Milk run

The milk run concept or milk bottle concept is a concept of procurement and distribution logistics to provide material as needed within and across operational.

Historical origin

Modelled on the traditional milk boy in the U.S. and England, which only provided a milk bottle when he was able to take an empty bottle. So it could be ensured that never was too much milk in the house and could be bad.

The basic idea

The concept is based on the idea that only the material is replenished in the amount as is consumed. The lot size is this set once controlled ( a milk bottle ) and optionally signal card ( Kanban). The replacement cycle and the route are also specified in advance (similar to a bus schedule ).

There are two different types of milk run:

• With an in-house milkrun the goods are usually transported from a source ( supermarket ) to various sinks ( for example, production lines ).
• In an inter-company milkrun the materials from various sources ( suppliers) to a sink ( goods receipt of the producers ) are transported.

By fixing of lot sizes, routes (usually minimal networks) and schedules an attempt is made to reduce the complexity in the procurement process to increase the utilization and thus (transport) to reduce costs. " By applying this new concept, the transportation costs can be reduced by an average of 30%. "

Differentiation from other concepts of procurement logistics

The concept of territory forwarder does not include the control of the replacement amount is based on the empty set of the previous cycle.

Swell

• Logistics concept