themselves by adopting modular solutions and focusing on AI-powered automation.

Looking ahead, digitalization will continue with the rollout of Autonomous Procurement in Finland and further development of artificial intelligence in collaboration with Transporeon, ensuring continued innovation in logistics and supply chain management.

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