AMADA GmbH, the German subsidiary of a global manufacturer of machines, tools and equipment for sheet metal fabrication, now manages its entire supply chain with AEB's software suite ASSIST4. As a result, the picking capacity has increased by between four and six per cent, and AMADA runs its supply chain pro-actively, providing even better service to its customers.
The comprehensive shipping and customs process in the AMADA GmbH headquarters in Haan, Germany, is managed with AEB's ASSIST4 software. ASSIST4 Customs Management and Transport & Freight Management solutions have been used in AMADA's logistics and global trade operations since September 2011, and the ASSIST4 Visibility & Collaboration Platform was implemented in September 2012.
Prior to the introduction of ASSIST4, the entire packing process was very time consuming. Shipping orders had to be created manually, and freight charges had to be laboriously calculated and then carried over to the invoice. Today, integrated packing stations serve as centres for packing, weighing, and for printing carrier and parcel service labels and packing lists. All data is scanned into ASSIST4, which then automatically generates the required documents. The loading lists are automatically transmitted to the transport service providers.
With ASSIST4, transparency has been introduced to the goods-issue process, enabling simple consignment searches to reveal key information including who picked and packed the order and when; whether the labels have been printed; and whether the goods have been issued. This significantly improved the previous process where printing a delivery note did not necessarily mean that the goods had left the warehouse.
But AMADA went one step further to achieve comprehensive transparency throughout the supply chain. AEB's Visibility & Collaboration Platform now ensures that all status updates are transferred to the online platform – including both internal milestones such as "ready to ship" or "goods issued", and external updates such as tracking & tracing information from carriers or customs clearance messages from the authorities. Providing all sales, service, and logistics staff with round-the-clock access to the status of a shipment allows them to respond to possible delays before it is too late, which in turn enables AMADA to offer its customers a further improved quality of service.
Sabine Mertens, Logistics & Purchase Manager and the project manager who coordinated the implementation of ASSIST4 at AMADA, said: "We needed too much time to create delivery notes and forwarding orders. There was no overarching logistics system to generate all the documents required for our shipping and export processes. Today we use an integrated logistics system, and the processes are standardised and harmonised. Now we work much more efficiently, and our picking capacity has increased by between four and six per cent."
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