Schnellecke Logistics - A Success Story of Technology, Cultural Change & Innovation

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Karsten Keil, Vice President Group IT & Digitization, at Schnellecke Logistics, talks us through his company’s digital transformation journey.

Written by Anna McMahon • Produced by Jennifer Davies 2

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From its humble beginnings as a classic transportation company in Germany more than 80 years ago, Schnellecke Logistics has evolved into a global value-added logistics provider, offering a variety of logistics services to its customers. Karsten Keil is Vice President Group IT & Digitization at Schnellecke Logistics, as well as a member of the management board.

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e reflects, “It was in the 1980s and 1990s that Schnellecke Logistics really became a logistics service provider. We started by managing external outsourced warehouses, offering more valued-added services, and improving our processes. With sequencing and the assembly of parts for our customers, we were able to improve their stock levels and save valuable time on the production line.”

The last few years have seen the company embark on its digitalisation journey, adding more SAP solutions to its portfolio, as well as launching its 2025 vision, which focuses on making its operational processes smarter. Karsten says, “We are not looking to replace the people in the business, but, instead, humans and machines working in collaboration in order to be more independent from volatile processes. This enables us to work at peak capacity.”

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“Comarch is the hosting provider, with whom we have been in partnership for the last three or four years. We first entered into a relationship with them for our cloud services” 6

One of Schnellecke Logistics’ major strategic projects is its digital control tower. Karsten explains, “It is a digital twin of our logistics operations. It will give full transparency of our processes in real time by collecting data from our internal systems and customer environments. In an inevitably heterogeneous system landscape, due to the use of our own systems and customer systems, we have found with RPA the solution to minimise information breaks and automate the transfer of data from legacy systems to the digital control tower. We use cyber

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sensors on trolleys to track and trace containers wherever they are. This is the first step towards transparency. In the next step, we will be able to offer predictions by analysing the data and creating forecasts to provide service operators with decision proposals.

By the end of 2025, our general vision is to drive decisions by

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algorithms, and we are working on a number of these at the moment.

Thanks to a state-of-the-art cloud architecture and user interfaces in responsive design, the digital control tower can be used via desktops or mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. And because this generates real added value for stabilising the supply

“The aim for us is to have a holistic optimisation of the total value chain.

For that, we use algorithms, machine learning and AI to bring digital solutions and human beings together” chain, it can also be used by our customers and partners. This means that those responsible for operations can monitor the status of the supply chain from home via their smartphone.”

Schnellecke Logistics decided to take a cloud-first approach as part of its digitalisation journey, bringing its core applications into the cloud back in 2017. Karsten says, “With a cloud-first approach, we were able to reduce the running costs, improve availability, and decrease time to market. We have several cloud partners; InfoWAN – a Skaylink company – is our key partner for cloud solutions around office applications. Together with infoWAN, we were able to transfer all the existing global exchange mail servers to a cloud service from Microsoft, with more than 5,000 mailboxes in operation and high security protection. As a result, we were able to provide a digital workplace for our colleagues, enabling them to work anywhere 9

“Five years ago, we partnered with Ubimax, now part of the TeamViewer company, on their Google Glass solution.

We were the first logistics provider in the automotive logistics industry using Google Glass to steer operations”

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at any time, which was extremely helpful during the Covid-19 pandemic. For us, this was a really positive experience insofar as all the architecture was already in place. Our employees are happy because new work concepts make it much easier to combine work and family.”

In 2016, the Google Glass solution was implemented by Schnellecke Logistics for order picking.

Karsten continues, “In the past, we picked using printed lists. The efficiency was not good enough, so we decided to try a number of different solutions. Five years

High speed processes with zero errors © Schnellecke Logisitcs

Situation

TeamViewer Solution

The strong partnership between TeamViewer and Schnellecke Logistics is built on a shared commitment to continuous innovation. For years, Schnellecke Logistics has been using the innovative and industry-proven TeamViewer Frontline solutions productively at various sites around the globe.

The AR platform TeamViewer Frontline offers reliable support for Schnellecke Logistics’s operations. Its solutions improve processes along the entire value chain through augmented reality-based wearable computing technology. The foundation of the success: visual stepby-step presentation of information, ensuring quick and intuitive processing. The vision picking solution xPick supports logistics procedures, enabling multiorder picking for up to 24 orders simultaneously. And TeamViewer Frontline’s Make-by-Vision solution xMake supports assembly procedures.

By offering logistics services ranging from transport and warehousing through pre-assembly and value-added services to the sequential assembly of individual parts Just-In-Time (JIT) as well as Just-In-Sequence (JIS), their processes are highly dependent on optimized, error-free operations. Conventional methods with handheld devices or paper-based documentation often led to a high error rate and delays within potentially intertwined assembly processes.

The hardware-agnostic solutions run on smart glasses, smart watches, or tablets and can be combined with various confirmation devices, like TeamViewer’s RFID wristband xBand, depending on the use case. For fully streamlined processes, the TeamViewer Frontline solutions are integrated into Schnellecke Logistic’s IT infrastructure, e.g. their JIT system SJS.

Benefits

Hands-free operations along the entire process chain by using wearables, making frontline workplaces more ergonomic

Delivery of perfect end results to customers without any extra steps required for final quality control

Shorter training times for onboarding new employees and more flexible staff deployment wherever they are needed

Convincing results: 20% time savings

ZERO errors

100% satisfied workers

Learn more about TeamViewer’s award-winning Frontline solutions, setting new standards in industrial AR: www.teamviewer.com/frontline

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Karsten Keil, Vice President Group IT & Digitization

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“We needed a tool to transfer the incoming format to one outgoing format.

LOBSTER is an excellent platform for this purpose. It is very stable and flexible in converting one format to the next, connecting partners in whichever way you need. It gives us total visibility across the whole business” ago, we partnered with Ubimax, now part of the TeamViewer company, on their Google Glass solution. We were the first logistics provider in the automotive logistics industry using Google Glass to steer operations. It was a real success story. We had no more lists to work on, but every order was in the Glass. Using a scanner, the worker confirmed the status of the delivery, and we therefore improved the process quality to 100 per cent and increased efficiency.”

Data exchange is a huge challenge for any logistics provider, due to the crossover between working with several original equipment 14

manufacturers (OEM) and first-tier suppliers feeding the production line. Karsten says that this is not helped by the fact that Schnellecke Logistics has data exchange with 500 global partners, communicating in over 100 different formats, with a volume of more than 100,000 files per days. He adds, “The poor level of standards means everyone uses his own format to exchange information. As a collaborator between the supplier and the OEM, that creates a problem.

We needed a tool to transfer the incoming format to one outgoing format. LOBSTER is an excellent platform for this purpose. It is very stable and flexible in converting

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www.skaylink.com

www.skaylink.com

Your Cloud Journey starts here.

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Meet the leading provider for cloud transformation in the German-speaking area: Skaylink is the answer for all organizations looking for a reliable partner when it comes to cloud migration and cloud operations. Thanks to its own cloud frameworks, methods and software-supported tools, ensures a rapid and secure path to the cloud and serves the entire cloud journey.

“We have several cloud partners; InfoWAN – a Skaylink company – is our key partner for cloud solutions around office applications. Together with infoWAN, we were able to transfer all the existing global exchange mail servers to a cloud service from Microsoft, with more than 5,000 mailboxes in operation and high security protection” one format to the next, connecting partners in whichever way you need. It gives us total visibility across the whole business.”

The own-developed SILENA core application in the cloud is Schnellecke Logistics’ global system for warehouse management, sequence and assembly order management, a system that is chosen around the world for its 24/7 availability.

Karsten says, “Because of the high level of required availability, we decided to use SILENA with a georedundant data centre concept.

Comarch is the hosting provider, with whom we have been in partnership for the last three or 17

four years. We first entered into a relationship with them for our cloud services. We use one data centre in Dresden (Germany), and another one in Krakow (Poland) in case the primary data centre is down. In the case of an emergency, we can switch to the other data centre in a matter of minutes, so our availability will not be impacted. Because it has 18

been such a positive experience, I can see us partnering with Comarch for years to come.”

On the whole, Karsten views the drive for digitalisation as a twostep process, as he explains, “The first step is to continuously innovate our business to get better performance, increase efficiency, and decrease the costs.

that can be used independently of the vehicles' hardware, and enables tracking and control in real time.”

Speaking of which, Karsten believes AI and machine learning can be utilised to optimise processes in order to improve the customer experience. Using machine learning to identify patterns in the data can change incoming material processes to enable the optimal process flow in real time. Karsten adds, “The aim for us is to have a holistic optimisation of the total value chain. For that, we use algorithms, machine learning and AI to bring digital solutions and human beings together.”

Developing new business ideas gains revenue away from existing operations. This is the second step. It means we are open, we can have new platform ideas in mind, and we can create different services for our customers. An initial digital product is already being offered and demanded on the market as a service. It is a guidance control system for AGVs

But, for Karsten, the most exciting part of the job involves motivating his great IT & Digitization team every day and changing the company culture. He concludes, “It is one thing to implement technology and bring it into your business, but the biggest challenge is cultural change, creating an internal culture that allows you to fail and learn. Not every technology is a success story. In the end, we need entrepreneurs in our business to detect customer needs and use our internal solutions to feed their requirements.”

For further information on Schnellecke Logistics, visit www.schnellecke.com 19

www.schnellecke.com

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