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Scan-free localisation of forklift and goods flows
Daniel Küster, Head of Supply Chain Management, has been responsible for production planning and control as well as logistics processes at the Warsteiner Group since June 2020. The brewery's overriding goal is to streamline, accelerate and make processes more transparent. "In terms of brewing technology, we are committed to tradition. Progressively, however, we are in our supply chains. We want to identify new technologies and invest in them in order to continue to be globally successful," explains Küster.
The clock is ticking: No truck should stand in the loading bay for longer than 45 minutesTraditional heritage
Beer has been brewed in Warstein in the Sauerland for 1753 years - as evidenced by the first payment of a beer tax by company founder Antonius Cramer. In 1928 the brewery specialised in pilsner beers and by 1960 was one of Germany's largest breweries with an annual output of 100,000 hectolitres. From 1990 onwards, Warsteiner expanded significantly: the Paderborn brewery became part of the Warsteiner Group. This was later followed by the investment in the König Ludwig Schlossbrauerei Kaltenberg and the majority takeover of the private brewery Frankenheim from Düsseldorf and the Herforder Brauerei. In the meantime, the company has a beer output of around two million hectolitres per year, which is drunk worldwide.
As soon as the forklift driver has identified the first pallet in the load during unloading, the EWM system knows exactly where which pallet is on the truck and can track it furtherHeterogeneous and time-consuming
The more than 265-year-old company history and the acquisition of additional breweries led to an inconsistent system and process landscape. However, things were not only running optimally between the locations, but also within the brewery in the Waldpark in Warstein: "Without uniform communication between warehouse management and the ERP system, the challenges typical for beverage logistics were difficult to problematic and time-consuming - from requirements such as batch traceability to repetitive activities such as manual scanning of many pallets," Küster lists. Warsteiner had had the idea of introducing a uniform Extended Warehouse Management system (EWM) for some time: a feasibility study conducted a few years ago showed that an EWM solution from SAP could control the logistics processes in a sensible way and be ideally integrated into the company-wide SAP ERP resource planning system. When it came to the concrete implementation, Warsteiner chose prismat GmbH as a holistic implementation partner for the SAP solution. Uwe Salvey, Head of Logistics at the Warstein site, who was responsible for the project from the beginning, explains why: "For a project like this, which can last several months or years, we needed a partner who not only fits us technically, but also as a person. With prismat, the chemistry was just right."
Forklift detection works both indoors and outdoorsSAP project with a technical gimmick
"The advantage of SAP EWM is that we can seamlessly integrate it with SAP ERP. In addition, it gives us the option of tying in other technical solutions. And that was decisive for this project," explains Alena Schwinges, SAP Consultant at prismat GmbH. Because Warsteiner wanted more: time savings and yet absolute transparency about articles, stocks and empties. The solution is a laser-based forklift location system developed by IdentPro, which clearly identifies both the forklifts and the pallets - without time-consuming barcode scanning. For this purpose, Warsteiner had all forklifts in the brewery's warehouse in Waldpark equipped with 2D lasers, a height sensor and a load sensor.
Thanks to continuous laser tracking and a digital twin, the warehouse management system knows where each pallet is at all times.Seamless position monitoring of forklifts and pallets
By constantly locating the current forklift position, the system, in conjunction with the lift mast height and the load sensor, knows exactly where each pallet is, at which point it was picked up or delivered. The IdentPro TRACK warehouse execution system links this information with the three geo-coordinates of the load ID each time a pallet is moved. "The highlight is that the tracking is coordinate-based and not radio-based and therefore works everywhere - indoors and outdoors, in rain and fog as well as in our basements," explains Daniel Küster.
One-time registration of pallets
Another important component in terms of holistic process optimisation is the new empties handling system. Via a touch screen, the forklift driver can already precisely record the empties when unloading a truck and assign them to the article numbers - IdentPro realised this in a user-friendly and intuitive way with the help of an image database. "During programming, we placed great emphasis on generating ergonomically optimised interfaces and creating systems with which everyone can work successfully for eight hours a day without getting tired or feeling overwhelmed," explains Uwe Salvey.
For a smooth operation of the system, it is essential to remove employees' fear of contact through training and to create a digital mindset. Create a digital mindset among employees
The experts from prismat managed the entire project, implemented the warehouse management system close to the standard and linked it to the existing SAP ERP environment. They also integrated IdentPro's laser-based forklift location and pallet tracking into the SAP EWM. "The challenge was to introduce both systems during ongoing operations with different warehouse layouts. We therefore planned the GoLive in phases and oriented ourselves to the processes of the different locations," reports Alena Schwinges. In addition, prismat organised training for the employees, who now interact directly with the warehouse management system thanks to digitalisation - such as when identifying the empties via the touchscreen. "Training, education and communication were important to create a digital mindset and to reduce fear of contact with digital technology," Küster adds.
Faster in the swarm
Thanks to the new system, Warsteiner was able to combine empty and full load handling, speed up loading and better utilise the forklift fleet. Since the pallets can now be fully tracked, it is no longer relevant with which forklift they are transported. This means that even several employees can unload and load a truck without causing chaos - regardless of whether it is a stacker with a double pallet clamp or a larger model for up to eight pallets. This also works across locations: if a pallet comes as a full load from filling, it is identified directly and is thus visible in the system across all transport processes. With the identification of the pallet, the IdentPro software creates a digital twin. The software then tracks it through the warehouse to the shuttle vehicle with the help of the tracking system and transmits the loading image to the destination. As soon as the forklift driver has identified the first pallet of the load during unloading, the system knows exactly where which pallet is on the truck and can track it further - without time-consuming scanning.
Conclusion
All in all, this significantly shortens the throughput time and prevents incorrect scanning or incorrect setting down altogether. "The process seems so simple, but it requires a lot of know-how in the background to make it so fluent," comments Daniel Küster and adds: "Even though the forklift and goods location is a real innovation for us, without the SAP solution from prismat we would not be able to take a holistic view of our intralogistics processes." This has created an important basis for further optimising the now digitally visible flows of goods and materials across all locations - for more sustainability and economic efficiency.
