Volkswagen - Spare Parts Division
Volkswagen - Spare Parts Division
Spare Parts Division cuts Costs and improves Efficiency with Wireless Stock Management System
"The new data transfer solution has increased our productivity tremendously. The enormously time-consuming and costly process of reporting back to the central system has been eliminated. The system is now far more accurate, efficient and, crucially, flexible." – Stefan Boshold, Chief Operator at the Kassel-Baunatal, Original Parts Center, Volkswagen
The Challenge:
- Volkswagen's Original Parts Center (OTC) in Kassel-Baunatal is at the center of its spare parts division – the OTC prepares and dispatches 45,000 orders every day to locations across the globe. It has 130,000 square meters of floor space, storing 60,000 of the most commonly needed spare parts.
- Better inventory management in the spare parts department was key to the operational efficiency Volkswagen wished to achieve.
- The company wanted a system that could track the real-time progress of every order through the various divisions of the OTC, and one that was compatible with, and could report back to its central SAP® R/3® management system in Wolfsburg.
The Solution:
- The physical size of the OTC setup meant that cabling the entire site would be massively impractical and enormously expensive. Instead, Volkswagen chose Psion to implement a wireless solution. The result is a system, based upon radio frequency technology, that incorporated handheld and vehicle mount terminals at the user level, and TekRF middleware at the management level.
- Over 800 handheld and vehicle mount terminals are now in use at the OTC in Kassel-Baunatal - recording, tracking and handling more than 900 tons of spare parts every day.
- All terminals, both handheld and vehicle mount are designed with functionality and ruggedness firmly in mind. Since the terminals are to be used in an environment where heavy-duty equipment is in constant use, rugged construction is vital.
- All the information gathered during the warehouse processes is fed back to the management system via the TekRF middleware to update the stock data, and order more parts as necessary. If there is not sufficient stock at the site, the staff member can communicate this directly to the SAP® system.
- The technology implemented by Psion has created a fully integrated, real-time, electronic stock management system.
The Benefits:
- Volkswagen now benefits from a stock management system that is fully transparent at all levels. As the data is in real time, every link in the network has access to the same, up-to-the-second information and decisions can be made accordingly. As such, actions that once involved lengthy checking procedures can now be completed immediately and, since the system is fully integrated into the SAP® management set up, with a full record of each procedure.
- This framework lends Volkswagen far greater flexibility in the way it works. Urgent orders can be prioritized, without the need to go through needless administrative bureaucracy and heavy items are automatically allocated special transportation containers when being loaded.
- The benefits are twofold: a reduction of the overall operating cost and greater all round speed and efficiency - which in turn benefits the customer enhancing Volkswagen's good name and reputation. Stefan Boshold certainly sees the benefits of the Psion design: "Our systems are in use around the clock, so naturally ruggedness is a major issue for us. The equipment supplied by Psion not only fulfils this requirement but, with self-explanatory displays and menus, it is also easy to use. It has been a big hit with our employees."
- Volkswagen has already begun implementing plans for further technological expansion, with Psion as a firmly established partner. The Volkswagen logistical team's immediate goal is to integrate the newly opened Original Teile Center 2 (OTC2) into the distribution center, and plans are also in the pipeline for OTC3 and OTC4, also in Kassel-Baunatal.
- For Stefan Boshold, the new system has been a huge success, and the future looks bright: "The wireless radio technology has proved enormously successful. Having a real-time connection has saved time and money, and the accuracy of inventories and transaction histories has been improved dramatically."
