New warehouse with new management system at Nutrilo
Warehouse Management and Production Supply with SAP EWM 9.5
At a glance
Food supplements
Cuxhaven, Germany
Approx. 340 employees
Turnover: 65 million € (estimated)
The company
Nutrilo GmbH, based in Cuxhaven, Lower Saxony, specializes in the production of a wide range of dietary supplements and vitamin preparations and is one of the largest manufacturers of effervescent tablets in Europe. Founded in 1984, the 340-employee company is a subsidiary of the international PHW Group and sells its products in more than 65 countries worldwide.
SAP EWM provides significantly improved inventory transparency across all locations. This has a positive effect on the complex supply of production lines.
Ralf Schröder – Head of Logistics, Nutrilo GmbH
The challenge
Due to strong growth, Nutrilo GmbH decided to significantly expand its warehouse space by building a new warehouse in 2018. As this was also to be equipped with automated conveyor technology, it was decided to replace the existing legacy system with SAP EWM. At the same time, a completely new system was implemented for production.
In addition to significant changes in material flow and employee activities, this presented the challenge of optimally linking all systems without practical knowledge of the subsequent processes. In addition, two other production plants and an external warehouse in Cuxhaven were connected.
The solution
Nutrilo GmbH has been using SAP ERP for many years, so a decentralized SAP EWM 9.5 could be connected as standard. In addition, the production system of the external provider CSB was connected to SAP ERP, which communicates with SAP EWM via iDocs. The final component of the new architecture was a material flow computer from the supplier Kardex mlog, which controls the newly installed conveyor technology and the automated small parts warehouse (AKL). In addition, three semi-automated STILL high-bay stackers were integrated for order picking.
The project
The greenfield implementation of SAP EWM at Nutrilo GmbH was based on a classic blueprint. The other sub-projects worked in parallel and in close coordination towards the planned start date. The main objective of the project was to adapt the warehouse management in the newly built warehouse to the new physical conditions to optimally supply production with raw materials and to smoothly deliver finished goods to customers.
The requirements for order picking and the management of different container sizes and units played a major role in the implementation, as did the complex planning of the roller conveyors, the connection of the miniload, and ensuring the flow of materials through various transfer points. In addition, the integration of the two other production plants and the external warehouse resulted in various requirements that were implemented as part of the project.
During the creation of the blueprint, initial settings were made on an SAP EWM prototype. This was further developed and finalized during the project. All systems went live simultaneously in July 2020. This required intensive support for the processes and interfaces, which played a central role due to the diverse system landscape. Production and the warehouse were ramped up gradually to give employees time to get used to the changed conditions.
Support operations began at the beginning of August 2020. The project was completed, and the master plan was successfully implemented.
Outcome
Production supply via new material flow system
Connection of pallet and container conveyor technology
Picking with semi-automated high-bay stackers
The results
Nutrilo GmbH is now working with a completely new warehouse that supplies production and customers via SAP EWM. SAP EWM provides the warehouse and production with significantly improved inventory transparency, which has a very positive effect due to the increased storage space.
The implementation of SAP EWM has laid the foundation for future expansions of the warehouse structures, which are already planned.
The collaboration with the abat team was optimal. As a key user in this project, I really appreciated their commitment and fast, reliable support. Thanks to the implementation of EWM, our processes now run faster and more smoothly.
Oliver Becker - Key-User, Nutrilo GmbH