Barcode Sat Nav for picking fast as lightning
The Swedish wholesaler Drivabolagen is expanding. In order to continue to offer the best customary delivery service to their numerous customers, they had to upgrade their logistics system. Thanks to the collaboration of two German AutoID companies, PANMOBIL and Sydesoft, a fusion of robust barcode scanners and a logistics app for tablets was developed. With it, order pickers are guided through the warehouse, just like a car navigation device, so they can assemble all orders quickly.
Reliable replenishment as a goal
Hairbrushes, children's toys, balloons: the assortment of products in department stores would be much clearer without Drivabolagen. The Swedish wholesaler regularly supplies its customers with everyday goods. In order to ensure that sufficient goods are always available on the rack, the order pickers in the central storage units must react flexibly and quickly to incoming requirements. A perfect storage management is absolutely necessary for this.
"Process developers Sydesoft and PANMOBIL with their robust bar code scanners play a decisive role in the project", Drivabolagen Managing Director Pontus Plantman reports. "They understand our situation and are the ideal sparring partner for our further development.”
Professional "Picking" with tablet and barcode scanner
For the success of the project, 15 barcode scanners of the series "powerlineECCO +" are in use, as well as the same amount of tablets. It’s administration and control is handled by Sydesoft's specially developed logistics app "MobileStock". The app communicates with the ERP system of Drivabolagen via Wifi via an SQL database interface, which means that it always has access to the entire inventory. If an order is placed in the central warehouse, the app automatically generates a list of the items for the consignor from the responsible picker and simultaneously displays the most efficient and fastest way to the goods in the warehouse.
With this list and route map, the employee goes through the shelves and orders (picks) all necessary articles. The tablet shows clearly where each article is located. Each time the employee arrives at the appropriate storage location, he scans the 1D barcode of the item to be packaged with the scanner and confirms the quantity picked out by the large center button. The scanner and tablet communicate via Bluetooth. By reading the barcode, the order picker can be sure that he is also taking the right item out of the shelf - the app immediately reports. After that, the tablet synchronizes all the information with the ERP system and the employee only needs to stow all the products in the shipping box.
Multifunction app for numerous logistic requirements
"At first, we wanted to use a tablet with an integrated scanner," remembers Sydesoft CEO Walter Seibel. "These tablets were either too expensive or not robust enough. In addition, most scanners had a poor reading range. We do not have these problems with the PANMOBIL scanners. Thanks to their interfaces and the easy programmability, they were quickly implemented in our Android app. "
With the logistics app in connection with the scanner, not only the picking at Drivabolagen was improved. In the case of inventories, by scanning an article and entering the counted quantity, all articles in the warehouse are directly inventoried and stored in the database of the ERP system. An employee can also "move" an article in the warehouse via a scanner by first scanning the respective article and subsequently the warehouse from which the article comes and in which the article is to be relocated. In addition, the scanner can directly check whether an article is still in the warehouse where a storage location is correspondingly empty, which also significantly increases the product overview.
For the Swedish wholesaler Drivabolagen the solution of the two German AutoID experts led to a significant increase in their productivity. Even after the expansion, he was able not only to keep the fast delivery times that were customary by customers but also to improve them. After the success of this project, the barcode Sat Nav will now also be introduced in its other Swedish warehouses.
Would you like to find out more about the mobile barcode / RFID scanner "powerlineECCO"? Download the datasheet today:
