Interface between the Manufacturing Execution System (MES) and the Logistics Execution System (LES) for Zeelandia

Based on a wealth of knowhow, Zeelandia’s staff support their customers with solutions and ideas, always keeping the baker’s requirements as a guiding principle. Zeelandia has always kept the sales and distribution of its products under the company’s own management.

The challenge

Zeelandia has several plants at its production site in Zierikzee which  produce ingredients for bakeries. The raw materials for these plants are stored in the company’s stores in Zierikzee. In the past, the raw materials were collected following requests from the plants, using a picklist that was generated by the ERP system. However, the picklist was only based on the requirements of a specific plant. Our challenge was to automate the order picking process. The new process had to take into account the requirements of all plants over a certain period, as well as the human resource capacity of the raw materials store.

The solution

ICT realized an interface between the Manufacturing Execution System (MES) of the production departments and the Logistics Execution System (LES) of the Logistics department. The raw materials are picked as soon as the MES indicates the need for these materials by means of planning production orders. This leaves the raw materials store with sufficient time to pick the required materials and deliver them. ICT also modified the truck terminal application, allowing staff in the raw materials store to pick the materials for a specific order based on priority. The trucks are equipped with a printer for printing labels for the pallets with the raw materials. In addition, ICT realized the so-called Goods-To-Man (GTM) to facilitate and simplify the picking process of larger quantities of the same material, and to make use of lifting devices for heavier packages. When an employee selects multiple lines of the same production order, the picking process is started automatically via GTM. Timely inbound and outbound transport of pallets to and from the picking locations is also controlled automatically by the reach truck driver. At the same time, single orders can still be processed by means of a Man-To-Goods (MTG) method. The solution allows Zeelandia to centralize its materials storage and keep them in one single location until the plants actually need the materials. As a result, Zeelandia has gained improved insight into its stock of materials, and it can guarantee deliveries on a First Expired, First Out (FEFO) basis. What’s more, the solution allows Zeelandia to reduce its total stock, which results in a reduction in the amount of required storage space as well as lower storage costs.