The encyclopedia · Engineering & Operations · Operational decision · 2005–2012
TNT Express ran its networks on optimization and saved over €207 million
From 2005 TNT built the GO program — network optimization with ORTEC and Tilburg University — delivering €207M+ savings by 2011 and 60M km less mileage.
TNT Express · ORTEC · Tilburg University
the move
TNT Express moves 4.7 million parcels, documents and pieces of freight weekly to more than 200 countries while promising fixed service standards. Until 2005, most network decisions — routes, sites, fleets, staffing — were made without mathematical support, leaving money and mileage on the table.
TNT started the Global Optimization (GO) program with ORTEC and Tilburg University: a suite of optimization models for line-haul networks, truck routing, site location and staff scheduling, plus communities of practice and a two-year GO academy so employees could own the models. By 2011 the team had run 200 network optimization projects.
Between 2008 and 2011 TNT Express realized more than €207 million in savings and benefits. Optimization of domestic networks in Germany, France, Spain, Italy and China alone saved 60 million kilometers of mileage and 54 million kilograms of CO2, and INFORMS gave TNT the 2012 Franz Edelman Award.
why it works
- A common optimization platform replaces dozens of uncoordinated local decisions with one fact-based view of the network.
- The GO academy and communities of practice trained insiders, so OR survived staff changes and spread to new units.
- Routing and fleet models cut both cost and emissions, keeping the program funded on two bottom lines.
what transfers
Optimization compounds when it becomes a shared capability — trained owners, repeatable models, a program — not a one-off project; TNT's €207M came after OR became standard procedure.
what came after
The GO program embedded OR into TNT Express's operating culture: decision-making improved system-wide and savings accumulated to more than €207 million by 2011. The 2012 Edelman Award made the program a reference case for how a company can industrialize operations research rather than apply it once.
references
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