The Digitalisation Working Group was created in 2016 at the industry meeting that the ECG board holds in conjunction with the OEMs on a regular basis. This forum agreed to establish working groups on Digitalisation and Capacity to deal with specific issues under the guidance of two Co-Chairmen coming from the ECG Board and from an OEM. The third strategic field of interest was Quality for which a long-standing joint working group already exists.
Michael Bünning
Hervé Moulin
Renault Nissan
The Digitalisation Working Group is open to all ECG member representatives and OEMs.
Ongoing sub-groups:
- ECG Tech Board: The idea of the Tech Board was launched after the ECG General Assembly & Spring Congress of May 2023. This is a sort of think thank to analyse the challenges the FVL industry is facing; to monitor the tech trends and to evaluate how the tech development can solve the challenges. This process will lead to projects which will be developed under the Digitalisation Working Group and which will yield tangible developments to the whole FVL sector.
- Port Control Tower Proof of Concept and Rail digitalisation Proof of Concept: These are industry initiatives which were launched in April 2024 with the participation of ECG members, OEMs and IT service providers, with ECG acting as an observer. Results and lessons learnt will be presented to the wider audience as soon as they are available.
- FVL message development together with the VDA and Odette: This was a joint project on the elaboration of targeted messages in the supply chain. The project lasted for more than two years and a great number of companies were represented. The Process description document was published in June 2020, accompanied with annexes that detail the XML and EDIFACT message templates. These can be downloaded from Odette International’s website. Currently the digital messages are under review and an updated set of messages will be published in the course of 2022.
The following topics have recently been discussed in sub-groups (i.e. these sub-groups are now dormant or closed):
- Standardised VIN label in the supply chain: Joint project with Odette on the development of a standard for the VIN label in the finished vehicle supply chain, which will be based on ECG’s own recommendation. The work will be finalised by September 2022.
- Telematics: A sub-group examined the status of the use of telematics in FVL in the various transport modes in 2022-23. The findings of the group were presented at the final meeting of the group where attendees agred to launch small groups to work on concrete trials in the field of maritime and rail transport.
- Digital Vehicle Handover: One of the strategic priorities of ECG for 2021-22. The project started under the Quality Working Group to developed an output (image) standard. The Data/IT phase started in July 2021 under the Digitalisation Working Group’s. LSPs, OEMs, IT providers and producers of the digital vehicle handover solutions were all well represented. Besides this group, a small legal workgroup is also active to develop good practices, especially as far as contracts are concerned.
- Close-range vehicle identification: The group was working on a recommendation for a standardised VIN label in the supply chain. The document was published in July 2020.
- Connectivity audit of logistics sites: This was a Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi, PSA Groupe and Port of Nantes Saint-Nazaire initiative to elaborate audit specifications for measuring the connectivity level of logistics sites. The document containing the audit specifications and the results of the first audit was published by ECG in July 2020.
- e-gate and slot booking applications: A short briefing document was published in April 2020. ECG is looking into developing this topic further with Odette and the VDA.
- KPIs for Finished Vehicle Logistics: The joint project was launched with Odette in April 2021 aiming to develop a standard set of KPIs to be used to measure performance in the area of Finished Vehicle Logistics. The purpose is to avoid the need for each organisation to create their own KPIs and avoid the need for LSPs to manage a plethora of KPIs from different customers. The project ended in May 2022 with the publication of an ECG-Odette recommendation.
- Autonomous Vehicles: This group was active in 2019 and early 2020. However, the topic seems to be too early: at a survey at the General Assembly in 2022 the members declared expecting Autonomous Vehicles on their compounds after 2030. Therefore, the group is on hold currently, but as soon as the topic will lend itself for further discussions we will convene it again.
Sub-groups will be formed as necessary to develop specific issues.
How to join?
For more information or to join the WG please contact Szilvi Kiss.