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"Innovative, individual, international." The globally operating and owner-managed BACHMANN group of companies has been successfully active in the electrical engineering industry for more than 70 years. BACHMANN develops, produces and distributes numerous different products for various application worlds. These include the "intelligent socket", the award-winning desk connection panels and digital services and solutions for flexible and future-proof office equipment. In order to maintain the constant company growth in the long term and to meet market requirements in the future, BACHMANN has decided to expand its warehouse logistics and introduce the SuPCIS-L8 warehouse management software at the Gumpelstadt site. By linking production and distribution, BACHMANN now has the ability to respond even faster to customer requests and reduce delivery times as best as possible.
With a customised solution to increase effectiveness
The distribution center offers extensive usable space, allowing BACHMANN to access a large number of storage locations for its wide range of electrotechnical components and systems. In designing the warehouse as well as the processes and storage strategies, the project partners were able to draw on the expertise of the Reutlingen-based planning office UBS (Unternehmensberatung Nobert Schröter) from the initial idea to go-live. The warehouse management software SuPCIS-L8 controls and manages both the intralogistic processes and strategies in the distribution center and, in its function as an MES (Manufacturing Execution System) , the supply of production. In doing so, SuPCIS-L8 takes over the entire control from goods receipt to picking to shipping and in this way creates a smooth and digitalized material flow. In addition, the new warehouse management system's integration with the Microsoft Dynamics NAV ERP system means that information on order progress and the current inventory situation is available in real time.
"In the course of expanding warehouse logistics and introducing a software solution, it was important for us to expand the existing possibilities at the Gumpelstadt site in the best possible way and to make optimum use of the potentials in the process. The flexible intralogistics strategies and paperless processes have also enabled BACHMANN to respond flexibly to changing requirements," says Thorsten Dietz, Head of Supply Chain Management at BACHMANN's corporate headquarters in Stuttgart.
The numerous deliveries such as finished goods from the production of different locations, external supplier orders and customer returns arrive at BACHMANN via the goods receiving area and are separated there by the employees. A special feature of the incoming goods process is the delivery of containerized goods. In order to cope with the high sorting effort in the incoming goods department, S&P has designed an additional process that significantly supports the container separation. In this way, the articles can be sorted "ready for storage" by means of an article scan, which significantly reduces the workload of the warehouse staff.
At BACHMANN, the cable drums are managed individually by the WMS (Warehouse Management System). Both length and drum type are known to the system. Via an interface to the ERP system, the WMS receives the information on the individual picking orders for cables. The orders are then displayed to the warehouse employees on the MDE devices (mobile data entry) and can be processed promptly in this way. After the cable has been cut to length, the quantity actually picked is reported back to the WMS via the MDE and the remaining quantity on the drum is returned to the buffer location. The WMS provides additional support with an automatic replenishment logic. If a cable drum on the pallet becomes empty in production, this is acknowledged and another drum is conveyed to the front position. In addition, the WMS places a replenishment order on this buffer lane and thus ensures stock availability.
Another typical industry requirement is the management of KTG drums. These have a predefined, rent-free storage period that is stored in the system. The WMS not only manages the individual information on the respective drums, but also generates an alarm message for the control station in the event of a critical storage period, so that this KTG drum is preferably consumed and can be returned on time.
Efficient and transparent interaction between distribution and production
In BACHMANN's distribution center, the integrated multi-order picking principle ensures route-optimized and thus efficient picking in production supply and distribution. Thus, during pick order planning, the reserved warehouse withdrawals are planned within a picking group. While piece goods orders are picked on pallets according to the order, different picking carts are used in the shelf area for simultaneous picking of several orders in different strategies. Here, too, the warehouse management system uses intelligent logic to optimize the processes. The shipping volume is calculated by SuPCIS-L8 before the picking process and the picking cart is equipped with the appropriate totes or shipping cartons. Items that are directly ready for shipping are picked directly and shipped in shipping cartons without repackaging. Another special feature in BACHMANN's warehouse is the picking of long goods. This is carried out separately from all other order items, as these goods always have to be packed separately. In order to achieve the greatest possible efficiency, these orders can be released and processed separately for picking.
"Due to the complexity of the intralogistics processes and procedures in the warehouse, the available master data of the individual items in our system must be very precisely defined and maintained. If an employee reports an error in the running process, it is necessary to correct the data in order to be able to use the operations optimally. This presented a challenge that we were able to solve thanks to the flexibility of the software and together with the entire project team," says Sabrina Radlach, logistics manager at the Gumpelstadt site.
Under the motto: Long waiting times in production cost a lot of time and money, rush orders from production have the highest priority at BACHMANN, as otherwise there is a risk of lost time in production. For this reason, the WMS automatically releases the rush orders. The normal orders from production, on the other hand, are triggered by the system - as soon as the point in time of need is reached - with parameterizable lead times per movement type and processed by the employees in the warehouse. In this context, the storage of buffer orders is added in order to ensure the continuous supply of production in the best possible way. In this case, the material intended for this purpose is controlled in a delivery buffer for production and only retrieved when there is a demand in production.
The C-stock for storing bulk goods such as screws is also managed by SuPCIS-L8. If a container stock is used up, the employees can quickly and easily report the empty stock to the system by scanning the container via MDE device. In accordance with the classic multiple container principle / KANBAN, the WMS triggers as a result of a replenishment order and in this way ensures a smooth material supply.
Intelligent logistics strategy for a wide range of requirements
Against this background, the intercompany process for managing as well as checking the accounting transactions between the sister companies was consequently also integrated into the WMS and the backlog resolution was moved to the WMS. With the integration into the WMS, the paper-heavy, time-consuming and manual accounting activities are a thing of the past. With simple and automated processes that adapt to the material flow, the WMS efficiently handles this process and ensures the designated distribution of finished goods from the production flows. A distinction is made between goods produced for stock and goods produced to order for external sales. SuPCIS-L8 ensures that the different types of usage are taken into account and automates the necessary postings in the ERP to comply with the ownership.
"By building our distribution center and using the software solution from S&P, we have a fully comprehensive and powerful logistics solution. With increased efficiency, performance and flexibility of our intralogistics, we are now optimally equipped for the future," says Ulrich Stumpf, Managing Director at BACHMANN Elektrotechnik GmbH.
