Mobile operator relies on SAP add-on

With around 570 stores operated under the main Mobilcom-Debitel brand and 43 stores operating under the premium brand Gravis, as well as around 5,600 other stationary sales outlets in specialist shops and 400 large electronics stores, Freenet Group is represented throughout Germany in local retail.

Without a powerful IT infrastructure including lean, integrated logistics processes, such a task is almost impossible to accomplish. Above all, it must be operated economically and be flexibly scalable in order to keep pace with the Group's growth.

"When we took over Gravis Computervertriebsgesellschaft at the beginning of 2013, it quickly became clear that we could no longer adequately map the associated article variance and the associated quantity structure with our previous warehouse capacities and our SAP system alone"

explains Sven Meißner, Head of Department at the Oberkrämer logistics center.

"We then looked for a special mobile solution that would enable us to optimize our internal warehouse management and integrate it into our SAP system with minimal effort."

After all, the employees were faced with the task of managing the increased variety of items in the logistics centers transparently and, above all, efficiently. Since then, the portfolio has also included laptops, tablet PCs and associated finishing components.

As of today, Gravis is one of the largest independent and authorized retailers of Apple products in Germany with 43 stores.

Following a selection process, the Walldorf-based SAP software solution partner Mobisys was awarded the contract. The SAP add-on MSB Client makes it possible to visualize success and error messages individually and display them on the handhelds in use. The probability of a warehouse employee simply overlooking such a message is therefore close to zero.

"In view of the fact that we wanted to reduce the sources of error in our logistics as part of our ISO 9001 certification, we particularly liked the handling of the MSB Client in this respect"

says Martin Schröter, Team Leader Office at Mobilcom-Debitel.

In addition, the client can be scaled fully automatically, which means that time-consuming zooming in on details or information can be avoided.

The introduction of the MSB Client started at the Oberkrämer logistics center in Brandenburg, from where only business customers (B2B) are supplied. As a first step, the project team set up a workshop to record the target situation, during which a specification sheet was drawn up in consultation with the specialist department.

The specifications were then implemented with the support of Mobisys consultants during a workshop lasting several days. After the workshop, Mobilcom-Debitel's IT department was able to carry out all the necessary project steps independently and successfully complete the project.

"Thanks to intensive testing before the launch, commissioning went completely smoothly"

reports Martin Schröter.

The internal development team was able to make minor adjustments that only became apparent during operation.

The company used the MSB Developer development platform to continuously optimize the solution during operation. Following the successful project launch, the experts also rolled out the MSB Client at the logistics site in Büdelsdorf. From there, the mobile operator primarily serves clients in the private customer sector (B2C).

Efficient warehousing through mobile processes

Since then, around 60 employees at two locations have been accessing the MSB Client via Datalogic and Psion handhelds and supplying both business and private customers reliably and quickly.

The mobile MSB Client economically maps important logistics processes and creates the necessary transparency and flexibility through the mobile processes, from the storage of goods to the transfer from storage bin to storage bin to the retrieval of goods and their delivery.

Before using the add-on, warehouse employees could only carry out stock queries at fixed workstations, print out pick lists and process them manually, and compare and confirm transport orders with the list only at stationary operators.

Inventories could also only be carried out using a laptop. The entire logistics process was digitalized and therefore optimized throughout. So-called groups can be formed from the orders, which are used to supply the company's own stores, specialist retailers or even private customers.

The pick list generated from this can now be called up and processed directly in the SAP system with little effort using the MSB Client. The person responsible can thus pick all the materials belonging to an order from the respective storage bin and enter them directly on site using the mobile client.

This automatically triggers replenishment in the SAP system, i.e. it quantifies exactly the goods that go from the high-bay warehouse to the picking zone and from there to the dispatch area.

Error rates and transparency

This means that even orders consisting of several goods receipt items can be picked and finally acknowledged without errors:

"The mobile solution has significantly simplified our logistics process. By integrating the control process, we were able to avoid potential sources of error and time-consuming reworking in advance and also save travel time, as the routes to the stationary operator workstation have been completely eliminated"

Martin Schröter explains the advantages of the MSB Client.

As the MSB Client can also be used offline, employees can easily use it in all warehouse areas, even where there is no WLAN coverage. The moment they come back within range of the wireless network, they can load new data, lists and information from the SAP system and send the items already entered back to the SAP system for processing in the background.

Next step Goods issue posting

Only the goods issue posting is currently still carried out via stationary PCs. However, the MSB Client will also support this process step in the near future. Mobilcom-Debitel also intends to seamlessly integrate the data transfer of serial numbers into its mobile process chain in the foreseeable future.

Telecommunications companies are legally obliged to keep the so-called IMEI number (International Mobile Station Equipment Identity) for every stored PC, laptop or smartphone and tablet PC. This is a 15-digit serial number that can be used to uniquely identify every GSM or UMTS terminal device worldwide.

"That's why we want to record and scan the IMEI numbers as well as our usual article numbers when posting outgoing goods via the MSB Client in future"

says Linda Behrens, Head of Department at the Büdelsdorf site.

"This allows us to print out the respective numbers on the invoice and the corresponding delivery bill when packing the goods without much effort."

All the internal development team has to do is convert the transaction template from the SAP material number to the EAN (European Article Number) used. In this way, the company kills two birds with one stone and maps both its goods and data flows in the mobile integration platform.

In this way, the company not only fulfills its obligation to provide evidence to the relevant authorities, but also consistently pursues its strategy of further reducing the complexity of its warehouse management in the next stage of the project.

Replenishment in SAP

Thanks to the digitalization of logistics processes and the associated process optimization, the acquisition costs at the B2B site in Oberkrämer paid for themselves in twelve months.

At the B2C site in Büdelsdorf, it took less than ten months thanks to the expertise built up. Today, employees record numerous material and warehouse movements directly on site using handheld devices that are wirelessly networked via WLAN.

Using the MSB Client, warehouse staff can reliably call up the total stock of stored materials, even if the company breaks down one and the same product into several goods receipt items and individual batches, thus taking into account its different sales channels (B2B, B2C, own stores).

By directly integrating the MSB mobile platform into the SAP system, the company was not only able to simplify its logistics processes, but also make them more transparent and therefore less error-prone.