A small kiosk in the middle of Germany. It's 6 o'clock in the morning and the first customers buy sandwiches and today's newspaper. Also the first political magazines and sports news are in the shelves - just printed and up to date. During the night, all these different press products have been delivered by Schmitz press distribution from Duisburg to the kiosk. Schmitz job is to organise and grant for smooth delivery between publisher and shops.
Wilhelm Schmitz GmbH & Co. KG was established almost 100 years ago and is located in Duisburg, Bochum and Dortmund with around 270 employees. The company forwards all paper products, like the economical week and women's magazines like Vogue. Schmitz distribution is covering an area of more than 2700 km² with 2,9 Mil. inhabitant. There, over 4000 shops are supplied daily, on Sundays additionally 265 mobile paper shops. One of the major challenges for the employees of Schmitz is to coordinate and deliver the right quantity to the right place at the right time throughout the whole area.
Each step has to be planned exactly
Seven days a week about 5 million papers and magazines are packed for the customers on the twelve distribution directions. After they are prepared, all parcels in the commission department are weighted, labelled and via label and scanner automatically proofed on correctness. "Correct deliveries are our core priority.", so Otto Heuer, managing director W. Schmitz GmbH & Co. KG. Now the most challenging part of the distribution starts: The roll out of the right parcels under immense time pressure to the single points of sale. And the organisation goes on - the packed charges are loaded on trucks and then brought on their way on all roads of the Ruhr area. Still the traffic and human work can not be controlled by PC. To optimise and support this process Schmitz counts on delivery and touring with a mobile computer. Each parcel is tracked on its whole journey - from the end of commissioning, over the truck to the final drop at the shop. The whole flow of goods, right from the delivery up to the remission obtaining can be recognised immediately. Thanks to the mobile computer, no matter where the parcel is - outgoing, at the customer or in the remission - it can always be identified and corrected. The fully developed internal system at Schmitz has even been awarded with the „Golden Sales" price of PGTrack/Axel Springer AG. „We work very precisely in our logistic. That´s only possible because of the implementation of 100 percent reliable Hard- and Software." states Hendrik Schinnenburg, IT Manager, Schmitz.
Mobile computer - always on the tour
Over one hundred Memors™ grant highest standard in planning the tours. These mobile computers supply all relevant data for the route and the loaded goods, so that every information is available at any time on the road. Every night the ERP data about parcels are updated via WLAN Interface onto the mobile Memor™. So the driver receives an exact customer related parcel list, telling them their destinations and the right freight. „Therefore ASCII files are available on a special reserved network, which is compatible to the PC directory.", adds Sebastian Weides, Sales Manager, PS Computing GmbH. The mobile computers are adapted to a special route, but they can easily be swopped individual. According to the information of PS Computing it is possible to plan any numbers of tours, with any numbers of customers, thanks to the integrated Software „PGTrack". The Software offers an open interface to the ERP system. That´s why it is able to be implemented without any problems into different systems. Shown on the Memor™´s display, the driver starts loading the truck correspondingly and begins his tour. Thanks to its compact measures and its light weight, the Memor™ even suits in shirt pockets. The driver is able to have a look on the tour data whenever he likes. Of course there are also individual cases available to save the scanner and to assure smooth work. The bright coloured QVGA 65K display with touch screen enables comfortable reading feedback of tour data, also when the papers are delivered by night.
As soon as the driver reaches the customer, the goods are loaded into special boxes, which are labelled with a barcode. If the Memor™ drops on the floor whilst unloading, it still works properly thanks to protection class IP65.
Complete transparency for supplier and customer
By scanning the customer code and additionally the delivered parcels the driver immediately checks if the right parcels are at the right customer. In reverse the driver scans remission deliveries for the headquarter with the Memor™ and takes them with him. So no more huge paper piles of delivery and remission lists, which have been everyday life for suppliers. Further more, complete transparency over the whole flow of transport of each single parcel between distributor and shop is granted. Alternatively to the provided batteries, it is possible to use extra large batteries and commercial AAA-batteries, so that there will be no breakdown of the Memor™ even at long distance tours. Time and costs are saved thanks to many advantages of the work with the Memor™. The driver gets the planned route directly on his display and can deliver the goods to the shops right in-time. The shops can start selling to their accurate time. It´s a win-win situation!
Fast data transfer granted
At the end of each tour the data are transferred to the headquarter via WLAN. There the cradle of the Memor™ reads all data and saves them in the system. These important information are recorded in the ERP for further handling - new information can now be uploaded in the mobile device. Additional to the data transmission, also customer data and software data are transferred. PGTrack assures highly save and lossless working with sensitive data although wireless transmission. PS Computing GmbH is more than 20 years an active player on the market and provides the Memor™ to Schmitz. The company cultivates a close partnership with Datalogic Mobile and is the biggest distributer in Germany. So, no matter if soft- or hardware concerns, Schmitz can count on only one contact for all.
„PGTrack helps us saving and improving the quality of our services permanently", concludes Ludwig Jahn,Geschäftsführer, W. Schmitz GmbH & Co. KG the advantages of mobile data capture solutions.
Customer: Schmitz press distribution
Industry: Retail - Other
Application: Route accounting, Data management
Country: Germany
Datalogic Mobile Solution: Field Force Automation
Datalogic Mobile Products: Memor™
Datalogic Mobile Partner: PS Computing GmbH
