Trade Fair Logistics: Just-in-time delivery

IAA Mobility premiered in Munich this September. This was the first time that trade fair service providers mac and Europfast worked together on a large scale.

Langenlonsheim-based live communication provider mac realised five demanding projects for the new mobility show. Both indoors, at the Summit, and outdoors at Königsplatz. “The challenge for all of the projects was to deliver the required stand construction material just in time,” says Melanie Hagedorn, mac’s Director Logistics. “This meant that the assembly team could work non-stop and make the best use of the space available on site,” she continues. “This applies particularly to the Königsplatz project, as the set-up time was shorter.” For this purpose, the provider had to book the timeslots for unloading, which had to be strictly adhered to, eight weeks before the start of the event.

In order to manage the delivery, a detailed construction schedule was required. This was essential for commissioning the individual components. “Hence, the material needed for construction was on site exactly at the right time,” explains Melanie Hagedorn. “If deviations occurred, we were able to respond swiftly – thanks to feedback from our site managers to our warehouse.” And this is where the cooperation with Europfast came into play. The vans were ordered with fixed delivery dates, and the deliveries were just in time. The situation at Königsplatz proved to be challenging, so that close tracking of the transports was necessary. “This was our first big project in collaboration with Europfast and everything went smoothly,” recaps mac’s Melanie Hagedorn.

As IAA Mobility was held both on the exhibition grounds and in the city centre, things were much more difficult. “The event took place at different venues in a new setting,” says Güray Saritas. “For many years we had adapted to Frankfurt, and now the event went to Munich,” says the director of Europfast, based in Neuhausen near Stuttgart. “In addition, the open space venues made things more challenging,” he points out, referring to areas that were difficult to access and pedestrian zones. “There are guidelines for this that need to be read, understood and implemented,” Saritas explains. The Europfast project department had studied the guidelines in advance and planned the operational implementation in August. The dispatchers worked on all the relevant issues and were prepared for implementation. During the implementation phase, all van drivers were informed about the conditions on site and received support at the respective venues.

The separate registration of each individual driver, which was required at short notice, proved to be time-consuming. Pandemic-related measures also meant quite a lot of work. The entire project required close coordination between stand construction and logistics. Besides the challenging logistical work, there were also some emotional moments. "For mac, it was the first major trade fair shipment after the pandemic, after a long time where were only able to do interior fittings and digital projects,” Güray Saritas tells us. “So our customer really celebrated our first loaded van” (www.europfast.com).