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Etruria Retail

From weeks to hours: how Etruria Retail manages 2,200 weekly deliveries with Decision Science

When planning stops being the carrier’s problem and becomes a negotiating lever.

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The challenge

Etruria Retail, a major retail group in Central Italy with over 300 stores, went through a review of transport rates with its logistics provider.

Sticking with the historical fixed routes would have eroded profit margins.. With a complex network of 286 main stores, around 2,200 weekly orders and more than 45 vehicles on the road every day, redesigning the flows by hand was no longer efficient.

The real challenge was twofold: moving beyond passive reliance on transport plans drawn up by the external carrier, by building in-house skills and tools to simulate alternative solutions, and setting up an after-the-fact control system able to precisely check mileage and adherence to standard routes against what had been planned.

How we create value

Optit implemented the Tactical Planning module of OptiLogistics, a Decision Support System (DSS) built on algorithmic routing models.

The project ran as an 8-week start-up phase. The first stage mapped every operational constraint (fleet characteristics, costs, delivery time windows). Internal staff were then trained on real scenarios through hands-on coaching and training sessions, working through a high-season “typical week”. The advanced algorithm made it possible to run rapid what-if simulations, testing the impact of changes to visit times or vehicle mix.

Our solution gave Etruria Retail the computational independence to negotiate plans using objective data and set a precise benchmark for performance monitoring.

Impact

Introducing OptiLogistics turned logistics management into a dynamic, controlled process:

  • 93 scenarios simulated in just two months to test network efficiency.
  • Immediate responsiveness: assessing the impact of small plan changes went from entire weeks to a few hours.
  • Negotiating independence: moving from accepting the carrier’s plans to actively proposing solutions that benefit both sides.
  • Tight control over actuals: rigorous monitoring of mileage and variances.
From weeks to hours: how Etruria Retail manages 2,200 weekly deliveries with Decision Science