SattStore was selected to control the warehouse operations where traceability and EAN-128 handling are central concepts. After successful installation in the Norwegian warehouse, the system was migrated to the operations in Sweden (Bjuv) and Finland (Turku).
Ragnar Åsly, responsible for Nestlé’s warehouse operations in Norway and project manager for the Brummundal project says: “The reason for installing a WMS-systems was primarily to enhance stock accuracy and support EAN-128 handling. As a bonus, the efficiency of the warehouse has increased with 16% in spite of the additional tasks of handling EAN labels”.
Important functions
The Nestlé policy is to handle palletized goods as far as possible. The goal is that all pallets should be marked with EAN-128 labels on arrival, but as not all suppliers are able to conform to that demand, labeling may be performed in Brumunddal if necessary.
Input
On arrival, the operator enters reference information (purchase order or customs verification number) and a reason code for the input. Then, the EAN-128 labels containing all necessary information like product identity (EAN-13), best-before-date, lot-code and quantity are scanned, creating put-away assignments for the fork lift trucks.
On pick-up, the FLT driver verifies the SSCC-number, drives to the selected location and verifies the transport with entering the check-digit of the putaway location.
Output
On output, EAN-128 Transport Labels are printed and added to the dispatched standard loads already having an EAN-128 load label. Picked goods is marked with a Transport Label where an internally created SSCC number is included.
Communication with SAP/R3
Customer orders are sent, to a very high degree via EDI, to the SAP/R3 ERP system at the Nestlé headquarters in Oslo where they are approved and conveyed to the SattStore system. Detailed information, on incoming goods as well as on all dispatched pallets, is reported online to the SAP system on completion of the warehouse operations.
Quarantine SattStore contains functionality for selected received goods into a quarantine state from which it is not possible to ship goods. The QC-laboratory has a remote connection to the system enabling them to release tested goods online.
Other functions in the WMS system
Multiple Transport
The standard height of baby-food pallets is set to 60 cm (in order to optimise full pallet handling and tracing). As the standard height of the locations in the warehouse is 120 cm, those pallets are as far as possible combined in pairs for transportation and storing.
Pick verification
There is a verification procedure to scan all products on dispatched pallets and by crosschecking the result against the system details on the pallet creating a very high degree of delivery security.
Read more at www.nestle.com
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