| SmartStock.WMS - Real-Time Warehouse Management In Globo Eastern Europe |
Globo Eastern Europe Ltd.
 | Warehouse Parameters:
- 11.500 pallet locations
- 150 picked pallets / day
- 600 picked items / day in a wave
- up to 300 orders in a wave
Project Objectives:
- Accurate inventory control
- Elimination of errors in picking
- Time saving in picking
- Elimination of warehouse dependency on human factor
Solution:
- Online warehouse management
- Mobile terminals Falcon
- Integration into ERP IS K2
Project Results:
- Accurate and in-time order picking
- Error elimination in picking
- Real-time warehouse visibility
- Simplified work of warehouse staff
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Company description:
Globo Eastern Europe is a part of the international group of companies GLOBO. It deals with production and import of decorative lamps and lighting units. The lighting products are distributed to renowned companies operating in the building industry and furniture production industries. The Globo Eastern Europe is headquartered in Austria, distribution centre for Central and Eastern Europe is located in Levice, Slovakia. |
Locality:
Levice, Slovakia | Technology:
Wireless Data Terminals - Datalogic, Barcode Label Printers - Argox |
WMS Case StudyDownload: CS_Barco_WMS_Globo_english_16_5_2007.pdf
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Initial Situation
In initial stage, the company Globo operated several rented warehouses in multiple locations in Levice, Slovakia. All warehouse operations were recorded manually on papers. As the total amount of picked orders had rapidly grown, the execution of warehouse operations started to be very time consuming and often led to mistakes caused by warehouse operators especially in order picking. Based on printed order, the workers with difficulties had to seek for the particular article in the warehouse. Since the rented warehouses were not sufficient enough for Globo warehousing needs and did not support the precise and accurate warehouse goods visibility and inventory control, the customer decided to invest in an own logistic centre along with deployment of Warehouse Management System operating in real-time.
The Project Goals
Detail warehouse visibility about the real-time in-stock, error and mistake elimination in picking of particular orders and saving time in executing the operations were the main project goals. The customer also expected that deployment of SmartStock.WMS would lead to human factor independent warehousing system that would make warehouse operations faster without the need of complex searching for goods into orders in the amount of up to several hundreds of items.
Supplier Selection
Original idea to outsource the WMS system that uses the parent company in Austria had appeared as inefficient and costly. These reasons led to decision to deploy the warehouse management system and to manage the warehouse operations by its own. For this reason the Barco`s Slovakian branch was approached to take part in the selection process with its Warehouse Management System SmartStock.WMS.
The Project Implementation
Execution of warehouse operations
Goods receiving is executed mostly by whole containers. To execute receiving usually there is an accompanying document available based on which the receiving is performed. Rarely also non-PO-receiving is used especially in receiving of small amount of goods. Receiving is executed on central receiving location and subsequently received pallets are put away. Warehouse operator by himself chooses the target warehouse location. The system keeps control over the rules for put away.
Goods picking depends on the type of order. Particular orders contain from one up to hundreds of items. System automatically navigates the operators to particular location with goods allocated into order. Picking is executed in the way of wave picking. The operator picks on pallet several orders at one time eg. according to distribution route. These pallets are later on palletised into orders. Another way is picking by particular orders. All operations are managed and controlled by system. | 
The Course of Implementation
Elementary prerequisite for successful implementation was the execution of quality analysis of warehouse operations. The entire analysis was completed within one month time. On its base the necessary functionality was defined and implementation project time schedule created. With regard to the fact that the customer utilised 100% of existing system functionality, the system implementation itself ran very smoothly and was completed within 3 weeks. In this time the testing period of the system started. After 2 months was the system was handed over for routine operation.
Specific challenge of the implementation project was that at the time of analysis the warehouse itself wasn`t finished yet. In the course of analysis and in the first implementation phase the total amount of goods was moved into a new warehouse. The implementation itself started with complete cycle counting and consequently started picking process according to incoming purchase orders from the ERP system. Already in the course of implementation the warehouse processes were managed by SmartStock.WMS.
Interface and technology
By means of interface SmartStock.WMS communicates with ERP system K2. This interface was written by K2 company.
There are up to 5 concurrent users working in the system. The mobile terminals Falcon 4420 and barcode label printers Argox X-1000+ were selected as suitable hardware.
Project Results
Significant benefit of the warehouse management system deployment is the accuracy in order picking and elimination of errors and mistakes. Also the time savings, real-time inventory control and complete warehouse visibility are substantial results of WMS implementation. Finally the warehouse staff does not have to search for the goods within the warehouse and the system by itself navigates the warehouse operators to particular locations. |
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