Managing complexity – DB Schenker

Highlights at a glance

  • Workforce management for over 3,000 employees
  • Digitalization of qualifications management and shift planning processes
  • Management of several thousand job-relevant qualifications 
  • Automatic consideration of personnel requirements, availability and qualifications in shift planning
  • Shift plan approval by the works council via digital workflows

Discover more success stories

DB Schenker is the world’s leading global logistics provider – supporting industry and commerce in the global exchange of goods via land transport, worldwide air and ocean freight, contract logistics and supply chain management. For the latter two areas, DB Schenker in Germany has been relying on ATOSS Workforce Management to optimize its highly complex duty schedules and enable flexible personnel deployment. With digitizing qualifications management and the shift planning process being the key objectives, all relevant planning data has to be integrated – from staffing levels and availability through to qualification profiles. Besides the pilot site in Leipzig with 1,200 employees, the ATOSS solution has also been launched at five other sites employing 2,300 staff.

We operate in a dynamic, fast-lane market and are tasked with rapid response to demand fluctuations with staff holding the right qualifications. Our workforce management solution provides us with the necessary flexibility and transparency in personnel deployment.


Christina Makowski
Manager Performance Measurement & Support, DB Schenker

The rollout to more locations is currently in the project planning stages. One particular challenge facing DB Schenker is how to manage several thousand qualifications in most diverse combinations – all depending on the individual project. All this is no real challenge for our Enterprise Solution: As well as laws, collective and company agreements and specific regulations, the qualifications required for each workplace are also incorporated in the planning. For instance, compliance with air safety legislation is the top priority at one current implementation site, that of a well-known aircraft manufacturer. The resulting qualifications and certifications then form the basis for planning duty schedules. To have all the relevant information on workforce scheduling at its fingertips, DB Schenker opted for the module Flexible Assignment Plan, combined with Qualification Management and Further Training Management from ATOSS. Warnings of potential breaches of the law during the planning process and proactive notification of qualifications about to expire make life much easier for planners. The user interaction is set to be expanded further to enable the works council to approve duty schedules via the Workflow Management module in the future.

ATOSS solutions have been ensuring greater efficiency in personnel deployment at Deutsche Bahn for more than 25 years. Our Enterprise Solution currently schedules and manages more than 120,000 employees across some 60 group companies. And the numbers are steadily increasing.

Source: ATOSS Customer DB Schenker | Annual Report 2019