Mobile SAP Fiori Apps at Coca-Cola

Industry:
Beverage Industry, Production and Bottling

Key Technologies:
SAP ERP, FlexMobile Fiori Apps, TheFlex Mobile Browser

Areas of Application:
Goods Receiving, Inventory, Production Preparation, Batch Tracking

Key Features:
Scanner-based postings directly into SAP, FeFo principle, automated batch tracking, paperless inventory counts, and intuitive operation via mobile Fiori apps

A CV for every bottle

Coca-Cola European Partners Deutschland GmbH uses the mobile SAP Fiori apps from Flexus AG at 13 German production sites to ensure end-to-end batch tracking, error-free production and simplified inventories.

Classic, Zero Sugar, Light Taste or Energy: The world-famous soft drink Coca-Cola is now available in various variants and flavors, which are marketed on all continents. To ensure the supply of the more than 80 Coca-Cola products available in Germany, there are 16 production plants in this country alone. In addition to Coke, brands such as Vio, Mezzomix and Fanta, which are also part of the Coca-Cola beverage family, also come off the production line there.

Two companies are behind Coca-Cola Germany: Coca-Cola GmbH is responsible for brand management as well as product and packaging development, while Coca-Cola European Partners Deutschland GmbH (CCEP DE) is responsible for production and bottling, as well as sales and distribution. Headquartered in Berlin, CCEP DE is Germany’s largest beverage company. As the sole licensee of Coca-Cola GmbH, it is responsible for the bottling and distribution of Coca-Cola brand products in Germany. CCEP DE supplies approximately 325,000 retail and foodservice customers through an extensive production and distribution network. The more than 80 Coca-Cola products available in Germany are bottled locally at 16 production facilities.

VIDEO Success Story

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Mobile SAP PP Apps for Efficient Intralogistics at Coca-Cola European Partners Deutschland GmbH

Coca-Cola European Partners Deutschland GmbH (CCEP DE) is responsible for the production of Coca-Cola bev- erages in Germany. CCEP DE is the largest German beverage company and supplies around 325,000 retail and food service customers through an extensive production and distribution network. Due to the large variety of beverages and with the large number of retail and catering customers, the requirements at the various production sites are set enormously high. For example, it must be ensured throughout that the ingredients of the various sodas are mixed correctly. In addition, it must also be possible to track each individual bottle or can seamlessly and batch-based at the push of a button – and all this with a total volume of 3.8 billion liters of beverages per year.

“The mobile apps were very well received because they made work much easier in the areas of inventory, production preparation, and batch tracking.”
Stefan Blume,
Project Engineer,
Maintenance / Manufacturing Supply Chain, CCEP DE

220 trucks per day

Last but not least, country-specific recipes also create additional variants and greater complexity in production – and are a cause for an increased risk of errors.
“We mainly work with pre-made concentrates, but given the 17-digit item identification number, there used to be occasional confusion when mixing the individual ingredients,” Chilla recalls.

At the Dorsten site, PET non-refillable deposit bottles and cans are filled in three shifts. Up to 162,000 liters of beverages are produced here per hour on a syrup basis. This volume is transported away daily by over 220 trucks. In the syrup room, the ingredients of the lemonades are prepared in the precisely prescribed mixing ratio before the batch is produced in large tanks. “Even the slightest deviation from the recipe would be noticed immediately as part of our quality management,” emphasizes Tobias Chilla, who as team leader is responsible for the processes in the syrup room.
“However, we wanted to exclude these errors from the outset, especially since the concentrates are quite expensive,” adds Stefan Blume, who works at CCEP DE as a maintenance and production engineer.

Conclusive answers

Against this backdrop, CCEP DE sought a solution that would provide technical support to production staff and help prevent errors. And that’s not all: “We wanted a scanner-based system that would allow us to record ingredient withdrawals directly in SAP, simplify inventory management, and at the same time ensure batch traceability
,” explains Blume. In the next step, the solution will also be used to control the feeding of labels, lids, and containers to the more than 40 filling lines. The IT project, known as “Manufacturing Mobile”
, aims to introduce a standardized mobile SAP solution across all locations and began with the search for the right provider. Among the selection criteria was, for example, the size of the provider’s workforce, as the desired IT partner needed to be able to support CCEP at all of its German locations.

In addition, the company was expected to have in-depth knowledge of SAP Fiori, offer good value for money, and provide a smart portfolio of solutions. “After conducting our own research and visiting several trade shows, we decided on Flexus AG and its in-house developed SAP Fiori
apps,” says Blume, who is very satisfied with the project’s progress and the collaboration. “Costs and timelines were strictly adhered to, and we always receive competent and coherent answers to our technical questions.”

Quickly amortized

Flexus’ portfolio of SAP mobile apps already included many of the functionalities required by CCEP DE. For time and cost reasons, the company wanted to be as close to the standard as possible, so some of its own processes were adapted to the mobile apps – such as the monthly inventory. Previously, lists were printed out for the weekend inven- tories, in which the stocks were entered manually and then recorded in SAP. In case of differences, a second count was performed. In total, this process took 4.5 hours. “With the SAP Fiori Apps of Flexus, we manage the inventories in 30 minutes, which is easily feasible even on normal working days,” emphasizes Blume.

In addition to greater production reliability, this monthly time savings is another positive benefit of the solution. As part of the project, employees were equipped with compact Honeywell warehouse scanners featuring TheFlex, the DEM Mobile Browser for SAP, which—thanks to SAP Fiori—are easy to use via a graphical interface in CCEP DE’s corporate design. “Employees see only the information they actually need for the respective process,” explains Blume. To conduct an inventory count, they simply select the corresponding tile (transaction). The employee is then guided step-by-step through the inventory process, during which they only need to scan the barcodes and record the quantities.

The documents are generated, managed and assigned without paper. Inventory preparation, execution and control is therefore much more efficient and transparent – and errors are avoided.

Mobile device with Flexus solution at Coca-Cola

Flawless process

Another project goal for CCEP DE was to simplify batch tracking, which is why the SAP Fiori apps are already being used in the goods receiving area. Here, all ingredients and replacement parts are recorded in SAP. Primary packaging such as lids, cans, bottles, and labels are scheduled to be included in the next phase of the project. By scanning the barcodes affixed to the pallets, the system automatically determines whether the relevant batch exists in SAP. If it does not, the batch is created. It is important that the solution can process the suppliers’ barcodes, which contain all data regarding the product, best-by date, and batch.

For the subsequent production process, items are retrieved from the warehouse according to the FIFO (First In, First Out) principle and scanned by the employee as they are removed. If the wrong product is scanned, the mobile Flexus apps trigger an alert. This principle is also applied in the syrup room to ensure that only the correct ingredients are mixed. “We have an error-free process that completely eliminates the possibility of mix-ups,” Blume notes.

Enormous relief

By scanning all product components, it is now possible to trace the individual batches for every bottle on the retailer’s shelf at the push of a button. “Thanks to the mobile apps, all data is consolidated in one central location in SAP, which makes it much easier for us to track individual batches later on
,” explains Blume.

This process used to be largely manual and paper-based, and it took up a lot of work time during regular audits. No wonder the mobile scanner solution was quickly embraced by employees: “Thanks to the enormous reduction in workload in the areas of inventory, production preparation, and batch tracking, the mobile apps were very well received,” confirms Blume, who, along with his team, has already equipped 13 of the 16 German locations with the Flexus solution.

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