Whether it’s car care, automotive accessories, electrical installation materials, or e-bikes MarkenTechnikService (MTS) ensures that products reliably reach customers. The company is bringing visibility to its supply chain with the help of OSCA SCM software.
Whether on vacation or in everyday life, millions of consumers rely on products from the MTS Group. With its strong brands NIGRIN, FISCHER, UNITEC, and cartrend, the group covers nearly every aspect of mobility and technology.
With such a diverse portfolio, MTS is represented across nearly all sales channels: in hardware stores, specialty and wholesale stores, hypermarkets, and major discount retailers – as well as on all leading online platforms. “Three-quarters of our sales come from brick-and-mortar retail, while one-quarter is generated through e-commerce – both via our own web shop and major online retailers,” explains Helge Jager, Head of Supply Chain at MTS.
Today, the total portfolio includes more than 20,000 items distributed across Europe. Procurement takes place primarily within the EU, while private-label products are largely sourced from Asia. To ensure reliable and fast product availability, the Group operates logistics networks with more than 80,000 pallet spaces across four logistics sites. The largest facilities are located in Radevormwald, in the Bergisches Land region, and in Malsch near Karlsruhe. Bicycles and e-bikes are stored in a dedicated distribution centre to maintain efficient processes and the highest delivery quality.
For many years, the MTS Group relied on its merchandise management system to manage the inbound supply chain. “However, this approach had a major drawback – we couldn’t track the shipping process within the system. That meant we could only react after deviations from the plan had already occurred,” explains Jager. This sometimes led to delays of up to two weeks. That has now changed. At the end of 2021, the supply chain manager and the CIO began searching for SCM software to better manage the supply chain and increase transparency in the inbound process.
The team evaluated a total of ten solutions. “We chose OSCA because it’s a fully integrated, well-established solution that connects all partners across the supply chain, with every process step documented in the system. For instance, when someone fills in during vacation, they can easily see how the order history developed without having to dig through old emails,” says Jager. “Complexity can only be managed through standardized solutions – OSCA is a prime example of that,” adds CIO Moritz Gütermann.
The CIO and his team followed a strategic, phased approach to implementing the SCM software. First, all suppliers in Asia were onboarded, followed by the freight forwarder. Around 220 suppliers from Germany and the EU deliver directly to the logistics facilities free of charge and are not connected to OSCA. Today, about a dozen MTS Group employees use OSCA – not only dispatchers, but also warehouse and accounting personnel.
Always in stock
According to Jager, the implementation phase went very smoothly, even with the large number of suppliers that had to be onboarded quickly. One challenge was that some partners handle only a small portion of the roughly 1,500 annual shipments and required extra training. “For those cases, Setlog’s dozen or so short tutorial videos were an ideal solution,” says Jager.
For Setlog Managing Director Guido Brackelsberg, the MTS Group stands as a prime example of how modern trading companies with global sourcing have positioned themselves for the era of high-performance logistics. “In this highly competitive industry, a digitized supply chain is what separates the leaders from the laggards,” he emphasizes.
Jager can no longer imagine working without OSCA: “The system brings clarity to highly complex processes, fosters greater trust among all partners, and enables real-time, data-driven decision-making.” Even with many other IT projects still on his agenda, he’s already considering adding another OSCA module – quality management.
The average driver rarely realizes what goes on behind the scenes at the MTS Group. Yet they benefit directly from the company’s increased focus on digitizing its supply chain -the product they’re looking for is always in stock and ready for purchase.
