Case Study - Dohler
Paperless Picking
Real-time logging of all goods movements at Döhler, using DLoG Logistics Terminals
At the Döhler Group’s Biebesheim warehouse, all movement of goods will now be entered electronically and transmitted wirelessly to the company’s SAP system. The DLoG Logistics terminals and Symbol barcode scanners form the basis of this system and are installed on all the forklifts and trucks at the warehouse.
Batch Tracking
With around 1600 employees worldwide, the traditional Döhler family business develops and produces basic ingredients and complex formulas for the food and beverages industry. As a supplier of goods to food manufacturers, Döhler is subject to strict legal regulations, such as EU Directive 178. It’s not just the production date, manufacturing process, formula and ingredients of every product that must be individually recorded; it’s also essential that each batch of every raw material used can be traced. Meeting this requirement would have been theoretically possible using the organization’s existing methods: printed purchase orders and delivery notes.
But Döhler saw the implementation of this legal requirement as an opportunity to invest in warehouse logistics: “The new system allows us to solve two problems at once. We’re fulfilling the legal requirements while introducing modern, paperless picking,” says Harald Bindemann.
Multiple Benefits
The new workflow: during filling at the plant, all concentrate containers and other items receive a six-digit storage unit number by the SAP system. The goods are then transported by truck from the plant in Darmstadt, Germany to the warehouse in Biebesheim. There, the 25 warehouse vehicles are equipped with modern DLoG MPC 5/110 industrial terminals and Symbol scanners.
Mobile DLoG handcarts on which MPC 5/112 computers, printers and Symbol scanners are installed and equipped with proprietary DLoG power supplies.
All the terminals are connected to the server via a CISCO 802.11-b WLAN and to the SAP system via a CITRIX terminal solution. The SAP interface is displayed on the large touch screens of the industrial terminals, and all data is transferred online to the system. Data can be entered via the touch screen, the keyboard or the connected Symbol scanner.
Incoming goods are logged with the scanner and booked into SAP
When the goods arrive at the warehouse in Biebesheim, their storage unit numbers are entered in the system using Symbol scanners while the goods are still on the loading platform. They are then posted to the SAP system as a goods receipt. Concentrate containers and other items made to order can easily be identified at this stage and assigned to the appropriate orders by the system. They can then be taken immediately to the designated picking area. The remaining warehouse goods are automatically scanned into the system and taken to the designated storage areas.
Tracing at the push of a button
The goods are transferred from stock using large and small quantity picking methods with return transfer to the SAP system. To do this, all current transport orders are transmitted to the DLoG terminals via WLAN. When the goods are removed, the forklift drivers use the Symbol scanners to enter the storage unit numbers of the concentrate containers, pallets and other items, post the withdrawal and assign the storage units to the deliveries. Every delivery item is identified by an SSCC (Standard Shipping Container Code). The SAP system uses a combination of the storage unit number and the SSCC to rapidly trace unique batches of materials, formulas, production times and manufacturing processes.
Finally, the goods are brought to the final inspection area. Mobile handheld computers from Symbol, which are also connected by WLAN are used at this point. Once the final inspection has been successfully completed, the final delivery is posted as a goods issue to the SAP system.
Optimum support for processes
“The combination of fixed terminals and mobile Symbol handhelds means that we have a solution at the Biebesheim warehouse that provides optimum support for all customer-specific processes. We like the fact that it’s an end-to-end solution, and the associated monitoring functions are particularly useful: the SAP user interface can be viewed on large, modern displays – this saves us developing special input templates or applications,” explains Axel Martin, SD Project Leader at DLoG GmbH.
Conclusion
“Fully electronic picking with online connection to the SAP system ensures real-time entry of all goods movements and thus guarantees true transparency in the warehouse,” Harald Bindemann explains. For Harald Bindemann, however, the strategic return on this investment lies in smooth, consistent traceability. The workflow developed in Biebesheim and the hardware systems implemented there will serve as models for other warehouses belonging to the group and will be rolled out across the entire organisation.
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