SAP logistics ex yard

Georgsmarienhütte, with its production site near Osnabrück, wanted to make the entire yard logistics at the production site more efficient while meeting all shipping requirements.

In addition, efficient control of the shipping processes was difficult. The steel products are shipped to the customer by truck or rail. A high volume of trucks is needed to handle shipments.

Approximately 100 shipping trucks are handled daily. The total volume of trucks at the plant is between 300 and 350 vehicles per day, although processing is not evenly distributed throughout the day. For example, there is a classic peak at lunchtime. The loading points are then highly frequented and long truck backups form.

Loading onto the railroad, on the other hand, takes place mainly at night. Exchange trailers are preloaded during the night, which are then made available for trailer exchange at a designated area.

Georgsmarienhütte previously had to control the shipping processes mainly manually, from planning the shipping quantities through the operational yard processes to leaving the plant premises. In addition, scales and hand scanners were included in the overall process but were not technically integrated.

Efficient yard logistics

The aim of the project was to establish a modern handling of truck shipping processes based on SAP technology, in the form of a yard management system. However, it very quickly became apparent during the planning phase that a holistic process approach across all modes of transport made more sense.

For this reason, the logistics processes in rail and trailer handling were also taken into account. Due to the resulting possibility of handling the shipping processes via all relevant modes of transport and the resulting process depth, the company decided to expand the project scope accordingly. The aim was to make the entire yard logistics more efficient and fit for the future.

The steel company wanted to better coordinate freight yard movements with incoming and outgoing steel products and deliveries, enable communication between all parties involved in the supply chain, control shipping processes in the short term and plan them for the long term, smooth daily truck volumes, reduce throughput and idle times, and find optimal times for loading and unloading, thus avoiding waiting times.

In order to achieve these improvements, it was first necessary to integrate the forwarders and rail transport companies into the planning process and to harmonize and consolidate the existing handling processes. The new yard management system also had to be integrable into the company's own SAP ERP system.

Map processes individually

Georgsmarienhütte opted for the Leogistics Yard Suite - a solution based on SAP technology for controlling and optimizing logistics processes within and across plants and sites.

With the help of this modern yard control system, the required process requirements of Georgsmarienhütte are met. The process-independent architecture of the Yard Suite enables future logistics process requirements to be implemented flexibly in line with the principle that "IT follows business processes".

Only in this way can yard processes be mapped according to a company's individual process requirements without the regimentation of IT systems.

In addition to the IT implementation, the main focus was on harmonizing and standardizing the logistics processes that are now mapped in Yard Suite. For the introduction of the solution, existing processes had to be revised and adapted to meet current and future requirements.

This included processes such as truck dispatch and the associated special processes of raw block dispatch, truck delivery, truck trailer delivery, truck trailer exchange, truck trailer acceptance, rail dispatch, small delivery traffic, permanent vehicle, external weighing (single and double), and loading ramp control. The latter was achieved by assigning time windows to optimize the outbound & inbound control.

This was done taking into account existing infrastructures, such as automated barrier systems, external loading scanners and shipping terminals, which were connected to the yard management solution.

The yard management solution was introduced in cooperation with GMH System and Leogistics, a subsidiary of Heidelberg-based cbs Corporate Business Solutions.

Yards can be easily defined, customized and also displayed graphically. This enables direct insight into occupancy and capacity utilization. The visualization of a complete plant including all loading points is also possible.

This provides an overview of all loading and unloading processes. The desire for real-time tracking & tracing is also fulfilled and creates operational traceability in the logistics process.

The solution can be used fully integrated in various SAP systems. For Georgsmarienhütte's reporting, the Leogistics Yard Suite now provides analyzable data that - due to the integration into the company's own SAP ERP system - is extracted from SAP BW.

The resulting transparency of the yard logistics now allows a much better overview of the points in the processes that may need to be readjusted.

The consultants and developers from Leogistics were entrusted with the implementation of the new yard management system, accompanied the tests and put it into operation. The scope of services also included training of the IT specialists from GMH Systems so that they can independently manage support and developments of the Leogistics yard management system in the future. The first phase of the project was successfully completed in April 2015 with the commissioning of the new yard management system.

Georgsmarienhütte

Georgsmarienhütte is a supplier of bar steel, semi-finished products and bright steel made of carbon steel and engineering steel and generates 80 percent of its sales with the automotive industry.

Steel from Georgsmarienhütte is used wherever safety plays a role: Customers of the electric steel mill manufacture crankshafts, connecting rods, camshafts, drive shafts, transmission parts and chassis parts, among other things.

Georgsmarienhütte produced around 678,000 tons of rolled steel in the 2014 financial year, generating sales of 610 million euros.

Leogistics

The subsidiary of cbs Corporate Business Solutions is part of the Materna Group. As an SAP logistics partner and solution provider, the company specializes in the area of SAP supply chain management with the core topics of transportation management, event management and warehouse management.

In addition to logistics business process and application consulting, Leogistics as an IT solution provider offers the further development and integration of complementary logistics solutions developed on SAP technology in the areas of SAP Transportation and Warehouse Management, Event Management, RFID and Planning.

As a certified SAP Service Partner, SAP Special Expertise Partner SCM and SAP Value Added Reseller, Leogistics provides customers with comprehensive support along the supply chain. These include well-known companies from the high-tech, consumer products/food, automotive, pharmaceuticals and logistics service provider sectors.