“In our dream, every supplier works digitally”

Since 2018, Pionira has been collaborating with Stora Enso, an international player with production sites across the globe. The company specializes in renewable packaging: packaging made from renewable raw materials such as wood, paper, and cardboard—produced exclusively from waste paper.

Digitalization as a clear prerequisite

At the Flemish site, Stora Enso made a firm choice for digital documents in 2018. Due to internal changes, they were required to prepare the CMR documents for the transport of waste paper themselves from then on.
“We would have had to fill out those CMRs, send them off, have them signed again… That seemed like far too much hassle,” says former director Chris Dehollander.

His vision was clear: as few manual actions with paper documents as possible. Therefore, he immediately decided to digitalize their CMR documents together with Pionira. Years later, an integration with their ERP system was also added, eliminating a significant amount of manual work and allowing them to save at least 1 to 2 FTEs.

Today, all transports managed by Stora Enso itself are processed via eWastra. For external carriers, this is even a mandatory requirement. Other suppliers are actively encouraged to work digitally, though this remains a challenge at times. “The mandatory introduction of the digital identification form briefly shook up the sector, but since then, attention seems to have waned somewhat,” observes IT manager Kurt De Man.

Integration with SAP

In the meantime, Stora Enso took further steps. They digitalized the identification form and integrated it with SAP, in collaboration with their largest customer, VPK. As a result, the back office that previously had to process transport documents has been completely eliminated. Only the driver remains, who gains access to the warehouse with a code.

“Today, only the weighing slip still exists on paper, but we want to digitalize that as quickly as possible too,” Kurt emphasizes.

Any concerns regarding the startup proved to be unfounded. “The platform runs stably and requires hardly any follow-up after the initial setup. We have contact with the people at Pionira at most five times a year. That says a lot about the reliability of the system.”

Ambition: working completely paperless

Stora Enso remains ambitious for the future. The dream is clear: to work completely paperless, together with all suppliers. While six years ago there were still comments that drivers did not have smartphones, that obstacle has now completely disappeared. “Today, everyone has a smartphone, and that makes the process simple and efficient,” says Kurt.