Böllhoff Optimises Shipping and Transport with inconso

The Böllhoff Group, which is a specialist in fastening technology, has just implemented inconsoSDS (Shipping & Dispatch System) and inconsoTMS (Transport Management System) at its new location in Oelsnitz, Germany. It is the first location with a flexible two-step shipping process to go live; this system will also be implemented at other locations in Europe.

The new logistics centre represents the largest single investment in the company’s history. Böllhoff has invested €50 million in the new building, which is designed for storing over 100,000 items with a 35 m high automated high bay warehouse (HBW) and a 20 m high automatic storage and retrieval system (ASRS). The new building is part of a much larger modernisation project with the logistics software specialist inconso to optimise all planning and control processes for storage, transport and shipping.

“With highly flexible logistics IT, goods issue can now be controlled based on route planning and even take short-term shipping changes into account,” Stefan Stübbe, Head of IT Projects, Processes and Consulting at Böllhoff, explained. “This is made possible by the parameter-controlled buffering of packages that can be transported directly to doors via a dynamic shipping area in order to greatly increase process speeds in this area.”

Due to improved response times, Böllhoff can react to customer requests on short notice with the new system landscape. Via the new web portal, the shipping process can be modified at any time while current shipping data is transferred electronically and in real time to the service provider due to the completely digitised loading process.
Böllhoff also becomes more flexible through functionalities for processing special cases, so that shipping orders can still be changed at the latest possible time. With the solution implemented by inconso, packages and orders can be changed and goods removed while still on the loading conveyor. If a customer needs their goods very urgently, the order can be uncoupled and expedited through, for example, express shipping.

The shipping and dispatch system provides the Group with several additional shipping options: The solution displays all processes, from CEP shipping to freight forwarding and courier shipping through to customer-assigned carriers and self-pickup. The processes can be extended at any time thanks to the flexible shipping modules. Böllhoff also monitors the delivery process after shipping, such as by using uniform real-time tracking and tracing, which consolidates the delivery activities of many logistics service providers and sends real-time information about the shipment’s status to the transport management system.