Industry:
Food / Dairy (Zott SE & Co. KG)
Key technologies:
FlexYard & SAP S/4HANA
Areas of application:
Incoming weighing, quality inspection, refueling, tank cleaning, outgoing weighing, special processes
Special features:
Introduction during ongoing operation (5 months), 3 locations (Mertingen, Günzburg, Opole), 50,000+ truck handlings, single source of truth, 24/7 operation
Yard management at Zott: Integrated milk run around the clock
The southern German dairy Zott relies on the FlexYard yard management system from Flexus AG, which is integrated into SAP S/4HANA, to seamlessly control and document all truck movements at the depots of three production sites. Incoming and outgoing weighing, quality checks, unloading processes and tank cleaning are digitalized throughout.
The logistics here never rest: at Plant 2 of the Zott dairy in Mertingen, Swabia, tankers are constantly delivering milk, sugar and other raw materials to ensure round-the-clock production. The same applies to the two other production sites in Günzburg and Opole, Poland. The Zott Group handles around 200 trucks a day for raw milk supplies alone.
Zott SE & Co KG is a southern German dairy based in Mertingen, around 30 km north of Augsburg. Founded in 1926, the company is now in its fourth generation of family ownership. At three production sites in Mertingen, Günzburg and Opole in Poland, around 894 million kg of milk was processed into various delicacies such as yoghurt mixes and cheese in 2025 and sold in numerous countries around the world.
Further information at www.zott-dairy.com.
Introduction during operation
The passage of the trucks along the individual stations on the company premises follows a strict protocol: registration, incoming weighing, quality control, pumping out the goods, tank cleaning if necessary and finally outgoing weighing. There are also special processes such as weighing road salt, delivering sugar or issuing documents to the gatekeeper. Standing still is not an option here, especially as there are no upstream truck parking spaces on the company premises. Every single step was fully digitalized in 2024 and fully integrated into SAP S/4HANA in an end-to-end workflow. Behind this is the FlexYard solution from Flexus AG, which was introduced within just five months during ongoing operations, first in Günzburg and then in Mertingen and Opole.
“Genuss-Molkerei Zott is an international industrial company in the dairy sector. In a dairy, it is essential and important that all incoming raw materials and raw material flows are documented and traceable and that any product traceability can take place seamlessly. With FlexYard, we have found a super solution for this,” emphasizes Markus Diepold, who works at Zott as a specialist for milk logistics.
“In a dairy, it is essential that all incoming raw materials and raw material flows are documented and that product traceability can take place seamlessly. With FlexYard, we have found a great solution for this.”
Markus Diepold, Milk Logistics Specialist, Zott
Various interfaces
The standardization of processes at all locations was one of the many goals of the project, which was launched in June 2023. The first tests and the setup of the various interfaces between FlexYard and the existing hardware – including the controls for the filling and cleaning systems, the truck scales supplied by OAS at the entrances and exits, the license plate scanners and the laboratory equipment for quality testing – took place in November. “The particular challenge was to record the existing processes, optimize them and map them in our system,” reports Julian Lother, Teamlead Yard Management at Flexus AG.
The operator terminals installed at each individual station now have standardized input screens with intuitive Fiori interfaces from Flexus, which can be easily operated by the drivers. The external devices are triggered by FlexYard, with middleware translating the commands from the “SAP language” into the language of the external devices. As soon as the action has been carried out, the data flows back to FlexYard and thus into the SAP system.
Legitimization via transit ticket
The digital process begins as soon as the driver enters the premises. The driver approaches the truck scale operating terminal at cockpit height and registers while the license plate is scanned and the vehicle weight is determined. The recorded data is automatically compared with the SAP order data. If everything matches, a printer integrated into the terminal creates a through ticket, which the driver can use to legitimize himself at the following stations.
At the same time, the barrier opens and the truck rolls into its assigned lane in the filling and cleaning hall. There, the driver must first take a sample of the loaded milk, which is then immediately analyzed and tested for inhibitors. After a positive quality check, the driver begins the filling process, which is also controlled and documented at a terminal with Fiori interfaces.
Integrated processes instead of pneumatic tubes
This is followed – depending on the route planning – by tank cleaning, which is of course also started via Flexus dialog. “We have had optimum process integration here, so that since the implementation of Flexus, the cleaning certificates can be called up directly by the drivers after a successful cleaning and no longer have to be printed out by an employee at the control station or sent in-house by pneumatic mail,” explains Markus Diepold.
The last station is the truck scale at the exit gate, which is used to check the plausibility of the quantity pumped out. As a final step, the gatekeeper can now print out the weighing slip using the throughput ticket from the driver. While most deliveries at Zott follow this pattern, there are also special cases, such as the unloading of sugar and other granular raw materials, which is also integrated into FlexYard. These are pumped directly from the vehicle into large silos in the outdoor area.
“The system runs with little support effort and is easy to use. Recurring drivers quickly become familiar with it”
Christian Ries, Application Developer & Sub-Project Manager, Zott IT
Single Source of Truth
Conclusion: Overall, the FlexYard solution has already proven itself at Zott with over 50,000 truck handlings. “The system runs with little support effort and is easy to use. Recurring drivers quickly become familiar with it,” says Christian Ries from Zott IT, who was jointly responsible for the introduction of FlexYard as application developer and sub-project manager. All processes are completely transparent and the associated data now comes from a single reliable source of information (single source of truth). If necessary, Zott can intervene in the processes at any time and start subsequent analyses.
However, Zott is not only very satisfied with the results, but also with the course of the project and the commissioning. “When integrating the system into our system landscape, we had two colleagues from Flexus with expertise and experience at our side on the day of implementation, who ensured a smooth and simple process,” emphasizes Markus Diepold. Against this background, the milk logistics specialist is optimistic about the planned expansions. In the near future, transport management will also be integrated into Yard Management in order to be able to access truck and driver data and planned arrival times at an early stage.
VIDEO Success Story
Watch the success story as a video:
Watch the video to see how Zott uses FlexYard and SAP S/4HANA to seamlessly digitalize all truck processes at three locations.
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