in-plant logistics

Modern lean production systems require fast, stable and efficient logistics processes to guarantee just-in-time deliveries of materials to production. For this, a new logistics concept for a plant of the Brose group was developed, which consists of an automatic small parts storage system and an in-plant milk run system. One major challenge was the synchronization of the storage system and the milk run systems in a way that both systems are operated with even utilization and that no obstructions occur between milk run trains. To this end, a timetable was implemented which determines departure times of each milk run train at the warehouse. The timetable takes into account breaks, shift changes and other relevant restrictions. The generation and monitoring of the schedules was implemented entirely in SAP EWM.

Increasingly enterprises are hoping for a decline of marginal unit costs by turning away from in-house logistics. Free competition among contract logistics services is believed to open up new optimisation potentials. At the same time, performance related accounting models permit to transform the formerly fixed logistics costs into variable costs. However, because of the complexity and the customer-specific character of supply chain processes there is no standard method for the rating and selection of suitable service partners. The main problem is to provide information for a detailed description of the expected performance spectrum and thus to enable performance related contract positions. The method of „quantity and product related logistics costs” permits an exact quantification for multi stage products before placing a service order. It is a contribution to cope with the challenges described above.