Mega Center - the Fiege Group, based in Greven, Westphalia, has this proud designation for its 30 most important logistics centers. The Group operates a total of three million square meters of warehouse and logistics space worldwide, of which a good 1.8 million square meters are in Germany with around 7,200 employees. "Our logistics solutions in the core sectors of fashion, healthcare, industrial Fiege, consumer goods, tires, media and online retail range from engineering to logistics management across the entire spectrum of logistics services", explains Leif Lienhard, Fiege's Head of IT Applications. Accordingly, the 30 multi-client capable Mega Centers are each focused on one of the core industries. Example: the Mega Center in Burgwedel, Lower Saxony, one of Fiege's newest warehouse locations.

Up to 80,000 items shipped per day
The 50,000 square meter Mega Center is set up as a goods distribution warehouse for customers from the fashion industry and online retail. Up to 80,000 items, such as hanging and flat-packed goods, small items, shoes and accessories from the Mango fashion brand, are dispatched from the logistics center, which has well over 250,000 storage spaces and is designed as a multi-level warehouse. Storage in the various product segments is chaotic and box-based. "This requires intelligent logics from PSIwms to determine the topology and allocate the storage locations as well as for batch formation and route optimization during picking", explains Simon Fischer, Fiege Project Manager WMS. "Each item is stored in a separate compartment. Because of this small-scale storage, the Mega Center is designed as an area warehouse. We need many storage locations that can be quickly adapted to changes in collections and article ranges."

Specific requirements covered
For order picking with mobile data terminals (MDT), the order data is transferred from the Mango host system to PSIwms via the Fiege EDI platform. The warehouse management system generates the route-optimized picking processes and transfers the orders to the MDTs. PSIwms takes into account and structures nine different order types and controls their optimal sequence. "In both the B2B and B2C segments, in addition to returns processing, these are complex processes for which we are supported by high-performance software with the PSIwms warehouse management system from the PSI Logistics Suite," says IT department manager Lienhard. The systemic intelligence can be seen, among other things, in the simplified reservation of article quotas and order production with batch formation, two-stage picking and consolidation. "Together with PSI Logistics, we have developed intelligent dialogues for maximum performance in order picking and consolidation," summarizes Fischer.

Moreover, Fiege can configure the software largely under its own control. "In this way, it can be flexibly designed for the individual processes required by our customers and, as a third-party logistics provider, we can offer them a comprehensive range of services tailored precisely to their requirements", says Lienhard. "We offer online retailers an all-round package for everything that needs to be done after the click. It's an advantage if the IT can be conveniently tailored."

With its innovative click design, PSIwms ensures simplified process design with a transparent overview of stocks and the respective order processing status. PSIwms is also multi-client capable, which allows Fiege to manage several customers in one warehouse virtually separately. It is also multi-site capable - several locations can be managed in one installation and their processes can be coordinated in a concerted manner if required. "With the functional WMS modular system and the in-house configuration, we can precisely cover the specific requirements of the various business areas and provide the tailored functions and optimizations to other locations where PSIwms manages intralogistics," explains Lienhard.

Basis for solid growth
With the administration and process control in the multi-client logistics centers in Burgwedel, Erfurt and Worms, ten percent of the Fiege Mega Centers are already managed with PSIwms - the takeover in other Mega Centers is currently being examined. In Erfurt, PSIwms manages the B2C order fulfillment from more than 80,000 storage locations for well-known Fiege customers from the e-commerce segment such as Amorelie, onquality Germany and eBay-Powerseller, in addition to warehouse management. In Worms, Fiege's Consumer Goods business unit operates a Mega Center where untaxed imported goods are also stored. "A huge challenge for the IT backbone," explains the IT department manager. "A consumption function must be integrated into the warehouse management system that separates the stocks into duty-paid and duty-unpaid goods and takes the effects into account in order picking." Together with the IT department at Fiege, the system developers at PSI Logistics have incorporated the corresponding functionalities for the consumption/tax model into PSIwms.

Various warehouses, warehouse and order production processes, different customers, differentiated performance and service offerings - with PSIwms, the Fiege Group covers a wide range of requirements and offers its customers individually tailored solutions that are mapped with a uniform IT system standard. "With its wide range of functions, customizing options and convenient self-configuration, PSIwms offers us maximum flexibility and supports the efficiency of our intralogistics with intelligent process control," summarizes Fiege IT department head Lienhard. "This means we are ideally equipped for the rapidly growing number of clients and the processing of an increasing, ever faster changing range of articles. At the same time, PSIwms opens up further optimization options in the processes. A solid basis for further growth."