Heraeus: A Client Success Story - An SAP Project by FLEXUS

Industry:
Precious Metals and Technology Group, Industry & Manufacturing

Key Technologies:
SAP ERP, FlexMobile Fiori Apps, FlexGuide Transportation Management System, FlexWIP Warehouse Management

Areas of Application:
Production logistics, in-plant transport, material flow control

Special Features:
Nine global standard templates for mobile bookings, a transport management system with security features (dual-control and TEP principles), integration of WIP inventory, and optimized train and forklift control

Heraeus and SAP: Harmonized and refined with Flexus

The precious metals and technology group Heraeus relies on SAP-integrated mobile apps and the transport control system from Flexus AG for its internal material flow control.

Hard to pin down: Anyone trying to describe the precious metals and technology group Heraeus in just a few words will struggle to do justice to the diverse range of activities carried out by this family-owned company. Based in Hanau, this global player offers products and solutions for the environmental, energy, electronics, healthcare, mobility, and industrial sectors. While the Heraeus brand is hardly known among end consumers, it enjoys a high reputation among industrial customers worldwide.
As part of the “Magellan” project, launched in 2013, 20 SAP systems used across the group are being standardized and integrated into a single IT platform. The process is scheduled to be completed in 2020.

Heraeus, a precious metals and technology group headquartered in Hanau, is a leading family-owned portfolio company worldwide. Founded in 1851, the company’s roots trace back to a pharmacy that has been operated by the family since 1660. Today, Heraeus brings together a wide range of businesses in the fields of environment, energy, electronics, healthcare, mobility, and industrial applications. Heraeus employs approximately 15,000 people in 40 countries. Today, Heraeus ranks among the top 10 family-owned companies in Germany and holds a leading position in its global markets.

“Flexus AG impressed us with its extensive SAP expertise and the
user-friendly design of its highly customizable solutions.”
Michael Müller
Head of Competence
Center Logistic
Heraeus Infosystems GmbH

User-friendly design

“Among other things, Magellan was a prerequisite for introducing a mobile booking system for all raw material and goods movements along the internal production and supply chain,” explains Michael Müller, Head of the Competence Center for Logistics at Heraeus Infosystems GmbH. The primary goal of the mobile posting solution was to increase transparency and inventory accuracy. “By posting material or goods withdrawals directly at the shelf using a handheld device, we achieve process reliability,” says Leon Strack, the Solution Architect responsible for this area. Without a mobile solution integrated into SAP, these transactions can only be recorded at a control station using a stationary workstation, which can lead to delays and inaccuracies. When searching for a suitable supplier, the company chose SAP partner Flexus AG and its FlexMobile solution. The user-friendly design of the Flexus solution is particularly evident in the Fiori apps that can be programmed with FlexMobile. At Heraeus, the device-independent apps appear grouped by topic as clickable tiles on the touchscreens of the mobile computers, ensuring a high degree of clarity.

Nine templates for five continents

In joint workshops, nine basic templates were developed for FlexMobile that can be used at Heraeus to map nearly all posting processes across its 100 locations spread across five continents. “For the remaining scenarios, we’ll add templates at the relevant locations as needed,” Müller reports. The nine standard templates include, for example, functions for posting goods receipts and goods issues, order picking, and inventory taking. A planned additional app is set to support the shipping process starting in 2020: With the so-called packing table solution for SAP EWM, shipping staff are guided through the individual steps—such as selecting the necessary packing materials, packing, weighing, and label printing—via an intuitive packing dialog. It also supports the creation of handling units (HUs). This greatly simplifies the process, resulting in shorter training times and greater efficiency.

30 percent fewer empty runs

In 2016, SAP Fiori replaced ITSMobile, the programming platform that had been in use until then, which also made the hardware more user-friendly. Since then, Heraeus has relied on mobile scanners that look like smartphones. That same year, the FlexGuide transport management system—another SAP-integrated component for material flow control—was introduced. At that time, Heraeus had parted ways with its external service provider for internal site logistics. A newly established department was therefore on the lookout for a suitable IT system. The decision ultimately fell on FlexGuide from Flexus.

Each day, approximately 250 transport orders are processed on the sprawling factory grounds, for which two tugger trains and three counterbalanced forklifts with a lifting capacity of 4 metric tons are on standby.

The transport orders—whether generated in SAP or manually—are distributed to the forklift terminals via Wi-Fi, using special algorithms for route optimization. This reduces the number of empty runs by up to 30 percent.

4-eyes principle

FlexGuide can also be used to implement the security measures required at Heraeus, such as those that must be observed when transporting precious metals. At Heraeus, the dual-control principle applies to the transfer of precious metals between production and logistics. When generating a transport order, SAP determines whether the dual-control principle must be applied based on the value of the goods and other criteria. The solution programmed for this scenario requires the forklift operator and the production employee to verify the in-person handoff using their respective identification numbers on the forklift terminal or handheld device.

As a further development of this system, Heraeus has developed the Technical Eyes Principle—TEP for short—which uses camera-monitored, lockable pickup and
drop-off boxes.

At TEP, there is no need for two employees to meet each other in person: Here the driver can take over the goods directly without waiting and take them to their destination.

WIP inventories under control

Another key requirement for the material flow control system was the handling of interim inventory for which no material number had yet been created in SAP. SAP does not support the management of this so-called WIP (Work in Process) inventory. For this reason, Flexus developed the FlexWIP warehouse management system. At Heraeus, the solution was seamlessly integrated into FlexGuide. The transport control system coordinates the supply of raw materials to workstations,
the transfer of processed materials to the next workstation, and the supply and removal of loading aids or additional materials.

In addition, the transport management system ensures maximum transparency regarding all internal plant transport operations and provides the data foundation for further optimizations. For example, the percentage of transport operations carried out using automated guided vehicles was increased from 50 to 80 percent. Forklift operations, which are less efficient than route trains, were reduced to 20 percent. Another benefit relates to response time: “It used to take an average of about four hours for a requested transport to be carried out
. This time has been reduced to 90 minutes,” emphasizes Leon Strack. No wonder FlexGuide is set to be rolled out at additional locations soon .

In conclusion

With the FlexGuide transport management system and the FlexMobile mobile booking system, Heraeus has enhanced its central SAP system with several additional features, thereby increasing transparency, quality, and efficiency.

Find out more about the transport control system with SAP