The company
THOMAS SABO GmbH & Co. KG is a jewellery company founded by Thomas Sabo in 1984 and headquartered in Lauf an der Pegnitz. Today, the company is one of the world's leading jewellery and watch brands for men and women. THOMAS SABO sells its wide range of products through a network of its own shops, an online shop, retail partners and, from September 2019, also directly to end customers. The company employs around 500 people at its main location in Lauf a. d. Pegnitz. Internationally, the company has around 1800 employees.
New headquarters, new logistics centre
In 2016, THOMAS SABO's new international headquarters in Lauf a. d. Pegnitz was completed, bringing together the previously different headquarters locations under one roof. The brand's logistics centre, which has also been newly built, is directly adjacent to the new building for the sales and administration departments. This has created the best conditions for an optimum flow of goods and the worldwide distribution of THOMAS SABO products to B2C customers, THOMAS SABO branches or B2B partners, which is controlled from Lauf an der Pegnitz - a decisive factor for the future viability of the company and the creation of state-of-the-art workplaces for THOMAS SABO logistics employees and managers.
THOMAS SABO decided to work with S&P Computersysteme to centralise its logistics and to provide optimum IT support for its further growth. Since moving into the new company headquarters, all logistics processes have been controlled via the SuPCIS-L8 warehouse management system from the Stuttgart-based specialist for intralogistics IT solutions: from goods receipt to storage, order picking and dispatch, right through to returns processing.
Optimised processes
Thanks to the SuPCIS-L8 warehouse management system, THOMAS SABO has been able to significantly optimise the processing of incoming orders as well as industry-specific processes: Already during storage, the warehouse management system uses intelligent strategies - based on the principle of dynamic warehousing - to decide which goods should be stored where. For picking, the warehouse management system works with multi-level, cross-order batch picking. In addition, the warehouse management system controls the order consolidation from the different picking areas. By switching from paper-based processes to paperless picking, the error rate could be reduced and the picking efficiency significantly increased. The material flow computer from S&P also controls the tote conveyor technology and, for example, quickly takes order cartons exactly where they are needed thanks to a sophisticated reject system.
Efficient special machining
It was also possible to integrate all the necessary special processing and industry-specific processes of the logistical procedures into the warehouse management system. One special feature of the jewellery industry, for example, is that silver jewellery has to be hallmarked (stamped). Here, too, THOMAS SABO was able to develop an intelligent two-stage order picking system in collaboration with S&P Computersysteme, which significantly minimised the set-up times for hallmarking.
"With the consolidation of our logistics in the new THOMAS SABO distribution centre, we were able to create the conditions for efficient and powerful intralogistics in cooperation with the company S&P Computersysteme and its warehouse management system SuPCIS-L8, which can optimally accompany the further growth of THOMAS SABO in the future."
