Eich Handel, a Swiss company with 20 employees, sells flooring. The material is laminate, cork, vinyl or parquet. The company supplies specialists in interior design, such as floor layers, woodworkers and home designers.

The trading company supplies its customers from two warehouse locations. In order to deliver the ordered goods on time and safely to the customers, it cooperates with PostLogistics - belonging to the Swiss Post. Their trucks are used for transportation. The individual deliveries usually differ considerably.

Correct information is crucial

In order to load the transport vehicles optimally, PostLogistics needs all the information in advance, especially that on the masses and weights of the consignments. In addition, the individual transport units must be correctly labeled. Every error immediately increases transport costs.

It is a logistical challenge to reconcile all these requirements with as little effort as possible. Eich Handel assigned the task of developing an appropriate software solution to DENSO's partner Spirig Systems, as well as to an ERP specialist. Together, they developed a system consisting of the interface of mobile data collection and an individually tailored ERP software.

From order to delivery

Three employees use the ERP software's order processing function to record orders, which are usually received by phone. Around 20,000 orders are processed annually in this way. Each day, a list is created of all the orders to be delivered on the following working days. They are individually processed electronically and made available as pack files for DENSO's mobile data capture devices, the BHT-1100 series handheld terminals. In the respective delivery warehouse, packing slips are automatically output by a laser printer. These are provided with the order identification in the form of a barcode. The warehouse employee scans the barcode printed on the packing slip with the BHT-1100, which downloads the packing file to the handheld terminal. This is done either via radio data transmission (WLAN) or a network connection (LAN). The BHT-1100 displays information such as customer name, delivery type and number of items for the respective order to the warehouse employee.

Picking made easy The warehouse worker selects a pack position in DENSO's data capture device, enters the batch number of the product, if necessary, and prepares the required quantity on one or more transport units. The required transport units are numbered consecutively on the BHT-1100 and assigned to the packed product. Once all items have been picked, the warehouse worker switches to processing the transport units.

To do this, he selects the type with one-way pallet, frame, crate, box and canister and records the dimensions with length, width and height. In doing so, he can access information from the master data on the transport units as well as data that has already been entered. Once all the order items have been processed and all the transport units have been defined, the completed packing order is transferred to the server and thus to the customized logistics software. This is upstream of the order processing. Data is again transferred either via WLAN or via the LAN. The logistics software creates an XML file from the data recorded by the BHT-1100 and further information from the order processing. This is then transmitted directly to PostLogistics via Secure-FTP. This guarantees that PostLogistics has all the relevant information to accurately plan and efficiently execute a transport.

The order processing software then takes the captured data from the logistics software and creates the shipping documents as well as the labels for the individual transport units. A special label printer is used to print the labels. In addition to the sender, the recipient and the dimensions, these labels contain a unique barcode, the so-called Serial Shipping Container Code (SSCC). This is used to identify logistics units/transport units. The structure of the SSCC ensures that transport units are marked with an identification number that is valid worldwide. Hardly any more errors Afterwards, the employee sticks the labels onto the transport units. This eliminates the need for manual labeling, which also eliminates previous sources of error. The delivery is thus ready for transport and is brought to the loading ramp. Loading is usually carried out by the truck drivers themselves.

High reliability Eich Handel uses five DENSO devices at two warehouse locations. The warehouses are connected to the head office via the Internet using a VPN connection. To ensure availability at all times, data can be exchanged both via radio data transmission and via an Ethernet connection. A plus point of the DENSO terminals: they are robust, compact and equipped with the Windows CE operating system. Powerful lithium-ion batteries supply the devices with power. This guarantees safe working for many hours.

The data acquisition software was designed and created by DENSO's partner Spirig Systems. As an importer of DENSO barcode readers, Spirig was thus also able to provide the hardware.

The solution convinced At the beginning there was the problem of high shipping costs. Eich Handel has got to grips with this thanks to the new solution. Today, orders are processed much more efficiently in the company itself than before. Data only has to be entered once when the order is received. After that, it is in the system and can be used for a variety of purposes, from picking to placing the order with the forwarder to invoicing. In addition, the forwarder PostLogistics receives precise information in a timely manner and is thus able to optimize all transports and thus also the costs. In addition, since the customized logistics software and DENSO equipment have been in use, there has been a massive reduction in incorrect deliveries.