2015-12-22

¿Swegon reduces warehouse space by 50% using Extend

Since implementing Extend, Swegon has seen what was once a “full” warehouse reduce its replenishment level to just 50% of its previous requirements with a 15-20% decrease in personnel requirements.

Swedish Swegon is part of the Latour group. The company specializes in energy efficient ventilation and indoor climate systems. Swegon has 9 production sites, mainly in Europe and sales global. The 40,000 sq.m. premises in Kvänum, south west Sweden employs 375 people and has annual sales of over 900 MSEK (€96 million approx.).

From chicken cages to high tech ventilation

The site in Kvänum has seen an amazing transformation, going from producing chicken cages in the 1950´s to the hyper-modern site it is today with an automatic production of high-technology air handling units.

However the company had a challenge in managing the supply and warehousing of material. In 2012 they started a project to see how to achieve better utilization of forklifts and more transparency of where parts were stored, with the aim of reaching better production flows.

The company identified several KPIs especially better control of inventory, increased production flexibility, better use of forklifts and more efficient use of warehouse space.

Extend checked all the boxes

Swegon uses M3 as their ERP system and did not need the complete functionality of a Warehouse Management System. What they did need was a planning system that could link to M3 and create better control of forklifts, movement of goods and available pallet places. After an evaluation period they chosed Extend, as it was easy to implement with M3 and had the functionality they required.

New, improved material flow

Today, all material movement is controlled by tasks originating from M3 and handled in Extend. Even manual orders have automatic space allocation in the system. Every task has a clear “to—from” place assignment, and each physical transaction is also visible in M3. All personnel have an increased understanding of the complexities of material handling throughout the production process. All tasks are controlled by Extend and reported to M3 in real time.

Now the system can follow the forklifts usage at a detailed level, reducing personnel requirements by as much as 20%, based on the reduction of the number of truck hours needed to fulfill each task. It has also reduced warehouse filling levels to 50% of total available space thanks to improved logistics.

Contact
For more information regarding Extend visit http://www.consafelogistics.com/our-offer/production/extend-mes.

Information about the company: Consafe Logistics AB

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