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Tag: wms

Warehouse Processes Optimised in the Cloud

Posted on by David Priestman

The reifen.com GmbH handles up to 60,000 tires and rims daily. With the EPG | LFS warehouse management system from EPG (Ehrhardt Partner Group), reifen.com has been optimizing its logistics processes in the warehouse for over seven years. After all, perfectly functioning logistics are a key prerequisite for the company’s success. Apart from the reifen.com online store, the multi-channel specialist has 37 stores in Germany and around 8,000 fitting partners internationally for additional services. reifen.com uses the EPG | LFS warehouse management system to automate processes, speed up shipping, minimize the number of returns and reduce costs. Currently, reifen.com has switched the hosting of its warehouse management system to EPG’s EPX cloud offering.

With order lists speed up shipping

reifen.com uses a dynamic batch formation function in EPG | LFS to bundle orders of the same type so that fast processing is possible. In this process, different customer orders are sorted according to a shipping type, for example, and combined into a picking tour in the outbound warehouse. This means that instead of labor-intensive piece picking, complete loading units can be removed and made available during packing, so that many different orders can then be processed quickly. The orders can then be processed without interruptions. The employees at reifen.com can define the batch lists very flexibly, e.g., according to shipping types, product groups or even destination countries. This significantly speeds up the shipping process.

Reduce costs for KEP service providers:By optimizing the shipping method for KEP service providers, reifen.com reduces shipping costs. Together with EPG, the existing shipping type determination was improved to automatically determine the most cost-effective KEP service provider in each case in the LFS.

Using simple controls to minimize the number of returns:
reifen.com uses a simple EAN check in the LFS for customer-specific quick packaging. Here, the employee in the shipping department additionally scans an EAN label, e.g. to check the correct goods or the correct quantity. This reduces sources of error and minimizes the number of returns.

For assembly stations, provide individual parts on time:
For delivery to end customers, individual parts such as tires, rims and valves must be picked and made available at assembly stations on schedule. EPG | LFS also ensures that employees are guided via walkways and that shipping is optimized. “With EPG, we have a very powerful software partner for managing our warehouse resources, picking and efficient shipping. The EPG helps us to further optimize processes and become even better for our customers,” says Jens Müller, Head of Logistics at reifen.com, summarizing the experience gained from seven years of cooperation with the EPG.

EPX-Cloud-Solution “Infrastructure as a Service”

reifen.com has switched the hosting of its warehouse management system to the EPX- cloud-solution “Infrastructure as a Service” offering. EPG takes over iSeries/AS-400 hosting and all IT services for EPG products as part of defined managed services. This includes operation, support and active monitoring of the systems, including data backup. The migration of the data to the EPX cloud was implemented over a weekend in less than 24 hours. “Thanks to the cloud solution, we can now flexibly scale the IT structures to ensure high performance and permanent availability,” says Hans Lechner, Head of IT, explaining the objective of the project.

WMS Functionality Saves Time and Money

Posted on by David Priestman

A B2C fulfilment expert has quickly taken advantage of a next generation software adoption platform to win bigger business and improve internal operations. Brian Kirst is co founder and Chief Strategy Officer for leading US 3PL provider Resurge, with distribution centres in New Jersey and Reno, and his new best friend is an ‘AI-style’ training tool called SnapBuddy, which enables him to self configure WMS rules changes and modifications without delay.

Brian explains: “SnapBuddy is simple to use and is incredibly useful when it comes to being highly responsive and offering us greater control. Ultimately, it gives us more independence and reliance on our own internal processes. Nobody understands our needs better than we do, so the ability to configure to those needs is a real game changer.

“It’s also helped build system expertise within our own staff, because previously we relied on SnapFulfil support to answer some basic questions –and while their feedback is always great and response times incredible, sometimes you need that immediate reaction.

“We can swiftly make changes to the environment that directly impacts the efficiencies of our operation. When you’re dealing with volatile e-commerce fulfilment, unexpected spikes, peak periods and new products that you might not have the right rules set up for, having the SnapBuddy tool readily available gives us the ability to improve on the fly and at our pace. It’s hugely valuable to what we do and sets us apart from our competitors.”

The speed-to-value that Resurge enjoys through its partnership with Snapfulfil is also passed onto its customers, because with the current pandemic many are signing up for their services having not even done the usual site visit. With Resurge able to self configure very quickly, the remote onboarding that SnapFulfil also excels in has enabled Resurge to facilitate its own on-site implementation.

Brian adds: “We’ve been able to handle everything digitally and leveraging the SnapBuddy tool to do our configurations – picking rules, receiving rules and all that functionality – we’re doing it all remotely on site on our own, so it’s been a huge help in this Covid-19 climate we’re operating in.

“One of the other main reasons we chose SnapFulfil is its ability to scale with us and be extremely flexible to meet all of the demands of our business. We’re growing rapidly and went from two or three initial customers to 24 full-blown clients in under four months, so we did almost two dozen implementations in a very short space of time and SnapFulfil supported all of them – including some very complex integration.”

Remote WMS Implementation Facilitates Timely Expansion

Posted on by David Priestman

Luxury and collectable online watch retailer, Watch Gang, is clocking up record shipments thanks to its investment in a new advanced, cloud-based WMS. The fast growing e-commerce retailer is handling thousands of closed tab shipments and subscription orders in days – rather than weeks – since its move to a new 10,000 sq.ft warehouse in Los Angeles included onboarding functionally rich and highly configurable SnapFulfil.

And the entire process was managed remotely, overcoming all the Covid-19 restrictions from travel to social distancing, saving both valuable time and money. SnapFulfil’s Remote Implementation (RI) program provides tailored virtual support, including regular online training and status meetings, to ensure new client teams can easily access and rigorously test the system in real time and advance – so meeting strict Go Live deadlines.

Watch Gang’s SVP Operations, Sam Christian, said: “The SnapFulfil team’s attention to detail is first rate and very personalised and you would never guess RI is a relatively new concept. It seems like they’ve been doing it all their working lives, it’s so slick and efficient. I can’t believe they’ll ever see the need to do on-site implementation again.

“When most things passed through the new WMS after Go Live, incremental volume went through the roof and without SnapFulfil I’d have manually been processing those orders weeks later. Quite frankly I would never have caught up. “Their WMS is everything we were hoping for; it manages and solves our specific issues and problems very well and tells us exactly what is where and the right quantities. For example, there’s been a perfect count on SKUs from day one and not a miss-shipment since.”

SnapFulfil’s RI is a formal, approved document that guides both project execution and control and from the outset makes all stakeholders and personnel aware of the key milestones to be achieved and signed off along the way.

SnapFulfil’s Project Manager, Charles Thompson, added: “RI has really come into its own over the past 12 months as the pandemic has turned the idea of business as usual on its head. At SnapFulfil we have always been disruptors in a traditional space and this has worked in our favour as the flexibility, scalability and ease of use of our WMS has meant that a rapidly expanding business like Watch Gang has been able to pivot and meet demand for its luxury watches with a superior customer fulfilment experience without delay.”

Increase Efficiency of Storage and Production Processes

Posted on by David Priestman

FAUN Umwelttechnik GmbH & Co. KG is one of the leading manufacturers of waste collection vehicles and sweepers in Europe. The medium-sized company operates eleven plants in which around 2,000 employees produce a wide variety of special vehicles. At the company headquarters in Osterholz-Scharmbeck, production takes place on a total of 15 assembly lines, which are supplied with components from an indoor warehouse and an outdoor warehouse. In order to optimise the logistical processes between production and warehouse, FAUN decided to introduce a professional warehouse management system with EPG | LFS. LFS has been in use since October 2020 and already ensured an increase in picking performance at the Kardex towers after a very short time.

From huge steel sheets to tanks and pumps to the smallest screws – FAUN Umwelttechnik requires a wide range of individual parts for the production of waste collection containers. They are kept at the Osterholz-Scharmbeck site on a total of 6,500 square metres of storage space so that the assembly lines can access them at the right moment. In 2019, the company decided to introduce a professional warehouse management system to better organise the items. The new solution should above all bring more transparency with regard to the inventory and warehouse processes – as a basis for subsequently being able to optimise them.

Online research and online training

The company researched suitable warehouse management systems with the help of an online tool from the Fraunhofer Institute. During the subsequent discussions with system providers, it quickly became apparent that EPG, with more than 30 years of experience, best met the client’s desire for a professionally positioned provider. FAUN particularly appreciates the modular design of the LFS warehouse management system, which promises plenty of scope for future expansions. Another decisive factor was the innovative training offered by EPG | ACADEMY, which teaches users how to use the system correctly. “We were very pleased with the fast and professional organisation of the online training in the wake of the COVID 19 pandemic,” says Ronny Lößner, who was responsible for the implementation at FAUN Umwelttechnik. “So despite the circumstances there was no delay in our project and we were able to start with LFS as planned.”

Simon Reininghaus, project manager at EPG, praises the constructive cooperation during the implementation: “The project team has excellent process knowledge and was thus able to integrate the processes into the LFS quickly during customising. “ As a result, FAUN was able to record positive effects on employee performance just two weeks after the system was introduced: The picking performance was already higher than before the introduction.

More efficiency through new picking strategy

A large part of the increased efficiency was due to the conversion of order picking to multi-order picking. This allows FAUN employees to process several individual orders in parallel. This saves distances and significantly increases the picking performance. “Picking at the four towers used to be our bottleneck,” explains Katharina Beck, Head of Logistics at FAUN. “The employees could only process orders one after the other and had to go from tower to tower. With LFS, it is now possible to combine several individual orders that are intelligently controlled. In this way, the employees manage more orders in the same amount of time.” In order to make the best possible use of this potential, FAUN has installed two new Kardex towers in which the trays can be controlled automatically by telegram exchange and manual input at the panel is no longer necessary.

Further projects already planned

Beck assumes that performance will continue to increase as FAUN exploits all the possibilities of the warehouse management system. For example, new dashboards will soon be added to make it easier to evaluate key figures. This enables staff to identify weak points in processes and optimisation potential more quickly. In the area of inventory management, transparency has increased significantly: The storage location of individual components can now be determined precisely. In addition, short-term orders from the assembly lines are immediately visible in the system due to the real-time bookings. For the future, FAUN would like to see this transparency in other areas as well. An additional module has already been acquired to map not only the warehouse processes but also the flow of goods between the machine groups. The transport control system is to be implemented as early as next year.

50% Increased Throughput for PPE

Posted on by David Priestman

Körber, the global supply chain technology leader from supply chain software to materials handling automation, expanded AS Arbeitsschutz’s logistics network and modernized its software and processes. The manufacturer of personal protective equipment and workwear, known mainly for its NITRAS brand, relies on an innovative warehouse management system (WMS) from Körber. The WMS is seamlessly integrated with the company’s automation components – e.g. an AutoStore® – at its headquarters in Bedburg, Germany.

AS Arbeitsschutz banks on flexibility in order to handle unprecedented fluctuations in demand. Jens Thome, Managing Director at AS Arbeitsschutz, explains: “The past few months have presented companies with unexpected challenges, especially in terms of occupational safety. We have been able to deliver the necessary products at the right time and to the right place mainly due to the intelligent WMS software and the reliable support it provided to meet the challenges of our industry.”

Especially during the go-live, the project partners faced special challenges, for instance due to test phases which had to be planned and carried out remotely. Intensive simulation scenarios ensured a smooth go-live in a very short amount of time. This became necessary due to the increase in demand for protective equipment, such as protective gloves and breathing masks, which increased throughput by 50 percent compared to the previous year for AS Arbeitsschutz.

Thanks to Körber’s many years of software and integration experience, the logistics center, including the integrated AutoStore® storage and retrieval system, smoothly entered high-load operation. It encompassed optimized logistics processes in the goods receiving and goods issue areas, storage structures for pallets and picking strategies for deliveries to sales partners in over 30 countries.

As the product range continues to grow, about 10,000 SKUs (stock keeping units) for shipping up to 6,400 parcels will be managed in the future. Michael Brandl, Chief Executive Officer at Körber Supply Chain for Europe and Middle East (EME), explains that the WMS developed by Körber was implemented for these requirements. “Modifiable and efficient processes are the performance features of our warehouse management solutions that make all the difference. This means that our solutions can be perfectly tailored to the needs of our customers and seamlessly integrated with existing system environments to meet the changing requirements of the retail industry.”

Last but not least, all employees enjoy using the new system. “Our new solution has benefited us in many ways,” Thome emphasizes. “System-related agility is important, but the possibility to have our employees use intuitive interfaces has improved the operational process in particular. We can achieve more with less – and Körber is a reliable partner at our side that will continue to provide the necessary IT know-how to future-proof our intralogistics processes.”

WMS Leader Named Amongst Europe’s Finest

Posted on by David Priestman

SnapFulfil’s Chief Operating Officer, Stefanie Rollins, has been listed in the Top 25 Women Leaders in Software of Europe for 2021. This annual award by global market research and insights company, The Software Report, heralds inspirational women who have contributed towards the advancement of not only their companies, but the broader software industry at large – facilitating seamless digital transformation and more efficient business processes.

Rollins was evaluated based on her breadth of experience, professional milestones achieved, contributions to business development, and perhaps most importantly her impact towards promoting a positive and productive work environment. A delighted Rollins said: “It’s very gratifying to be selected for the Top 25 European Women Leaders in Software award and placed in such illustrious company. I understand hundreds of exceptional women were nominated in this year’s process, so it is both an honour and a privilege to make the top tier of software solution providers and be formally recognised in this manner.”

As COO for WMS technology innovator, SnapFulfil, Rollins has a remit for North America, as well as UK & Europe. She has held that position since January 2019, having previously been VP/Head of Support Services. Her passions are mentoring, coaching, plus problem solving and she is currently moulding the future of Operations for SnapFulfil and its clients – focusing on continuous improvement for all.

Her latest success story is a pivotal role in the launch of the company’s new ‘AI-style’ training tool and fully integrated digital adoption platform, SnapBuddy, which ultimately enables customers to self-configure their SnapFulfil WMS. In her 20 years at SnapFulfil, Stefanie has also headed up the company’s Support Services, Quality Assurance and Customer Success teams, with extra responsibility latterly for developing the Implementations offering in keeping with a leading supply chain execution solutions specialist.

Apart from Stefanie’s supply chain technology specialism, this year’s Top 25 Women Leaders in Software awardees represent companies that provide winning solutions across a wide range of functional areas including human resources, the internet of things, project management, artificial intelligence, machine learning and data analytics.

Warehouse Management System Control new DC

Posted on by David Priestman

The warehouse management system PSIwms supplied by PSI Polska Sp.z o.o will control the logistics processes in the new distribution centre of the clothing manufacturer LPP S.A. in Brześć Kujawski in Poland.

The new 75,000 square meter distribution centre is scheduled to open in early 2022. LPP wants to strengthen its delivery and distribution network and also enable broader diversification. Up to eight million items of clothing and accessories are to be sent to LPP stores and warehouses in around 12 countries every week. The logistics processes are controlled with PSIwms and planned with the integrated Warehouse Advanced Planning module.

PSIwms already controls the logistics centers in Pruszcz Gdański and the fulfillment centers in Gdansk, Romania and Slovakia. This ensures that online orders are delivered quickly. The close partnership between PSI and LPP, which has existed since 2007, as well as the PSI systems used, support LPP’s growth in the long term. Based on algorithms for artificial intelligence, PSIwms optimizes the picking routes in order to ensure the sharp rise in online orders.

Based on its own software products, PSI Group develops and integrates complete solutions for optimizing the flow of energy and materials for utilities (energy networks, energy trading, public transport) and industry (metals production, automotive, mechanical engineering, logistics). PSI was founded in 1969 and employs more than 2,000 people worldwide.

2021 About Maximising e-commerce Experience

Posted on by David Priestman

Warehouse management technology leader, SnapFulfil, is forecasting a new fulfilment year where companies still focused on retail locations and outlets will have to be nimble enough to grow e-commerce operations if they are to survive.

2020 already saw the guillotine come down on many established high street brands and unless companies step up their online presence with an adequate operations portfolio to augment B2B with inevitable B2C and D2C requirements, they will face a similar fate.

SnapFulfil CEO, Tony Dobson, explains: “The consumer market has shifted to an e-commerce focus much more rapidly than any analysts anticipated, due to mass stay-at-home online orders and the closing of sizeable retail outlets plus bricks and mortar shopping centres. Unfortunately, I don’t see how – or truly why – a return to traditional shopping habits will occur. However, I do think macro-economic improvements driven by vaccine introduction and the subsequent return to more ‘normal’ economic times post lockdown will improve consumer demand.

“The rash of business closings, due to nearly a year of economic strife, will also see the growth of smaller, more agile and dynamic 3PL service providers to fill the vacuum created. From a channel-specific standpoint, those operations will successfully chase new customers, but also need to hit the ground running with stable and reliable fulfilment operations.

“A pandemic dominated 2020 really challenged and changed the mix of demand between in person retail and online e-commerce. As economies recover, however, business leaders will increasingly turn to cloud based over on premise solutions to support the speed of that growth. Consequently, the more tech savvy elements of our supply chain industry should expect and plan for a steep increase in demand.”

Investing in cost effective infrastructure and technology that can quickly adapt and change with a business is more important than ever. The face of retail and city centres has changed for good and retailers will have to become genuinely omnichannel to provide the choice, value and convenience customers increasingly expect. Therefore, traditional stores may not disappear but evolve to become micro-fulfilment hubs in terms of click & collect and product returns, which are both vital components of the e-commerce offer.

Dobson adds: “Digital transformation is fundamental to survival going forward and as a driver of efficiency and accuracy will further streamline how e-commerce organisations operate, ultimately giving them a tangible competitive edge. Operational complexity means they will increasingly turn to more robust and flexible software systems – such as advanced, cloud-based WMS like SnapFulfil that benefits from remote implementation and self-configuration for even greater responsiveness, control and savings.”

More Inventory Reliability, More Customers

Posted on by David Priestman

With the construction of the new 5,000 m² warehouse at its Limburg, Germany site, Spedition Stähler, the biggest and most established shipping company in the Limburg-Weilburg district, has also taken the decision to install a warehouse management system. It selected the EPG | LFS Warehouse Management System from EPG (Ehrhardt + Partner Gruppe). This has enabled the logistics service provider to considerably improve its inventory accuracy and transparency. The company uses LFS to administer incoming and outgoing goods processes and has consigned those paper lists to history. This modernization of the warehouse management system has enabled Stähler to significantly grow its customer base within a very short period.

“The decision to install LFS was primarily due to the innovative capacity of EPG. We wanted a solution that will provide us with long-term support and also with an opportunity to grow our business. In comparison to other companies on the market, LFS is the most cost-effective both in this regard and also for our requirements,” explains Egon Bürger, Managing Director of Spedition Stähler. “The new warehouse is the heart of the company. This is why it is important to deploy state-of-the-art, innovative technologies here so we can provide future-oriented services for our customers.”

LFS ensures the dynamic location segmentation in the new 12-meter high warehouse. Across the 5,000 m² storage area there are 5,000 shelf slots for pallets. The objective is to turn the goods round as quickly as possible. “Before the installation of LFS a maximum of two people in the warehouse knew where each item was located. There was no location differentiation and access times were much too slow. There were also challenges with the assignment of batches,” continues Egon Bürger. Incoming pallets are now dispatched, labelled and assigned to a unique bin location with the assistance of a mobile workplace system – also supplied by EPG. In theory, each employee has an overview at all times of the current inventory situation as well as of all incoming orders. Stähler is also taking advantage of the integrated LFS module designed for the financial settlement of logistics services and therefore from an additional optimization of its customer invoicing process.

Growing customer-base

The investment has already paid off. Since the introduction of LFS Stähler has already considerably expanded its customer-base. And further future growth is the company’s top priority. “Spedition Stähler is a perfect example of the extreme flexibility of our software solutions as they can suit every requirement. And this is regardless of whether they are deployed by a medium-sized company or a large corporation,” says Dennis Schönherr, Project Manager and Logistics Consultant at EPG. “This is because, and often this is the most important aspect, our systems simply grow with the company and can adapt at any time. The standard version of LFS is already so sophisticated that many functions are available without any additional programming expense.” For example, Spedition Stähler simply connected its new clients itself and was able to work productively for them very quickly.

EPG – Smarter Connected Logistics

EPG is one of the leading international providers of comprehensive Supply Chain Execution Systems (SES) and employs 700 people at 17 locations worldwide. The company supplies its more than 1,500 customers with WMS, WCS, WFM, TMS and voice solutions to optimise logistics processes – from manual to fully automated logistics environments. EPG solutions cover the entire supply chain, from warehouse and road to ground and cargo handling solutions at airports. EPG’s comprehensive portfolio of solutions is complemented by logistics consulting, cloud and managed services and logistics training courses at the company’s own academy.

Supply Chain Network for the Manufacturing Industry

Posted on by Keith McKinley

SupplyOn, a global collaboration platform for the manufacturing industry, is celebrating its 20th anniversary. Starting in 2000 as a joint vision of the automotive suppliers Bosch, Continental, Schaeffler and ZF, SupplyOn is now a leading industry solution for cross-company collaboration in the core sectors of automotive, aerospace, railway and manufacturing. More than 100,000 companies in over 70 countries are now using the industry solution.

SupplyOn provides a comprehensive portfolio of solutions that covers all business processes at the interface between a company and its business partners such as suppliers, service providers and freight forwarders. This enables complex global supply chains to be managed efficiently, transparently and in a crisis-resistant manner. 20 years ago, SupplyOn was one of the first providers of cloud solutions for industrial applications and thus pioneered the networking of global corporations with their business partners. The comprehensive portfolio of solutions and the worldwide network was expanded in 2017 with the acquisition of Newtron and in 2018 with the acquisition of Eurolog.

“We live today in a world that is subject to permanent change, in which everything and everyone is networked and in which the economic, political and social challenges are so vast that they can only be solved jointly in an industrial initiative,” says Markus Quicken, CEO of SupplyOn AG. “To achieve this, companies must collaborate more intensively than ever before and need a platform that networks all relevant players along their supply chains simply and efficiently. This is exactly what SupplyOn has created and continuously expanded over the past 20 years, both on a functional level and in terms of global use.”

A key success factor of SupplyOn is that the solutions were developed in close cooperation with the customers from the very beginning: In councils and expert groups, the processes to be implemented are defined based on the requirements of the industry in order to create industry standards. “The introduction of new technologies such as Big Data combined with Machine Learning has made our solutions smarter,” says Dr. Stefan Brandner, CEO of SupplyOn AG. “This not only enables our customers today to have more transparency in the global supply chain, but also and above all to recognize delivery risks early on and react in a timely manner”.

SupplyOn’s outstanding performance has been confirmed by Gartner by positioning the company twice in a row – in 2018 and 2020 – as a leader in the Magic Quadrant for Multi Enterprise Supply Chain Business Networks. SupplyOn also received the 2019 Product Leadership Award in the “Digital Supply Network for Discrete Manufacturing” category from Frost & Sullivan. SupplyOn thanks its customers who believed in the vision of a global supply chain collaboration platform and thus played a key role in the company’s success. These thanks also go to the approximately 400 employees who, with their extraordinary commitment and strong focus on customer satisfaction, are continuously expanding and developing both the global corporate network and the comprehensive portfolio of solutions.

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