Central Optics Sharpens Its Transportation Vision with TDI

To ensure the delivery of its products across Europe, the logistics purchasing center of the Héron Optics & Hearing Group, Central Optics, opts for TDI's Expedito transport label printing application.

Article written by Laurène De Vialar, journalist for Voxlog.fr

Central Optics, the logistics purchasing center of the Héron Optics & Hearing Group, which notably owns the brands Acuitis, GrandAudition, and Lentillesmoinschères, was founded in 2005. The company is responsible for managing the operational logistics of Acuitis and Direct Optic stores as well as their e-commerce websites. To achieve this, the logistician relies on a team of 30 people to prepare contact lenses and care products from its 3,500 m2 warehouse located in Kehl, Germany, a few kilometers from Strasbourg. On-site, Central Optics stocks 10,000 references but offers 350,000 in its catalog to meet all the optical corrections of its customers.

To ensure the delivery of its products, Central Optics collaborates with German and French carriers. To gain flexibility, facilitate its operations, and expand its range of transport partners, the company sought a dedicated solution. In 2020, the center finally chose the French transport management solution provider TDI: "Each carrier has its own particularities regarding labels. Managing these operations manually in-house was tedious and complex, especially when a carrier updates its API interface. TDI has relieved us of these IT and organizational burdens," explains Yves Schneider, manager at Central Optics.

Automating Label Printing for All Types of Carriers in Europe

TDI provides Central Optics with a complete solution to generate labels for all types of carriers. After a preliminary study and a precise inventory of all carriers and their dedicated services, the transport management specialist was able to start installing its Expedito solution. This application, developed in web services, allows the printing of labels for any integrated carrier seamlessly. Integrated with Central Optics' ERP, Expedito now includes all of the purchasing center's transport partners, guaranteeing optimal processing of its parcel shipments for its user client. "Thanks to TDI, we have gained real peace of mind regarding carriers; label changes are automated upstream, and we now have concrete data on the quality of service from carriers to refine our transportation strategy and conduct our annual negotiations with them serenely," concludes Yves Schneider.

Building on this collaboration, Central Optics intends to continue referencing international carriers to deliver to other European countries. Ultimately, the logistics purchasing center will negotiate all products and services for the Héron Optics & Hearing Group companies as well as other companies outside its parent company.

Focus on TDI:
Founded in 1999, TDI is a company that offers IT solutions for multi-site and multi-carrier shipment management through its TMS Charger Expedito, its web services offer Exlabel, and its complementary modules: Extracking, Experform, Exwarning, Exintouch, and Expricing.

In 2024, TDI stands for:

• 25 years of experience
• Over 1000 shipping sites
• More than 260 integrated carriers with over 760 transport services
• Over 100 million labels printed in 2022
• 1 billion tracking events monitored

Find the article on the Voxlog website here (article in french).