AI solution for more sustainability
The IT company Ergon has developed a solution for Digitec Galaxus to optimize package sizes and resource consumption. The two companies have jointly decided to publish the solution approach. The goal: to make a contribution to sustainability. Because the benefits of the approach go beyond the mail order business. as they say.
Digitec Galaxus has optimized its package sizes and now uses more precisely fitting packages. A new AI solution from Ergon helped with this. Thanks to the new solution, Switzerland's largest online retailer was able to reduce the empty space, and thus the filler material, by 28 %. Ergon published this approach in a scientific paper. The paper also highlights the optimization itself and shows how its resource consumption could be reduced by 96 %. It is not only the mail order business that benefits. Parts of this approach are also suitable for personnel deployment, timetable or material requirements planning.
Transparency promotes sustainability
Ergon and Digitec Galaxus have published the detailed description of the solution approach on https://arxiv.org published. The goal is to help other companies achieve greater sustainability as well. "The publication is important to us because sustainability and transparency are core values of Ergon," says Wilhelm Kleiminger, Head of Data Science at Ergon. "Furthermore, we want to show that digitalization and AI approaches can play a key role in sustainability." According to Kleiminger, data-driven companies have an advantage when it comes to identifying and implementing optimization potential. In this regard, Digitec Galaxus is one of the companies with a role model function, he said. The air volume to be optimized as well as the constraints, such as creasing, could thus be mathematically defined based on concrete business goals and KPIs. "Clear metrics are needed for both machine learning and mathematical optimization. This is the only way to create an algorithm that solves relevant problems," Kleiminger concludes.
One solution, numerous advantages
Digitec Galaxus has been using the solution since fall 2022. Since then, the online retailer has not only saved resources and costs. Aurel Gautschi, Product Owner at Digitec Galaxus, says: "We have received a lot of positive feedback from employees. The new package sizes are much more ergonomic. That makes work easier. Customers are also happy about less waste. For Digitec Galaxus, this is a win on several levels.
Source: Ergon Informatik AG
