Reference Report
Eurofit/Radsystem Mosel - well equipped for winter business
LOJISTIX® from WSW Software ensures high order transparency in seasonal business
In 2018, the plant was awarded the contract to supply winter wheels for all new cars sold by VW dealers throughout Germany. A groundbreaking order, but one that also posed some challenges to the logistics processes that had never been implemented in this form before.
Eurofit Group
The Eurofit Group has been an international partner in tire assembly for the world's largest automotive manufacturers since 1996. The group is a joint venture between Michelin and Continental, based in Belgium. With 1,200 employees in 18 plants in Europe, Africa and Asia, the Eurofit Group delivers high-quality and reliable tire-wheel assemblies (TWAs) and services in just-in-time (JIT) and just-in-sequence (JIS) processes.
In 2019 alone, 25.8 million TWAs left the company's plants. Reliable logistics processes are essential for Eurofit.
The Eurofit Group assembles complete wheels in series at the Radsystem Mosel plant for the VW plant in Zwickau (Golf, since 2019 also ID.3) and the VW plant in Dresden (e-Golf).
Groundbreaking "winter wheels" order poses challenges for logistics IT
The Eurofit Group assembles complete wheels in series at the Radsystem Mosel plant for the VW plant in Zwickau (Golf, since 2019 also ID.3) and the VW plant in Dresden (e-Golf).
In 2018, the plant was awarded the contract to supply winter wheels for all new cars sold by VW dealers throughout Germany. A groundbreaking order, but one that also posed some challenges to the logistics processes that had never been implemented in this form before.
The challenges
The temporary supply of winter wheels had to be carried out in parallel with the core business, i.e. series supply.
The sales forecast was not stable because the number of customers who would buy a winter wheel set with a new car could only be estimated.
The delivery to the VW dealers was carried out by a logistics service provider, which meant that an additional delivery route and partner had to be mapped in the logistics chain.
VW Wolfsburg and its dealers were expecting the first winter tires as early as April 2019, leaving only three months for IT planning and implementation of the new processes.
A special challenge was added by the fact that Eurofit and the Mosel plant were in the middle of the SAP ERP rollout.
The company was specifically looking for a new IT system that would control the new processes of the winter wheel business on the one hand and facilitate JIS deliveries to the VW plants in Zwickau and Dresden as part of the series production business on the other. The requirements for the solution and the service provider were as follows:
- Highest possible coverage and transparency of the logistics processes of JIS series delivery and the special processes in the winter wheel business
- Implementation of proprietary file formats for the VW systems ATLAS AVUS and CADDYS as well as for the logistics service provider
- Highest possible integration in SAP ERP
- Reliable design and implementation on time and on budget
- Close, trusting cooperation with the SAP implementation partner
Following a selection process, the decision was made in favor of LOJISTIX from WSW Software* at the end of January 2019.
The solution - Highest order transparency for plant and dealer thanks to LOJISTIX
LOJISTIX as an order hub between SAP ERP, SAP WM, EDI connector and MES
The IT project kicked off in December 2018, with basic requirements being recorded, existing processes evaluated and a common approach adopted. In order to meet the tight schedule and at the same time meet all ongoing production challenges, the rapid prototyping implementation method was chosen.
The implementation as well as the connection of LOJISTIX to SAP, the EDI connector and the MES system started at the beginning of March 2019. LOJISTIX serves as a central "hub" for controlling the respective orders.
The new process flow:
- VW transmits the CADDYS orders to LOJISTIX, which then provides SAP with all the order data required for demand and production planning.
- Production planning is carried out in batch in the ERP and transferred to the MES.
- Deliveries to VW dealers via the logistics service provider are pre-sorted according to certain criteria:
- Is the quantity sufficient to fill an entire truck?
- Is the quantity sufficient for a specific zip code area?
- Is it a mixed transport that is controlled via the logistics service provider's distribution centers and only reloaded onto different trucks there?
- Based on the truck planning according to the above criteria, the picking of the pallets, the loading of the trucks in the correct order and the labeling of the shipping labels begin.
- A final goods scan during truck loading ensures that all winter wheels are on the truck as planned.
- After delivery, LOJISTIX informs SAP ERP about the material consumption and the order status; VW receives an order update.
- Furthermore, the logistics service provider receives the most precise information about the loading of the trucks and the individual orders they contain as a delivery notification.
The go-live took place as planned on April 23, 2019, and the first winter wheels were delivered after less than three months of implementation.
Wolfgang Salinger, Head of Digital Supply Chain at WSW Software:
"In addition to setting up LOJISTIX for the winter bike business, we started setting up JIS series delivery at the same time - and this in turn during the implementation of SAP ERP. With the chosen implementation method of rapid prototyping, we were able to start the implementation earlier, but had to process some change requests during the implementation."
Matthieu Garandeau:
"The WSW project team has done an excellent job throughout. The new seasonal business has been mapped throughout the Mosel plant, with maximum process transparency: VW Wolfsburg and all VW dealers have insight into their order and delivery status at all times. The plant is now ideally equipped for winter business."
* LOJISTIX®
LOJISTIX from WSW Software is a self-sufficient solution that controls all JIS logistics processes: with complete EDI integration (inbound and outbound), control of final assembly, labeling, sequential packaging and delivery, sequential container formation and truck loading, dispatch processing based on production-synchronized call-offs and handling of logistically unmixed processes.
The JIS solution integrates seamlessly into existing IT infrastructures and communicates directly with ERP, warehouse, production or PLC systems. Individual requirements for interfaces or JIS processes can be easily configured and modeled.
LOJISTIX is in use worldwide in Europe, the USA, Asia and Africa with 24/7 support.
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