Kuehne and Nagel, a Swiss logistics corporation, bagged a three-year contract from BMW to manage the South African parts distribution center. They will run the center in Midrand, for the period of the contract. This is the distribution center that supplies parts to South Africa and five other neighboring countries.
This decision comes after Kuehne + Nagel secured the contract to handle a portion of the facility in late 2008. After the transition was successfully made, the BMW management team decided to outsource the remainder of the operation to Kuehne + Nagel. They will provide inbound, outbound, and reverse logistics for the operation.
They are contracted to provide shipping and receiving, packaging, inventory control, handle dangerous products, and add much valued services, such as key coding, and cutting. The entire facility will be for BMW parts exclusively, and used for logistics to supply parts to ten other facilities surrounding South Africa.
The facility they will take control of is owned by BMW and dominates approximately 16,500 square meters, and houses around 50 units for stock storage. After the present phase of implementation is completed, Kuehne + Nagel will work with BMW to improve and continue the supply chain already in place. They are hoping to improve the cost efficiency, and productivity, while introducing new tools like the Kuehne + Nagel productions, and pick-by-voice systems.
BMW and Kuehne + Nagel did the contract to cater to the Japanese after market demands that seem to be on the rise in the region.
