LFS 400. Working Report LFS 400. Beverage logistician Trinks. is setting new standards. in the beverage sector

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1 Working Report LFS 400 Beverage logistician Trinks is setting new standards in the beverage sector LFS 400 Software Systems for Warehouse Logistics

2 E+P sets new benchmark for warehouse standards in the beverage The market-leading beverage logistician Trinks nationwide supplies more than 5000 customers with over all more than 15,000 unloading areas. Through the use of the warehouse management system LFS 400 in the 19 locations the company sets the benchmark for the beverage industry: the system offers Trink an innovative, coordinated management for pickers and forklift drivers. Amongst the results of the software integration is the clear increase of efficiency in the processes. By the use of Pick-by-Voice, for instance, the quality of the picking processes is so high that a complex final control is unnecessary. Particular project requests The 19 locations of the beverage logistician Trinks differ in their structure: different volumes of goods and turnover rate, different location dimensions and a changing variety of products mark the different locations. With the old system, Trinks could not come up to the requests of the EU regulation 178/2002. Due to that, the beverage logistician was dependent on high-performance software that guarantees high-quality processes. Besides that, it should respect future requests and special characteristics of the beverage industry. Prospective requests of beverage industry and beverage wholesale shall be respected during further software development. Trinks decided in favour of the market-leading warehouse management system LFS 400, as it fulfils the tasks given and already provides a very high variety of functions in the modularly constructed software. Example of use: LFS 400 in the Trinks-headquarters Kassel The Trinks headquarters in Kassel provides of a 5,500 m 2 big warehouse. 40 workers are employed there. The storing capacity is 5,000 pallet bins: 2,500 each are situated in the block storage and in the rack storage. In the block storage, Trinks only stores original pallets of one item with a high turnover rate. Those A- items are released as full pallets for loading of the trucks or used for replenishment. C-items like juices, ice tea or Alco pops are picked by Trinks in the flow rack for small parts. The other drinks and luxury articles are picked by pallets and barrels or they are directly taken from the block storage. Empties are stored on a free area. Just like in the other locations, Trinks manages the orders in Kassel with the modified ERP system Dogas by the supplier Corbit Connect. After the orders or the instructions in the tour planning system have been assigned to different tours, Dogas prepares the data for the warehouse management system. LFS 400 now directs the entire logistic process and sends the real data including lots, SSCC, BBD etc. back to Dogas. Innovative integration of Yard management and transport control system The existing transport control system (TLS) of LFS 400 allows the optimal use of the fork lifter and contributes to a significant reduction of deadheads. Through the functionality of the TLS, Trinks manages the goods receiving and goods dispatch as well as the administration of empties online. Furthermore, the TLS guarantees an automatic direction of replenishment and the per-

3 industry and the beverage wholesale fect coordination of the fork lift drivers and pickers. That means a significant reduction of time and with that a reduction in costs. Currently, E+P together with Trinks works on the development of a Yard Management that is especially designed for beverage wholesalers. After the implementation of this innovative developement, each truck in the goods receiving is assigned a to a loading bay by the yard management function integrated by the LFS 400. Through the planned connection of the yard management with the TLS, the LFS 400 allows a further optimisation of the combined truck and fork lift traffic on the Trinks area. Simple handling via graphic touch screen-terminals Before the system change, the fork lift driver handled the data of the unloading- and loading process including the indication of empties with pen and paper. In the second, time-delayed step, the data was manually registered. Today, those time-intensive processes are saved: the LFS 400 indicates the fork lift driver all data needed on the touch screen terminal. The especially big touch screen keypad was developed by E+P for the fork lift drivers wearing gloves. In order to make the process as efficient as possible, E+P has developed simple touch screen dialogues suitable for the beverage industry. With the unloading of the filled goods, the driver in the truck-loading-bay reads the barcode of the SSCC label with an attached scanner. Afterwards, the LFS 400 compares the product data with the purchase orders and saves the lot and product information. At the same time, the system calculates the appropriate bin location and indicates this to the employee. With the arrival of the pallet, the check digit guarantees the hand-over to the correct bin location. Efficient processes with Pick-by-Voice In connection with the use of the LFS 400, Trinks GmbH also integrated the the second-generation of E+P Picky-by-Voice technology. One decisive advantage of this technology is that the user can work hand-free and picks goods simultaneously to entering data by Voice. At Trinks, the pickers carry the usual PDA device on a belt and can communicate with the LFS 400 via head set. The system guides the picker to the bin location and instructs him which item to pick in which quantities. Due to the control and checking steps in the Voice-dialogue, the error rate is so low that a complex final control of the picked goods is unnecessary. So, the processes are more efficient and flexible. The lot- and product information is assigned to the customer online; in addition the process costs are reduced. EU regulation accomplished: Complete tracing of batches Through the use of software and the associated administration of stocks via SSCC-labelling, Trinks guarantees a transparent tracing of batches and products. If the original pallets of the producer already have labels, this SSCC can be used and with that traced back to the producer. If this is not the case, the LFS 400 creates a new SSCC for the according pallets that are also saved in the system and used for further movements. With this code, the clear identification and

4 Figures, dates, facts tracing of the goods across all processes is possible and the order can be traced back anytime. Also for the completely picked pallets, the LFS 400 creates a new SSCC label. With its identcode, all items included can be searched for. Before the integration of the software, putaway and release as well as the picking of the goods were handled with lists, goods movements were some times booked hours later. By the use of radio frequency and the Pick-by- Voice, the LFS 400 today guarantees the real-time booking and at the same time the EU regulation 178/2002 is accomplished. The beverage logistician Trinks offers his more than 5,000 customers a nationwide area-wide logistic network. Headquarters: Goslar Locations: in total 19 Number of employees:. more than 1,800 Number of trucks: Number of customers:.. more than 5,000 Unloading areas: over 15,000 Turnover: bn Euro (2002) Reliable management of empties In addition to the stock administration of all items, Trinks manages the empties stock of the same pledge values via one single item number. With every process, the according changes in stock are accounted per touch screen terminal. LFS 400 announces the corresponding entries and exits to the Dogas system. With the aid of this customer- and supplier-specific data, Dogas manages and calculates the empties expertise for each customer and supplier. New is the automatic printing of empties and number of pallets on the purchase order or delivery note which the truck driver takes to the customer or supplier. Before, the empties were accounted manually and recorded very time-intensively on the delivery note.

5 Results in an overview Next to the tracing of lots, Trinks also accomplishes all the requests of the EU regulation 178/2002 The beverage logistician realises the optimally according management of trucks, fork lifters and pickers. The results are more efficient processes Through the use of Pick-by-Voice parallel to radio frequency, Trinks optimises the picking processes A complete stock administration via SSCC labelling is guaranteed. LFS 400 allows the direct unloading from the original pallets from truck to truck The SSCC numbers of the producers pallets are used by the LFS 400 The LFS 400 furthermore guarantees a business-specific return-management. The connection of the LFS 400 to the tour planning system by Corbit Connect as well as the goods administration system Dogas allow a high security in planning and a continuous flow of information. With the IT-supported Cross-docking, the items needed in the goods receipt are directly guided there.

6 LFS 400 Modules installed Basic package LFS 400 Order processing of the warehouse control center Purchase order administration Cross-docking Radio frequency Label printing for the pallet rack Inventory control and reorder level Drop locations Paperless putaway and picking with Pick-by-Voice Packing station dialog Quality control Interfaces to other computers or software systems Transport Control System Project Data Requirement specification: Sept. Nov Customizing: Oct. Dec Test phase: December 2003 Commisioning date of 1st location: January 2004 Warehouse Management System:.. LFS 400 (E+P) Merchandise Information System:.. Dogas Ehrhardt + Partner GmbH & Co. KG Software Systems for Warehouse Logistics Alte Römerstraße 3 D Boppard-Buchholz Germany Telefon (+49) Telefax (+49) info@ehrhardt-partner.com Institut für Angewandte Warehouse-Logistik GmbH Company of the Ehrhardt + Partner Group Hellerwaldstraße 1A D Boppard-Buchholz Germany Telefon (+49) Telefax (+49) info@iaw-logistik.com IGL - Informática y Gestiones Logísticas, S.L. Sistemas de software para gestiones logísticas C/ Joan Reglà, 5 E Figueres (Girona) Spain Telefóno (+34) Telefax (+34) mail@igl.es