Completed WMS projects

Ehrhardt + Partner GmbH & Co. KG

Olympus Optical Co. (Europa) GmbH: Servicing all European Customers from Central Warehouse in Hamburg

Customers

Olympus Optical Co. (Europa) GmbH

Completion

31.05.2002

Country

Germany

Branch

  • Electronics Industry

Description

Task description

Olympus Optical Co. (Europa) GmbH is managing its operations in Europe from its headquarter in Hamburg. The product range for optical equipment are mainly medical and industrial endoscopes, microscopes, blood analyse devices and cameras. Olympus has established itself particularly well with its digital cameras in achieving market leadership in the new digital photography market. In order to improve competition on a long-term basis the functions of the decentralized European warehouses will be minimized through the central warehouse in Hamburg. The implementation of the Ehrhardt + Partner LFS 400 Warehouse Management System was based on the following Olympus guidelines:

  • Considerable reduction of the national European warehouses and centralization of the inventories in a central European warehouse; Servicing all European customers (Specialist stores, hospitals, etc.) from Hamburg
  • Reorganization of warehouse management by centralization of previously four departments (Receiving, shelving storage picking, high rack picking and packing), creating a logistics management team, optimization of operative logistic costs
  • Process optimization to reduce cycle times (to ensure a 24/48-hour service in Europe)
  • Reduction of warehouse area (Establishing of an automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS); Reduction of warehouse floors from three to one)
  • Guaranteeing the Medical Device Directive (MDD) by tracking lots, serial numbers and best before dates as well as flawless tracking of the material flow from receiving through despatch.
  • Order-specific printing of operating manuals in the respective language (POD = Print on Demand)

For reasons of space, a split was made into twolocations:
  • Scientific products (Endoscopes, microscopes, peripheral devices and accessories) will continue to be handled seperately at Olympus' own warehouse
  • Consumer Goods (Cameras, pearlcorders and accessories) were outsourced to a logistic service provider

The report below concerns the further handling of the scientific products at Olympus.

Receiving
Using an Olympus data network, information on orders and deliveries from Japan is exchanged daily. For this, a shipping notification is produced, which then, together with the processing of the receipt note by the Host, provides the LFS with all the relevant data (Invoice number, purchase order number, country of origin, item number, quantity, box number, box marker, marker original or mixed box).
If goods are received without notification (domestic deliveries, special cases), the receipt is manually booked in the Host, using the accompanying invoice or delivery note. The data transfer to LFS 400 for putaway is done automatically.

Putaway
Each putaway is prepared by a member of staff who scans in all goods receipt numbers within a delivered consignment (normally a container). The system then allocates a consignment number and creates a consignment list showing all items by receipt number, item number and lot.

A marker on each box shows if the box contains only one type of item or is mixed. This helps the warehouse personnel to process them further.

Boxes of one type of item have to be placed on a pallet before putaway. For this, the LFS 400 system ensures that the goods are not mixed and that a pallet is formed separately for each receipt number, item and lot. Further processing is described in pallet warehouse section.

Mixed boxes are identified by entering or scanning the box number and matching this with the data record box code. They are then displayed on the terminal. These mixed pallets are collected in a separate pallet. When the pallet is full, it is taken to a processing area for goods receipts. There, one of each mixed box is processed further on a static screen. Further processing is described in shelving storage section.

Pallet warehouse
Every empty pallet to be used, receives a load unit number, which is printed in advance and serially on an adhesive label. The boxes are taken out of the container and the box numbers entered manually or scanned into the RF terminal. If the item behind the box number is identified as a new entry, the system requires the warehouse associate to allocate a new loading unit number (Pallet). He then places the box on the pallet showing the new load unit number and registers this action by scanning in the load unit number. The LFS 400 ensures that only items with the same goods receiving number and lot are putaway on the same pallet. When the pallet is full, which is indicated by a button on the RF Terminal, the pallet is now ready for putaway and can be collected by the fork lift driver for putaway.

He then drives up to the pallet and reads the load unit number. Then the system displays the item number, the item description and the quantity on the vehicle-mounted RF screen. The fork lift driver confirms this display and reads, in the following screen, the stock location and bin proposed by the system for putaway. He takes the pallet and puts it down at the end of the respective rack. He confirms this by scanning a bar code at the end of the rack.

Shelving storage
The warehouse associate scans in the consignment number, which is on the consignment list and enters the box number. Then, all positions in the box are displayed. The positions are sorted by item number. The warehouse associate takes an item from the box and selects the corresponding same item number on his screen. Then a putaway transfer is created for the manual shelving storage. For this, a barcoded receipt note is printed, and attached to the item to be putaway.

If the box contains lot or best before date mandatory items, the data must be substantiated for the items by an associate. The system displays this situation. With positions where the best before date or lot is missing, the item number is displayed in red and the associate must add the missing information either manually or by scanner. Putaway into shelving storage also takes place by RF terminal and by registering the bin location.

Picking
The picking of an order can take place in up to three different warehouse locations:

  • 1. Manual warehouse locations such as pallet and shelving storage
  • 2. Automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS) for small parts
  • 3. Print on Demand

Warehouse area 1:
The picker selects an order on the RF terminal to be processed and is required to allocate a container number (label) to the picking order. These container numbers are created beforehand in label form and bear a serial, barcoded number. The label is attached to the picking container and scanned. The picking order is then "married" with the container. The picker is then guided to the first location from where an item must be removed. By scanning in the bin barcode, the picker confirms he is in the right bin location. Only then does he receive a following display containing item number, description and quantity to be removed. The picker removes the displayed quantity, places it in the stock keeping unit (SKU) and confirms this by pressing Enter.

After this, the system displays the quantity which after the pick, should, according to the system, remain in the bin location. As possible, the picker compares this with the physical quantity in the bin. If a discrepancy is found, the picker enters the actual quantity in the RF terminal and creates an information note for the warehouse management.

The picker is then guided to the next bin loccation and the process begins again. When all positions of the selected order have been removed, the system displays the destination. This is normally a packing location.

Warehouse area 2:
The picker signs himself on to a picking location at the ASRS storage. Using a parameter, he informs the system how many orders he wants to process in his work location at any one time (maximum 6 orders, this value can be reduced or increased during the job). After this, the LFS 400 allocates, in accordance with the order priorities, the selected number of orders to this picking location.

Each in turn, all SKUs required are automatically transferred from the automatic small parts warehouse to this picking location. When the first SKU is available, the picker scans its barcode. As a result, the system displays every location from which items are to be removed for an order and in which picking container they should be placed. Furthermore, the item number, description and quantity to be removed are shown.

From the second picking position, the number of the picking container in which the goods are to be placed also appears on the screen. When the first item is removed, the system requires the allocation of a picking container. For this, the member of staff scans the barcode of an empty picking container.
Moreover, as an SKU currently can be divided up into up to 8 segments, each segment from which goods are to be removed appears in colour or graphically on the screen. After the required quantity is removed, it is placed in the allocated picking container. This removal is confirmed by scanning the barcode on the picking container. Once all removals have been carried out, the SKU is transported by conveyor back to the ASRS storage.

When an order is fully picked, the member of staff receives the respective notification on his screen, and the picking container is taken to packing. As long as orders are available in the system, new orders will automatically be allocated to the picking container.

Warehouse area 3:
Operation manuals must be stored for ca. 600 items in 16 languages with up to 80 pages. To avoid having to keep high physical inventory, a separate "imaginary" stock location, POD (Print on Demand) was created. For all manuals to be printed, an individual item number, as well as imaginary inventory is established in the POD stock location. Moreover, operational manuals are regular positions within an order.

To remove stock from the imaginary stock location "POD", i.e. for POD print orders, the LFS 400 creates picking lists. The picker at the POD machine selects on his screen a certain number of picking lists for stock location "POD" and prints it out. The picking list displays all manuals required for an order. After entering the item number and quantity, the printout begins in the POD machine. When the manuals have been produced, they are forwarded to the packing area to be packed. A future plan is to link the POD machine to the LFS 400, to transfer the print orders electronically.

Packing locations
After the goods have been transported to the packing location, the packer scans in the barcode of the shipping box and enters the packing location dialogue. The packer has, on his screen, direct access to all positions in the picking container. Using the packing dialogue, the packer forms one or more packages at the packing location. When a package is complete, the weight is automatically calculated using a data interface between the scales and the LFS 400. Then the required shipping label is printed, according to the shipping means already selected.

The shipping labels generated by the LFS 400 are made to correspond to the specifications of the respective parcel service or logistic service provider. Once the final package is formed for an order, the delivery note is printed automatically.

Shipping consolidation area
In the shipping consolidation area, all packages are stored temporarily until delivery. This is necessary, since unlimited packages and a large number of pick jobs from different warehouse areas, could have been created for one delivery order.

The warehouse associate in the consolidation department scans in the shipping label for the package and receives on his RF terminal the intended consolidation area. There are consolidation areas for export, inland and parcel services. Once the parcel has been placed in a bin location in a consolidation area, the associate scans the bar code of the bin location. This concludes the transfer of the package into the consolidation area.

Picking from the consolidation area takes place close to the intended loading time. If, for example, all consignments are to be prepared for a certain parcel service, the management generates a floor-ready order using the menu function "Disposition for shipping". This removal order appears by position on the RF terminal. The warehouse associate scans in the barcode of the intended bin location and takes the package out of the consolidation rack.

The scanned and removed packages are entered in a delivery list for the respective parcel service. In future, we plan to provide this data to all logistic service providers and parcel services in the form of consignment notes.

Implemented LFS 400 modules

  • Basis module
  • Label printing
  • Replenishment level
  • Zero level control stocktaking
  • Quality control
  • Work packages
  • Forklift management system
  • Statistics
  • Interfaces to external systems
  • Drop location
  • Packing location handling
  • Interface to ASRS

Contact person

Telephone: (+49) 67 42 / 87 27 0

info@ehrhardt-partner.com