The right goods at the right time in the right place

Biral AG produces modern pumps for use in domestic, municipal and industrial use. The traditional company with its head office in Münsingen is one of the leading Swiss providers of innovative and efficient pump solutions.

Since 2004, Bossard has been supporting Biral's internal logistics activities with innovative systems and solutions. Beginning with the introduction of the traditional warehouse management via a twobin system, the company continued to develop together with custom solutions from Bossard. Starting in 2017, the use of SmartBin flex made it possible to automatically manage B and C parts, work with smaller stocks and at the same time always have enough goods on site.

Since 2018, the joint success story of Bossard’s Last Mile Management has been continued, initially in a pilot project and since 2019 with additional items.

1.) Last Mile Management begins at the assembly work station at Biral AG. A requisition order is triggered here automatically or at the push of a button as soon as a defined minimum material inventory level is fallen below.

2.) Next, Bossard’s supply chain software “ARIMS” registers the demand automatically in a digital picking list, while the employees at the assembly work station can focus on their production work.

3.) The intralogistics provider sees the digital picking list in his mobile app and picks the required material at the central storage location using intuitive and paperless instructions.

4.) The LMM software creates a dynamic, routeoptimized refill route plan for an efficient material replenishment in production. This process affords Biral a seamless material flow, regardless of whether it is an island production, series production or a flow production.

Last Mile Management at Biral increased productivity at the work station.

Peter Schenk, procurement manager at Biral AG, tells us how the Last Mile Management makes the everyday working life of his employees more efficient. At the assembly work station, employees can directly request missing products via a traditional procurement system without losing time. In this way, the employees can completely focus on their core task.

The requested good is automatically added to a digital picking list. The material is picked at the central storage location and brought directly to the work station by means of a path-optimized route plan.