Industry sector:
Mechanical engineering, conveyor and filter technology
Key technologies:
SAP EWM, FlexMobile Fiori Apps, FlexGuide transport control system
Areas of application:
Warehouse, production and shipping logistics
Special features:
Mobile bookings with SAP Fiori apps, central control of forklifts, tugger trains and AGVs, real-time transparency across all processes, visual support on the display to avoid mix-ups
Transparency for AGVs and people
The material flow in the warehouse, production and shipping logistics at KNOLL Maschinenbau GmbH is optimized, efficient and transparent. Behind this are the add-on solutions for SAP from Flexus AG, with which employees, manual industrial trucks and various driverless transport systems can be automated and centrally controlled.
Springs, bolts, sheet metal, electronic components and much more: various parts are required for the assembly of modern conveyor and
filter systems, which must be provided in exactly the right quantity and quality at the time of production. Picking errors and delays lead to considerable additional work, loss of time and additional costs. At KNOLL Maschinenbau GmbH, the upstream and downstream picking and transport orders are therefore controlled centrally by SAP and the integrated add-on solutions from Flexus AG. “The error rate in our production logistics is less than 0.1 percent,” states process manager Jonathan Hoffmann. Thanks to the rapid and reliable replenishment of parts, “the fitters are very productive because they can process their orders without waiting”.
KNOLL Maschinenbau GmbH, headquartered in Bad Saulgau, is one of the leading suppliers of conveying and filtering systems for metal chips and
cutting fluids in the metalworking industry. Highly flexible transport systems round out the product portfolio. With a comprehensive product range, the company implements complete plants and system solutions featuring centralized or decentralized functions. Founded in 1970 by Walter Knoll, the company is now owner-managed by the second generation. Management
is in the hands of Jürgen and Matthias Knoll, the two sons of the company’s founder.
“With Flexus, we have found a partner who, in addition to mobile booking in SAP,
Jonathan Hoffmann
was able to offerus further perspectives for optimizing our intralogistics.”
Process Manager
KNOLL Maschinenbau GmbH
Book paperless instead of paper
The coordinated and transparent processes are the result of an IT project that Hoffmann initiated together with Stephan Hosemann, logistics team leader, in 2018. “Our employees used to use paper receipts for picking, which occasionally caused confusion,” recalls Hosemann.
Deviations and shortages had to be noted manually on the shelf and later recorded in SAP, which meant another source of error. The posting and storage of internal goods receipts from our own production had not yet been digitized. Against this background, KNOLL was looking for a mobile solution for the paperless booking of all goods movements between goods receipt and order picking through to handover to assembly.
“We wanted a system that is integrated into SAP and does not create any additional interfaces,” emphasizes Hoffmann, who took a close look at various providers. “In Flexus, we have found a partner who, in addition to mobile booking in SAP, has been able to offer us further perspectives for optimizing our intralogistics,” says Hoffmann, who thus uses the transport guidance system developed by Flexus FlexGuide developed by Flexus. The solution is characterized by the fact that it can be used to control all types of vehicles, including tugger trains and driverless transport systems.
“It is only through the combination of mobile bookings and the central control of all transports that we gain complete transparency about what is happening,” explains Hosemann.
All processes are transparent
The conversion took place in two steps. Initially, KNOLL and Flexus concentrated on the introduction of mobile bookings with the help of FlexMobile and the mobile apps for SAP. Around 30 employees were equipped with Zebra TC 8000 barcode scanners for this purpose. The touch computers have a large display through which the respective Flexus app communicates with the operator.
Depending on the process, the employee can select the appropriate application—displayed as a tile—and start the workflow. Available apps include those for goods receipt postings, putaways and stock removals, order picking, inventory counts, confirmation entries, and various warehouse management tools. Each goods movement is confirmed with the scanner and immediately posted to SAP. “This ensures that the current order status is completely transparent at all times across all stages from goods receipt to order picking,” emphasizes Hosemann. The employee receives clear instructions, such as the exact shelf location and the quantity of a specific item to be retrieved from that location. If necessary, the operator can display an image of individual items on the screen with the push of a button. “With this visual support, we were able to further improve quality and virtually eliminate mix-ups at the shelf bin,” reports Hoffmann.
1000 driving orders per day
Following the successful implementation of the mobile apps for SAP, the transportation management system was introduced to handle the approximately 1,000 daily transport orders. These are distributed among 14 forklifts and pallet jacks, two tugger trains, and a driverless transport system with three vehicles (AGVs) from Safelog, a partner of KNOLL Maschinenbau GmbH. However, for the open-system FlexGuide, the manufacturer generally plays no role here.
“Not every transport job can be handled by every piece of equipment, but there’s a lot of overlap,” says Hosemann. That’s why every vehicle reports back as soon as a transport order has been completed. While this happens automatically for the AGVs and tugger trains, for the 14 forklifts it’s handled via tablets assigned personally to the drivers. “We know where the vehicles are at all times and have complete transparency here as well,” emphasizes Hoffmann. For each individual transport order, FlexGuide determines which vehicle should carry it out.
This process takes into account the stored priorities, which are differentiated based on factors such as due date, age, and distance, among others, and can be manually overridden at any time. “This allows even urgent orders from management to be scheduled, rescheduled, and carried out on short notice,” explains Hoffmann. At KNOLL, some of the transport orders are created manually by employees. To do this, they use the terminals installed near the approximately 120 workstations, as well as tablets. The remaining transport requests are generated cyclically in the background or created automatically based on production feedback.
Incidentally, train stations without a current assignment are now also ignored by the tugger trains, which thus manage eleven round trips per shift instead of seven.
AGVs for production supply
The three AGVs play a special role at KNOLL; they have long been a familiar sight in the spacious production halls. They operate in parallel and in the same areas of the halls as the forklifts and automated guided vehicles. Their current positions are continuously tracked and displayed in a 2D cockpit. Based on this live tracking, the FlexGuide individually optimizes the transport orders. The driverless robots can be used for all ground-level transport. If a pallet needs to be retrieved from a higher shelf compartment, the FlexGuide may generate two sub-orders for the task. The first part is then handled, for example, by a manual high-lift pallet jack, which places the cargo on a cart specially designed by KNOLL at a defined ground-level location. From there, an AGV picks up the cart and transports it to its destination.
At KNOLL, internal transport does not always lead directly to the next production stage, but often to a buffer warehouse. These so-called work-in-process (WIP) warehouses are distributed throughout the production facilities and help balance out production fluctuations between the individual production stages. Flexus has integrated an additional storage location management feature specifically for these WIP warehouses. This allows the system to target storage locations that meet the defined optimization criteria as part of the material transfer process.
In addition, the AGVs operate in pairs to handle the delivery and removal of empty containers in the production area. In combination with sensor monitoring from KNOLL, this system can always identify the next available storage locations, thereby avoiding unnecessary travel distances.
The initial configuration of the transportation management system, including the routing priorities, was carried out in collaboration with Flexus, although many changes have been made since then. “We’re glad that we can carry out the customization independently of Flexus, which allows us to respond flexibly to last-minute changes,” says Hoffmann, who has been able to significantly streamline internal traffic with FlexGuide: “We now only need seven transporters instead of the original ten,” confirms the logistics manager, who believes this staffing level will allow the company to handle further increases in orders.
Secured metrics
With FlexMobile and FlexGuide, KNOLL Maschinenbau GmbH has significantly accelerated and optimized its intralogistics. All processes are now transparent. Order picking is now virtually error-free, and the productivity of the assembly workers has increased. Thanks to the transport management system, the company has been able to eliminate various trips and reduce its workforce. In addition, reliable key performance indicators are now available, enabling accurate forecasts and on-time delivery commitments. It’s no wonder that KNOLL has already decided to move to the next phase of the solution. In the next step, shipping logistics will also be managed using mobile solutions from Flexus AG. Employees will then be guided through the loading inspection via an app, and the process will be documented with a photo.
Your contact
Sascha Scherer
FlexGuide4 for worry-free intralogistics
phone: +49 931 466 211 100