Modern IT brings flexibility to the multi-channel warehouse

A tough price war, multi-channel with a growing proportion of e-commerce and a high returns rate, seasonal fluctuations and the omnipresent driver of digitalization are currently shaping logistics processes - especially for retail companies. At the same time, rapid technological developments in areas such as sensor technology, image capture and robotics are enabling completely new concepts for systems, material flows and internal transportation. Increasingly, new identification solutions, driverless transport systems (AGVs) and future technological developments need to be integrated into process optimization in order to exploit efficiency potential.

Up-to-date: the "adaptive order start"
Against this backdrop, the process-guiding warehouse management system (WMS) in logistics centers is of particular importance. Innovative and stable functional scopes are required as well as - in individual tailoring - maximum flexibility in terms of adaptability and integration capability. This applies to customizing and problem-free integration into the existing IT infrastructure as well as to the modular design of a WMS, which can be combined according to individual process requirements, and to its release and upgrade capability. With the available function modules, PSIwms from the PSI Logistics Suite, for example, already covers the central logistics processes in its standard version; with its release and upgrade capability, PSIwms, which has now won several awards, always remains at the cutting edge of technology. One example of this is the "Adaptive order start".

This optimization function uses powerful fuzzy logic that balances many warehouse key figures according to configurable parameters and controls the processes accordingly. The process changes are automated and carried out independently by PSIwms according to predefined parameters and threshold values. In order to improve performance in the warehouse, the adaptive order start, for example, automatically triggers order processing according to priority or workload or holds back the processing of orders. This ensures that the work areas are evenly utilized, taking into account all defined restrictions - from resource capacities to optimal energy consumption.

The example of the Hamburg-based shoe retailer Ludwig Görtz GmbH shows the changes in intralogistics of successful companies and the exposed importance of a future-proof WMW. The central warehouse has been located in Norderstedt, just outside the Hanseatic city, for around 50 years. More than 160 stores throughout Germany are supplied from there. A total of around 500 containers with more than 5.5 million pairs of shoes are handled each year.

Functionality and transparency of data with the WMS from PSI Logistics. © PSI Logistics

PSIwms has been supporting and managing the restructuring of the logistics center since 2009. Since then, PSIwms has functionally covered the various project phases of increasing process automation. Conveyor technology and sorters as well as the coordinated process control are addressed directly from PSIwms without a separate material flow computer. Picking is carried out in the various warehouse areas with the support of a pick-by-voice system and - in the high-bay warehouse - a forklift guidance system (SLS), which is part of the PSIwms functional scope.

Further efficiency gains noticeable
The preliminary conclusion of this development is marked by the alignment of Görtz's intralogistics with a direct connection of the online store to the intralogistics. PSIwms controls the efficient processes for operating all multi-channels. "After integrating the new conveyor technology and connecting the online store to PSIwms, further efficiency increases are clearly noticeable after the multi-channel processes have been taken over," summarizes Olaf Diekhoff, authorized signatory and Head of Supply Chain Management (SCM) at Görtz. "A quantum leap for our delivery quality."

PSIwms also ensures efficient logistics processes behind the web store at online optician Mister Spex (editor's note: see materialfluss 4/2018). In the logistics center, from where Mr. Spex serves more than two million online customers across Europe and a partner network with more than 550 local opticians in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands, PSIwms handles the warehouse management and production of B2B and B2C orders, coordinates on-time production supply - and manages the processing of an extremely high proportion of returns. This is because it is part of Mister Spex's business model to send customers up to four frames to try on for their decision. All four are sent back - usually with a decision and order for the production of at least one pair of glasses. PSIwms handles the receipt and forwarding to quality control and assigns the returns to the process steps of storage, repair, order checking, production and shipping. "With the upgrade and release capability of PSIwms, we also see ourselves optimally positioned for future developments in terms of volume growth, process optimization, technologies and system functions," sums up Javier Carvajal Vargas, Chief Operation Officer at Mister Spex.

The examples show: Economic success in online retail depends on the efficiency of logistics. Retailers in particular must focus their intralogistics on bundling and serving multiple channels in multi-channel warehouses. WMS such as PSIwms support the reorganization processes in every phase.