Even if we meet up after work, we tend to talk about our job. Here, we have two friends who enjoy an after work drink in their local and talk about how their companies manage internal transport management. This sounds trivial but it’s far from it.
Well, Ben and Joe meet at their local for an afterwork, well-deserved pint. Ben works for a medium-sized metalworking company, which produces load-bearing steel elements for construction machinery. Joe is currently a stand-in at a plastics manufacturer. As a stand-in, he works at the machine but also takes on other tasks, such as driving the forklift truck. The two men are over 50 and have known each other for many years – for a while they worked in the same company, which has gone bust some time ago. Once a week, they meet in the pub and reminisce about the good old days or talk about current affairs. Today’s hot topic is internal transportation at work.
Working like in the 80s
“We are still stuck in the 80s,” reports Ben. „If you need material, you have three options: 1. You go into the warehouse yourself, but this is rarely done. 2. If you are in luck, someone with a forklift truck or pallet truck is nearby and you ask them to pick up the material. Highly unlikely! 3. Or you call the warehouse and order the material, which can take some time. It’s so tiring and you stand around twiddling your thumbs.“
“What? You don’t have a digital system to organize transport?” Joe is flabbergasted.
Ben ponders and replies: “Sure, we have an MES where we log on our orders. But you have to sort out material yourself.” Ben recalls how difficult it was to convince employees of the importance to record orders in the MES and is puzzled that they didn’t think about the material back then.
We work much more efficiently!
“That’s totally different at my place,” Joe continues the narrative. „We have an MES in use for years, which has been developed further. We have also been booking materials in MES for many years. We also have a new function organizing transport. Since then, work has been a breeze.“
“What do you mean? You don’t have to organize your material anymore?” Ben is really dumbstruck.
“Not at all,” Joe replies. „If I need material, I push a button on my terminal and I have new material delivered in no time. The warehouse automatically receives a request, and a new transport order appears on the forklift’s control panel. The same goes if a pallet is full of finished parts. Again, I click on a button and a transport order is generated to pick up the pallet – that’s what you call transport management.“
“Genius,” Joe mumbles. “This would make my life much easier. What happens then with the transport order? Do you sometimes still drive a forklift truck?? Do tell!”
Through the eyes of the forklift driver
Joe takes a sip and carries on: „When I get into the forklift, I can see all the pending transport orders on the control panel including the ones that I have created myself. I look at the orders, select one and reserve it for myself with a click so that no other forklift driver selects the same order, and I am on my way to the warehouse. Once there, I open the transport order, scan the location and then the pallet with the material. The control panel shows that the transport is underway. I drive to the destination and do the same thing again: I scan the barcode at the drop-off point and then scan the pallet again. And, bish, bash, bosh, the transport order is completed, and I can reserve the next one.“
Ben is quite impressed: „So you can only accept one transport at a time?“
Joe is baffled: “Of course I can only pick up one pallet with the forklift truck but I can reserve as many orders as I like. We have everything on pallets. This is why the question never came up. But parallel handling is certainly also possible if you have smaller transport units.” The two let it all sink in and order the next round.
Transport tools
Joe goes on: „We recently tried our transport management to get tools to the machines. As you know, we have very heavy molds that we use in injection molding. These tools can now be requested per transport order. Setup is much more structured, and all the tools are in place, so we don’t have to look for them. The MES always knows where everything is. The storage location is automatically changed in the system together with the transport order.“
“That’s very convenient,” says Ben. „We don’t have massive tools, but we are always on the lookout for half-full material pallets. Usually, they are left somewhere and are only brought back to the warehouse when they are in the way or if someone needs something. It would be so much easier if we had a system where storage locations are logged. Your transport management is great, and I shall talk to our shift supervisor about it. What’s the system called?“
HYDRA by MPDV
Joe stops to think for a moment and then says: „There are two logos for the software: one says MPDV and the other HYDRA – or something like that.“
“Thanks, Joe, I’ll google it right away and suggest to our shift supervisor tomorrow that it would be worthwhile to have a look,” says Ben.
“Sounds like a plan but let’s talk about internal transportation in this pub…. where’s our meal?” Joe laughs.
Find out more about transport management and internal transportation on the MPDV website.
