WITRON digitalizes its internal shipping logistics with AEB
Challenge
Time-consuming shipping processes were slowing down operations
The WITRON Group, a global specialist in intralogistics and material flow systems, has been on a course for growth for years. It is therefore important for the company to continuously optimize its own processes and make them transparent.
One area in which WITRON identified potential was the processing of special shipments at the company's headquarters in Parkstein - including non-stocked materials, deliveries without an order reference, and special spare parts.
Until now, employees used an Excel sheet and manually filled out shipping instructions for their own logistics department. If data relevant for shipping was missing, it sometimes had to be determined through laborious internal inquiries. Furthermore, digital storage was only possible when the shipping instructions were scanned.
“Overall, the entire process was time-consuming for our employees - starting with the data collection through to transparent shipment tracking,” explains Markus Kastl, head of customs and export at WITRON. It was also not possible to rule out processing errors in all cases.
Cloud solution for customized shipping processes
“We were looking for a lean tool and the cloud platform presented by AEB won us over,” says Sabrina Lendner, deputy head of customs and export.
The solution uses AEB's standard cloud services. Integrated process modeling makes it possible to support the processes in a flexible, tailor-made way. Small apps were designed for tasks in which users do not work directly in the integrated standard software.
The procedure for introducing the software was similar: In a workshop, WITRON and AEB modeled the desired shipping processes together. On this basis, the solution was designed and integrated into the WITRON intranet.
A highlight: of the software is that it is similar to a smartphone app - self-explanatory and intuitive to use. This is also extremely important, as theoretically all employees at WITRON's Parkstein location can send special shipments.
Result
More efficient shipping logistics with a lower error rate
Once a shipping instruction has been checked and approved, it is transmitted directly to the dispatch area. There, the software automatically generates the shipping label after packing and sends a shipping order to the respective forwarding or parcel service. When the shipment is picked up, day-end closing takes place and an EDI is transmitted to the carrier.
“The process has been greatly accelerated. I estimate a time saving of 15 minutes per process - with an error rate of approximately 0.1%,” says Lendner. In addition, the shipment status can be viewed in the software at any time using the integrated tracking & tracing feature. One more benefit: customs processing for shipments abroad is also integrated into the process.
Markus Kastl is delighted: “The solution works very well as a cloud application, which is the direction we want to go in.” That is why WITRON is already planning to make the solution available to all employees worldwide going forward.
“The process has been greatly accelerated. I estimate a time saving of 15 minutes per process.”
Sabrina Lendner, deputy head of customs and export, WITRON
