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Month: September 2022

Northwood on a roll with SnapFulfil WMS

Posted on by David Priestman

A leading manufacturer & supplier of hygienic paper products has successfully made the transition from pen-and-paper driven warehousing to next-level digital technology after investing in an advanced cloud-based WMS.

The Northwood Companies operate across the hygienic sector in the UK and Europe. Northwood is the leading supplier of parent reels into the paper hygiene market and has grown to become one of today’s leading UK converters in the tissue market with brands including Rhino Kitchen Towel, Hush, Freedom, Raphael, North Shore and Whisper.

This fast-growing business is in the mid stages of a three-year SaaS deal with SnapFulfil for an initial three UK sites, progressing to between 40-45 users as implementations are phased in.

Its 400,000 sq ft Oldham operation was onboarded as a proof of concept with system training and go-live testing handled remotely (due to Covid-19 social distancing and travel restrictions) thanks to SnapFulfil’s ease of integration and solutions-based approach.

Northwood’s Oldham Site Manager, Steve Roche, says: “I’m very pleased with the SnapFulfil system with significantly improved visibility of exactly where we are with the finished goods area of the site. Stock accuracy is now excellent and I am also using the system to manage part pallets which has always been a difficult part of the operation.”

Phase 2 of the project was Northwood’s 350,000 sq ft consumer production plant in Birmingham – which handles kitchen and toilet roll lines for the UK retail market – in order to ramp up and pivot to meet the volatile retail demands brought on during the pandemic. Speedy integration and implementation were even more crucial, while part automating the pallet process and full RF output also facilitated little-to-no disruptions.

Northwood IT Director, Steve Whitehouse, explains: “SnapFulfil works seamlessly with our existing SAP and production recording systems and its configurability and flexibility brings a high tech, yet simple to use and develop platform. Stock location and picking speed for goods out are noticeably better controlled.

“Most recently we have implemented Snapfulfil WMS in our new, state-of-the-art and considerably larger Telford distribution centre at 500,000 sq ft, which will see us utilising more of the SnapFulfil algorithmic functionality for optimising inventory and stock management.

“The platform allows us to progressively phase in the solution to improve workflows and manage productivity. That’s the beauty of the cloud model – the heavy lifting has already been done and we know in advance what’s coming and how best to handle it.”

 

Northwood on a roll with SnapFulfil WMS

Posted on by David Priestman

A leading manufacturer & supplier of hygienic paper products has successfully made the transition from pen-and-paper driven warehousing to next-level digital technology after investing in an advanced cloud-based WMS.

The Northwood Companies operate across the hygienic sector in the UK and Europe. Northwood is the leading supplier of parent reels into the paper hygiene market and has grown to become one of today’s leading UK converters in the tissue market with brands including Rhino Kitchen Towel, Hush, Freedom, Raphael, North Shore and Whisper.

This fast-growing business is in the mid stages of a three-year SaaS deal with SnapFulfil for an initial three UK sites, progressing to between 40-45 users as implementations are phased in.

Its 400,000 sq ft Oldham operation was onboarded as a proof of concept with system training and go-live testing handled remotely (due to Covid-19 social distancing and travel restrictions) thanks to SnapFulfil’s ease of integration and solutions-based approach.

Northwood’s Oldham Site Manager, Steve Roche, says: “I’m very pleased with the SnapFulfil system with significantly improved visibility of exactly where we are with the finished goods area of the site. Stock accuracy is now excellent and I am also using the system to manage part pallets which has always been a difficult part of the operation.”

Phase 2 of the project was Northwood’s 350,000 sq ft consumer production plant in Birmingham – which handles kitchen and toilet roll lines for the UK retail market – in order to ramp up and pivot to meet the volatile retail demands brought on during the pandemic. Speedy integration and implementation were even more crucial, while part automating the pallet process and full RF output also facilitated little-to-no disruptions.

Northwood IT Director, Steve Whitehouse, explains: “SnapFulfil works seamlessly with our existing SAP and production recording systems and its configurability and flexibility brings a high tech, yet simple to use and develop platform. Stock location and picking speed for goods out are noticeably better controlled.

“Most recently we have implemented Snapfulfil WMS in our new, state-of-the-art and considerably larger Telford distribution centre at 500,000 sq ft, which will see us utilising more of the SnapFulfil algorithmic functionality for optimising inventory and stock management.

“The platform allows us to progressively phase in the solution to improve workflows and manage productivity. That’s the beauty of the cloud model – the heavy lifting has already been done and we know in advance what’s coming and how best to handle it.”

 

STILL welcomes 64 new apprentices and students

Posted on by David Priestman

Intralogistics company STILL is welcoming 64 new apprentices and students to its headquarters in Hamburg and its seven branches throughout Germany in September 2022. The new recruits are starting their training and study periods in six apprenticeships and three dual study programmes. For the first time, STILL is also supporting the dual course of study in ‘Computer Engineering & IT Engineering’.

The STILL training team welcomes new recruits to the company with the traditional Welcome Day at the Hamburg head office and via video streaming to all branches. The newcomers are given a comprehensive impression of the company, its products and its philosophy and get to know each other at the final barbecue. In the coming weeks, first insights into the different professional and learning environments, team-building activities, briefings on the current safety and prevention standards as well as a one-week forklift construction seminar will follow.

Innovators of tomorrow

“The training of qualified new talent has seldom been as important as it is at the moment,” emphasises Jan Wehlen, training manager at STILL. “We need competent, smart and innovative skilled employees to successfully meet future business challenges ranging from energy and sustainability to new technologies in the field of automation and robotics.

“At STILL, we are very aware of this responsibility – but also of the great opportunity for qualified specialists to help shape the future of our company and the industry as a whole. Accordingly, training young talent is a top priority for us.”

STILL has already proven many times in recent years that this is not an empty promise – with an excellent training programme, committed trainees and a wide range of qualification opportunities. STILL regularly receives awards for the high quality of its training. As part of the ‘Hamburg’s best training companies’ certification, STILL was awarded the top score of 5 stars for the seventh time in 2020. The company’s own retention rate also speaks for itself: all 36 graduates of the class of 2022 have been offered a job or a postgraduate position at STILL.

Post-pandemic challenges

Despite its excellent reputation as a training company, the recruitment of new trainees and students presented the company with major challenges for the first time. “We clearly noticed during the application phase that career and study counselling at schools only took place to a limited extent in the past two years. As a result, many young adults today are inadequately prepared for their choice of career,” explains Wehlen.

“We are all the more pleased that we were able to award our apprenticeships and study places to highly motivated young people, whom we are now supporting on their exciting and eventful journey into intralogistics.”

35 new trainees in Hamburg

At STILL’s head office in Hamburg, the training period has begun for 29 apprentices in six different professions – from mechatronics and industrial mechanics to industrial clerk. For the first time, one of them is a female trainee in construction mechanics.

“Unfortunately, female apprentices are still rare in technical professions,” says Wehlen. “We are all the more pleased to welcome a female apprentice in construction mechanics for the first time this year and hope that we can inspire more young women to take up technical jobs in the future.”

Furthermore, six young adults are starting their dual studies. In addition to “Electrical Engineering and Information Technology” and “Mechatronics”, there is also the “Computer Engineering & IT Engineering” course of study for the first time. Here, students at the Nordakademie learn to address the complex issues of the digitalised economy, artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things – skills that will not exclusively be indispensable for the intralogistics industry in the future.

With the start of the 2022 training year, STILL will be training a total of 204 young talents at nine locations across Germany in seven different apprenticeships and nine dual courses of study. The full range of training opportunities can be found at www.still.de/karriere.

STILL welcomes 64 new apprentices and students

Posted on by David Priestman

Intralogistics company STILL is welcoming 64 new apprentices and students to its headquarters in Hamburg and its seven branches throughout Germany in September 2022. The new recruits are starting their training and study periods in six apprenticeships and three dual study programmes. For the first time, STILL is also supporting the dual course of study in ‘Computer Engineering & IT Engineering’.

The STILL training team welcomes new recruits to the company with the traditional Welcome Day at the Hamburg head office and via video streaming to all branches. The newcomers are given a comprehensive impression of the company, its products and its philosophy and get to know each other at the final barbecue. In the coming weeks, first insights into the different professional and learning environments, team-building activities, briefings on the current safety and prevention standards as well as a one-week forklift construction seminar will follow.

Innovators of tomorrow

“The training of qualified new talent has seldom been as important as it is at the moment,” emphasises Jan Wehlen, training manager at STILL. “We need competent, smart and innovative skilled employees to successfully meet future business challenges ranging from energy and sustainability to new technologies in the field of automation and robotics.

“At STILL, we are very aware of this responsibility – but also of the great opportunity for qualified specialists to help shape the future of our company and the industry as a whole. Accordingly, training young talent is a top priority for us.”

STILL has already proven many times in recent years that this is not an empty promise – with an excellent training programme, committed trainees and a wide range of qualification opportunities. STILL regularly receives awards for the high quality of its training. As part of the ‘Hamburg’s best training companies’ certification, STILL was awarded the top score of 5 stars for the seventh time in 2020. The company’s own retention rate also speaks for itself: all 36 graduates of the class of 2022 have been offered a job or a postgraduate position at STILL.

Post-pandemic challenges

Despite its excellent reputation as a training company, the recruitment of new trainees and students presented the company with major challenges for the first time. “We clearly noticed during the application phase that career and study counselling at schools only took place to a limited extent in the past two years. As a result, many young adults today are inadequately prepared for their choice of career,” explains Wehlen.

“We are all the more pleased that we were able to award our apprenticeships and study places to highly motivated young people, whom we are now supporting on their exciting and eventful journey into intralogistics.”

35 new trainees in Hamburg

At STILL’s head office in Hamburg, the training period has begun for 29 apprentices in six different professions – from mechatronics and industrial mechanics to industrial clerk. For the first time, one of them is a female trainee in construction mechanics.

“Unfortunately, female apprentices are still rare in technical professions,” says Wehlen. “We are all the more pleased to welcome a female apprentice in construction mechanics for the first time this year and hope that we can inspire more young women to take up technical jobs in the future.”

Furthermore, six young adults are starting their dual studies. In addition to “Electrical Engineering and Information Technology” and “Mechatronics”, there is also the “Computer Engineering & IT Engineering” course of study for the first time. Here, students at the Nordakademie learn to address the complex issues of the digitalised economy, artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things – skills that will not exclusively be indispensable for the intralogistics industry in the future.

With the start of the 2022 training year, STILL will be training a total of 204 young talents at nine locations across Germany in seven different apprenticeships and nine dual courses of study. The full range of training opportunities can be found at www.still.de/karriere.

DHL eCommerce Solutions selects Fives

Posted on by David Priestman

Fives, one of the world’s most preferred partners for transforming supply chain facilities, has been selected by DHL eCommerce Solutions to automate its Coventry mega-hub and support its ambitious growth plan in the UK.

DHL eCommerce Solutions, one of the divisions of DHL, recently announced a €560m investment plan across its UK ecommerce operation, DHL Parcel UK. The investment comes following a 40% volume uplift since the start of 2020 and soaring demand for its ecommerce and B2B services. The expansion project is designed to deliver the right infrastructure to facilitate growth as well as putting the business at the forefront of sustainable and digital logistics.

To meet this growth plan, Fives, a long-time DHL partner, will be in charge of automating the entire facility: a new 25,000 sq m hub, which will open in early 2023 at Segro Park Coventry Gateway, located south of Coventry Airport.

This mega-hub will be equipped with Fives’ latest intralogistics technologies to automatically sort items of different sizes and weights at high-speed.

“We chose Fives for its ability to really understand our business and help us build a system that can handle the majority of the products we process. Fives’ skill in getting underneath the skin of how we work really impressed us from the outset of the project. The whole team is looking forward to building a long-term relationship with Fives’ team over the coming years,” said Richard Wenham, Head of Operational Support at DHL Parcel UK Ltd.

Fives’ engineers have spent months working on a turnkey solution that best meets DHL’s requirements in terms of warehouse operations and inbound and outbound flows, to ensure efficient and fast handling and shipping above all.

At the heart of this automation project will be four GENI-Belt cross-belt sorters and two GENI-Flex sorters, sorting items from 150mm and 50g to 2,000mm and 60kg.

Fives’ technologies will be equipped and integrated with vertical switches, swiveler wheel diverters, 3.5km of conveyors, almost 40 high-speed induction lines and about 150 chutes, to sort 56,000 items per hour.

“The recent growth of the UK market is one of the fastest in the world. Fives is increasingly investing in the UK, through project execution, visibility, and a sustainable presence. This important investment plan is expected to bring opportunities both from historical customers, such as DHL, and from new potential partners”, stated Vincenzo Guerra, Chief Sales Officer (CSO) at Fives Intralogistics SpA (Italy).

 

DHL eCommerce Solutions selects Fives

Posted on by David Priestman

Fives, one of the world’s most preferred partners for transforming supply chain facilities, has been selected by DHL eCommerce Solutions to automate its Coventry mega-hub and support its ambitious growth plan in the UK.

DHL eCommerce Solutions, one of the divisions of DHL, recently announced a €560m investment plan across its UK ecommerce operation, DHL Parcel UK. The investment comes following a 40% volume uplift since the start of 2020 and soaring demand for its ecommerce and B2B services. The expansion project is designed to deliver the right infrastructure to facilitate growth as well as putting the business at the forefront of sustainable and digital logistics.

To meet this growth plan, Fives, a long-time DHL partner, will be in charge of automating the entire facility: a new 25,000 sq m hub, which will open in early 2023 at Segro Park Coventry Gateway, located south of Coventry Airport.

This mega-hub will be equipped with Fives’ latest intralogistics technologies to automatically sort items of different sizes and weights at high-speed.

“We chose Fives for its ability to really understand our business and help us build a system that can handle the majority of the products we process. Fives’ skill in getting underneath the skin of how we work really impressed us from the outset of the project. The whole team is looking forward to building a long-term relationship with Fives’ team over the coming years,” said Richard Wenham, Head of Operational Support at DHL Parcel UK Ltd.

Fives’ engineers have spent months working on a turnkey solution that best meets DHL’s requirements in terms of warehouse operations and inbound and outbound flows, to ensure efficient and fast handling and shipping above all.

At the heart of this automation project will be four GENI-Belt cross-belt sorters and two GENI-Flex sorters, sorting items from 150mm and 50g to 2,000mm and 60kg.

Fives’ technologies will be equipped and integrated with vertical switches, swiveler wheel diverters, 3.5km of conveyors, almost 40 high-speed induction lines and about 150 chutes, to sort 56,000 items per hour.

“The recent growth of the UK market is one of the fastest in the world. Fives is increasingly investing in the UK, through project execution, visibility, and a sustainable presence. This important investment plan is expected to bring opportunities both from historical customers, such as DHL, and from new potential partners”, stated Vincenzo Guerra, Chief Sales Officer (CSO) at Fives Intralogistics SpA (Italy).

 

QleanAir cleans the air at Swedish warehouse

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Health wholesaler Life Logistics constantly works to improve the working environment in its warehouse, and has been using air cleaners for a long time. It has now upgraded to QleanAir’s new FS 90 models because they are mobile, take up less space and make less noise.

Life Logistics is Sweden’s largest wholesaler within health products and supplies resellers with one of the Nordic countries’ broadest assortments. Life Logistics is responsible for the supply of goods to Life’s many stores and its e-commerce customers, but also to independent stores.

Within the Life Group, people are passionate about helping customers stay healthy naturally. It also protect its employees’ health by systematically improving the working environment when it comes to ventilation, air quality, noise, ergonomics, etc. At the warehouse, large amounts of corrugated board are handled during unpacking and packing, which generates a lot of troublesome dust. Therefore, ceiling-mounted air cleaners have long been used to improve the working environment for employees. In connection with a rebuild, they had to dismantle the air cleaners, and took the opportunity to expose their supplier at the time to competition.

QleanAir won the tender with two floor-standing QleanAir FS 90 units because they are mobile and easy to place close to the source. They are also smaller in size than the predecessor, about half the size, and quieter. Despite the difference in size and the fact that there are only two air cleaners compared to the previous three, the air quality is the same or even better.

“We prefer QleanAir’s air cleaners because they are more mobile, quieter and smaller,” says Conny Löwenmark, operations manager at Life Logistics.

Before the new units were delivered, the warehouse was without an air cleaner for two months. This made it harder to breathe and the warehouse became so dirty it had to be cleaned all the time. Now weekly cleaning is sufficient and the air quality is good.

“It is very easy to work with QleanAir. We have a service agreement which means that a service technician from QleanAir changes the filters and checks the air a couple of times a year,” concludes Löwenmark. “Otherwise, we don’t notice the air cleaners.”

Life Logistics continues to work with the working environment. In the next step, focus will be on the noise levels in the warehouse. All so that the employees have the best workplace possible.

 

QleanAir cleans the air at Swedish warehouse

Posted on by David Priestman

Health wholesaler Life Logistics constantly works to improve the working environment in its warehouse, and has been using air cleaners for a long time. It has now upgraded to QleanAir’s new FS 90 models because they are mobile, take up less space and make less noise.

Life Logistics is Sweden’s largest wholesaler within health products and supplies resellers with one of the Nordic countries’ broadest assortments. Life Logistics is responsible for the supply of goods to Life’s many stores and its e-commerce customers, but also to independent stores.

Within the Life Group, people are passionate about helping customers stay healthy naturally. It also protect its employees’ health by systematically improving the working environment when it comes to ventilation, air quality, noise, ergonomics, etc. At the warehouse, large amounts of corrugated board are handled during unpacking and packing, which generates a lot of troublesome dust. Therefore, ceiling-mounted air cleaners have long been used to improve the working environment for employees. In connection with a rebuild, they had to dismantle the air cleaners, and took the opportunity to expose their supplier at the time to competition.

QleanAir won the tender with two floor-standing QleanAir FS 90 units because they are mobile and easy to place close to the source. They are also smaller in size than the predecessor, about half the size, and quieter. Despite the difference in size and the fact that there are only two air cleaners compared to the previous three, the air quality is the same or even better.

“We prefer QleanAir’s air cleaners because they are more mobile, quieter and smaller,” says Conny Löwenmark, operations manager at Life Logistics.

Before the new units were delivered, the warehouse was without an air cleaner for two months. This made it harder to breathe and the warehouse became so dirty it had to be cleaned all the time. Now weekly cleaning is sufficient and the air quality is good.

“It is very easy to work with QleanAir. We have a service agreement which means that a service technician from QleanAir changes the filters and checks the air a couple of times a year,” concludes Löwenmark. “Otherwise, we don’t notice the air cleaners.”

Life Logistics continues to work with the working environment. In the next step, focus will be on the noise levels in the warehouse. All so that the employees have the best workplace possible.

 

Körber reveals first-of-its-kind software solutions

Posted on by David Priestman

Körber will unveil the future of warehouse management, control and simulation, robotics, as well as voice at its first in-person European supply chain networking event – 11-13 October 2022 – in Rotterdam.

“Supply chains influence every aspect of a business’s success,” says Michael Brandl, Executive Vice President EMEA Operations at Körber Supply Chain Software. “That requires flawless execution – only possible with software and services enabling resilience, flexibility and agility. From employee engagement, end user experience, digitization, process or asset optimization, all the way to sustainability, Körber provides the software solutions to conquer supply chain complexity.”

In light of these trends, Körber will demonstrate its latest advances and solution roadmap, including:

  • The cloud: Körber’s SaaS solutions increase efficiency, reliability, resilience, green practices and cybersecurity. This will bolster the capabilities of its full suite of supply chain solutions.
  • Unified Control System (UCS): Coming in 2023, the UCS will uniquely integrate and control different working models – including fixed automation, voice systems, and 3rd party AMR systems – under a single solution.
  • K.Sight CLASS for operations: A preview of new advances connects data on daily operations from the WMS for real-time planning and design. The result is immediate visibility into operational health and stronger strategic planning.
  • Enspire Commerce platform: Including one of the industry’s most renowned order management systems (OMS), the platform enables order visibility across channels and actionable data. This is heightened when used in tandem with Kӧrber’s fulfilment solutions.
  • myShipinfo: The freight audit payment (FAP) service complements OMS and WMS capabilities for unparalleled levels of last-mile profitability, control, intelligence and customer experience.

Businesses and opinion leaders across industries, company sizes and needs will present how they are revolutionising supply chains with these software solutions from Körber. This includes:

  • Roland Berger’s results of the industry’s first Supply Chain Benchmarking Report, developed on behalf of Körber. The report reveals what distinguishes the world’s most sophisticated supply chains.
  • Boxy’s roll-out of the first e-commerce fulfilment solution integrating and managing pick by light, put to light, goods-to-person (G2P) Geek+ AMRs and parcel sorting Libiao AMRs under the supervision of one unified control system.
  • Hermes Fulfilment’s use of the K.Motion WMS and the K.Motion YMS to keep pace with consumers’ expectations for convenience, speed and choice.
  • Yusen Logistics’ experience with K.Sight CLASS to simulate warehouse operations for unrivalled cost and time savings.
  • Coperion’s partnership with Körber, enabling various warehouses by using the K.Motion ISL (Integrated Site Logistics) solution in the digital factory for supply chain visibility to mitigate disruptions from customer demand, product shortages or unplanned events.
  • C-LOG’s end-to-end software suite, including K.Motion WMS, WCS and DOM to support growth and performance for third-party logistics.

Körber Elevate EMEA is aimed at supply chain executives, decision makers and IT and systems managers. The programme and registration form are available by CLICKING HERE.

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