All the know-how in your pocket

Unplanned machine breakdowns cost time and money. Elara Digital GmbH now offers the right solutions for reduced downtimes and increased machine availability. Relevant information such as work orders, checklists, machine documentation or guides for trouble shooting can be created in an easy and intuitive way and can be accessed at any time: a knowledge data base for maintenance teams. BEUMER Group supported the project of the founders and managing directors Akram Alraai and Dominik Adamowski with start-up financing.

“Numerous discussions with customers from the manufacturing sector have shown that unplanned machine breakdowns always represent a big problem and can last up to three hours on average,” says Akram Alraai who, in collaboration with Dominik Adamowski, founded the Elara Digital GmbH in Berlin. Adamowski mentions a typical example with a well-known German sports manufacturer: “Because a Profibus component failed, the systems stood still for two hours. The calculated loss amounted to approx. 40,000 Euro.”

In order to support the companies in reducing these costs considerably and in increasing the machine availability, the two company founders developed a new solution – a cloud-based software application, which starts with the improvement of the trouble shooting process: getting an overview, orchestrating communication and, in cases of emergency, local access to relevant information. Elara Digital closes the gap between the maintenance director and the workshop employees. The founders emphasise that their application reduces complexity and provides transparency by equipping the employees in the workshop with a simple mobile application: the factory know-how in your pocket.

A strong partner at your side

The two founders received extensive support also from the Berlin-based, autonomous company builder Beam, a spin-off of BEUMER Group. “We try to solve unique problems in logistics together with the start-up teams,” explains Managing Director Robert Bach. “My task is to find young entrepreneurs with business ideas that are relevant to us. We want to create three start-ups per year and transform them each into a separate company under the umbrella of Beam – like the Elara Digital GmbH.” The aim of BEUMER Group is to open new business areas in logistics together with these companies.

Akram Alraai reports of the beginnings: “BEUMER Group brought us together with more than 30 companies, allowing us to interview them on machine breakdowns and maintenance subjects.” His co-founder Dominik Adamowski and he were surprised how painful trouble shooting processes can often be. But what happens exactly? Presuming, the user is operating the BEUMER stretch hood® high-capacity packaging system. Suddenly the system stops during the shift. An indicator light starts flashing and the error code xfDE45 appears on the display.” The operator either takes care of the problem or calls a service technician. But no matter who of the two carries out the task, both of them will have to face questions: “Where is the manual for this machine? Where are the checklists and the spare parts lists? Who has carried out the last inspection? What does xfDE45 actually mean? Is there a trouble shooting guide for the current problem?”

Pen and paper slow down digitalisation

It can sometimes take a long time for the employee to have all the information ready. In their discussions with the companies, Akram Alraai and Dominik Adamowski were able to identify some of the main causes of these time wasters: “Often predictive maintenance is missing,” says Adamowski. This means: The technicians repair defective components and replace the bad ones only if really necessary or at fixed intervals, but not at intervals based on empirical values.” This usually requires auxiliary means such as Internet of Things or big-data analysis. The implementation is too complex and time-consuming for many companies. Often, work orders, trouble shooting guides or checklists are handwritten and filled in laboriously.

There is not only the risk of mistakes due to unreadable handwriting, but these documents also have to be scanned in order to be filed digitally. “Companies would like to have a system for easy order processing in maintenance,” describes Alraai. “Electronic maintenance schedules or checklists should not be put on paper first, but directly into the system.”

During the discussions, the two founders also learned how the maintenance topic has changed especially in the Covid pandemic. In order to adhere to the distance rules, many companies switched to shift operation. The result: the personnel cover is thinner in each shift and therefore less employees are available for quick repairs.

Moving towards more efficiency

“We have started here,” says Akram Alraai. „Our software allows to create digital work and maintenance orders in easy and fast way and to directly assign them to the right employee.” He can start working directly with his smartphone: He scans the QR code at the machine or system and can immediately access all relevant data required for example for inspection or trouble shooting. “In order to find the required document even faster, he can call it up via voice command,” says Adamowski. In case of unexpected problems in production, employees often refer to trouble shooting guides and if these are not available, it is possible to upload pictures and videos. This makes it easier to diagnose the problem and then solve it. The software records all possible malfunctions and communicates them,” describes Adamowski. “Thus the employee has the entire know-how on his smartphone.”

The web application permits the maintenance director to have an overview on all machines and employees in operation. On the display, he can also call up all important figures to determine the activities in the workshop. Reports and protocols can be generated and exported in different languages via the app with the help of artificial intelligence. Thus they can be easily transferred to existing systems.

Shared knowledge is more knowledge

Headword Knowledge Sharing Economy: “On our platform we want to make the manufactuer’s digital information, such as manuals or tutorials, accessible to our customers,” says Adamowski. “At this regard, we offer an interface through which their documents can be uploaded. Machine operators can also upload and share their reports on faults and how to fix them.”

This way, the knowledge database is continuously filled with practically applicable know-how. Data security plays a very important role: the data are anonymised, protected and stored on servers in Germany. Thus, every user can access checklists, manuals or guides and benefit from a large pool of knowledge and expertise.

With the start-up, BEUMER Group can successfully pursue its goal of bringing digital solutions into the corporate group. The system provider can now provide its customers with even better support, strengthening its position as partner on the market. The two company founders Akram Alraai and Dominik Adamowski have calculated that users need up to 1.5 hours less for trouble shooting than without virtual assistant. This can save them up to 30,000 euros on average. And Elara Digital?

“We benefit from the cooperation with BEUMER Group in the form of generous start-up financing, an extensive network of experts and customers, and a great deal of know-how,” Akram Alraai says happily. “We are now part of the BEUMER family.”

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BEUMER Group has declared digitization a top priority in order to maximize customer satisfaction, while remaining competitive. How can this be achieved? The system supplier relies on the support of start-up companies to bring digital projects into the group. Felix Ostwald and Jonas Grunwald with their company Codept GmbH belong to the so-called “Young and Wild”. Their newly developed logistic platform simplifies the data interchange between retailers and fulfillment service providers. This saves time and money for both parties, provides more flexibility, and allows warehouse logistics operators to better use their capabilities. The idea was born out of an acute experience.
 
“The logistics sector clearly lacks what has long been the standard in payment transactions or online advertising: an integrative platform which offers simple access to a wide variety of different service providers and develops optimization services that are too complex for retailers and logistics providers individually”, Felix Ostwald describes their solution that will considerably simplify the connection between fulfillment providers and e-commerce retailers. The 31-year-old co-founder and managing director and his partner Jonas Grunwald, 34 years old, have founded the company Codept. But not alone. They are supported by the company builder Beam, a spin-off of BEUMER Group based in Berlin. “We try to solve big problems in logistics together with the start-up teams”, says managing director Robert Bach. “My job is to find young companies with business ideas that are relevant for us and to support them in their establishment. We want to create three start-ups per year and transform them each into a separate company under the umbrella of Beam – like the Codept GmbH.” The aim is to open new business areas in logistics together with these companies.

The simplification of application programming interfaces
“What made us come up with the idea?”, Jonas Grunwald repeats the question. “It started out of an acute experience. Fulfillment providers often lose potential customers because they lack the resources for an IT connection or because the initial costs are too high. We simplify the application programming interface of our customers’ systems considerably so that they can concentrate on their core business.” This becomes more and more important especially considering growing internationalization. E-commerce retailers increasingly must be able to dispatch goods to France, Italy or the Netherlands. Big online sellers like Amazon or Zalando manage it within 24 to 48 hours. If a mid-sized company is not able to achieve this, it quickly loses potential customers. In order to meet this standard, the company not only needs warehouse locations in Germany but throughout Europe. “Integrating operators into your own system landscape has so far been extremely time-consuming”, says Felix Ostwald from his own experience. If a retailer for example needs five logistic service providers for storage, packaging, dispatching or also for processing returns, they must set up five interfaces. A programmer is on duty for at least one month both on the dealer’s side and on the service provider’s side, which is both time and cost intensive. “Our new logistic platform offers homogenous interface management as well as reliable data management”, promises Grunwald. “We take care of this connection for the customer. Our platform allows a quick and simple integration of a new partner into the customer’s system without additional efforts.”

Motivation and at least two years of experience
Not everyone is suitable to be a founder, says Robert Bach, managing director of Beam GmbH. “We require at least two years of experience – ideally in a start-up company. If you’re fresh out of college you’re probably not the best fit for us.” Felix completed his business studies with a bachelor’s degree and worked at Contorion, an e-commerce platform for industrial needs. There, he met Jonas in 2015. At that time Felix selected the corresponding logistics providers and took care of their integration – a good basis for his future company. He graduated with a master’s degree in Global Supply Management at the Cass Business School in London and then started working at Zalando. Afterwards he started to work at Otto Group as Supply-Chain project manager. “As part of a project, I developed a new material flow software for Otto Group in cooperation with Siemens Digital Logistics,” he describes. “But no matter where I worked, interfaces were never standardized; the integration was always a challenge.”

Jonas also has quite some experience to look back on – especially in the start-up scene. In Copenhagen, for example, he helped set up a fish import company. “In the food industry, I went through three start-up-like companies”, he says. At 24, he went back to university to study business administration and sociology. After his bachelor’s degree he went to the London School of Economics and Political Science, an elite university, and studied economic sociology. “This was the very right place for me”, he says. He is a passionate nerd and points laughingly to his Microsoft socks. “Besides risk analysis I am interested in game theory, logic and systems theory. The road to software was then not far away.” He first worked as project manager in a start-up company in London. Then he came to Berlin and worked for the same employer as Felix. Among other things he developed and improved logistic systems. One task for example was to automate the process and integrate the service providers.

Very early on, both colleagues felt the desire to create something of their own. “We were in Berlin in the middle of a start-up environment. If you are young and more or less dynamic, crazy ideas come up very quickly”, Felix says. We had ants in our pants;” it was 2015. They never lost sight of each other after that. In 2018 Jonas got in touch with the company builder Beam. He had to face a video interview and convincingly show his motivation and passion. “We spent four months looking exactly were the focus was”, says Robert Bach. “Is he making any progress? How seriously does he take his tasks and how does he manage to develop his own business model?” Jonas tells Felix about his idea and sparks his interest. In cooperation with Beam they continue to refine their idea. “We knew how complex it would be from the e-commerce side to integrate several specialized companies,” explains Felix.

The platform is ready
The new logistics platform enables the retailer to expand their business comfortably and respond to the growing internationalization. Codept (codept.de) will also enable them to access a wide range of logistics providers in the future. “If a company for example needs a warehouse in the North of Spain, we will be able to recommend a suitable partner thanks to our continuously growing experience and data”, promises Felix Ostwald.
The platform offers another important advantage to warehouse logistics operators: As it is possible to connect more than one retailer, the service provider will be able to better manage its warehouse and to react to seasonal fluctuations. Why? Particularly at Christmas and Easter e-commerce business is very strong. On the contrary, in summer consumers shop less online. Therefore the storage areas are rather full in winter and empty in summer. “So, if the operator integrates several different retailers, they can better use the space. The cycles are not always identical, bikes for example sell less in the pre-Christmas season while game consoles are sold more – in summer it’s the other way around.”
 
The suitable partner
“We offer young companies comprehensive intralogistics know-how and access to BEUMER experts, suppliers, and customers. We open doors and show them opportunities and challenges,” describes Beam managing director Bach. “This way new founders and talents can solve a concrete problem with us in their own limited liability company.” BEUMER Group also provides start-up financing. “For us money comes only in third place however”, says Felix Ostwald. The network is more important. But what distinguishes Beam as a partner is the people behind it, who stand out especially due to their high liability and reliability.

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At LogiMAT in Stuttgart, BEUMER Group presented its newly developed BG Sorter from the sortation and distribution technology segment. The high-capacity system enables precise and controlled processing of a wide variety of packages. The system integrator also has an efficient warehouse control system in its range for optimum flow of goods. In an interview, Thomas Wiesmann explains how users can benefit from this comprehensive competence and what trends they can expect. He is Director Sales Logistic Systems at BEUMER Group.

Mr. Wiesmann, at LogiMAT you showed the newly developed BG Sorter, which BEUMER Group first presented in 2018. How was the high-speed sortation system received in the market?

Wiesmann: Very well. We have already been able to implement some exciting projects since the market launch. This includes, for example, the new distribution centre of Austrian Post in Wernberg in Carinthia. Up to 30,000 parcels are handled on a daily basis. Our BG Sorter is at the heart of the centre. Availability, reliability and, above all, speed are valuable assets in this industry and are of paramount importance to our customers. With our system, Austrian Post will be the only parcel service provider in Austria to deliver parcels six days a week, from Monday to Saturday. The BG Sorter is powerful, energy-efficient and extremely quiet – much to the benefit of the employees.

What makes this high-capacity sorter so special and how do users benefit from it?

 Wiesmann: With our BG sorter, operators benefit from very precise and controlled sorting with maximum flexibility. This means that both tilt tray and cross-belt sorters can be used in customer systems. The new sorter family provides the ideal variant for any type of items. The BG Sorter CB (“cross belt”) is a reliable solution for sorting a wide variety of articles such as parcels and bags. The so-called “full cross belt design” means that the maximum belt width is ensured. The actual benefit for the customer: More usable belt area is available with the same sorter size. The risk that products remain lying between the belts is reduced. The tilt tray design also offers some advantages. We have designed the tilt trays so as to prevent items from getting stuck between the trays. The so-called “closed deck” closes the gap between them. This function reduces downtimes and avoids possible damage to the sorter or the goods. Users can handle items of different sizes with more flexibility. The tilt tray version can transport items weighing up to 60 kilograms. Furthermore, the construction series is available either with the proven OptiDrive, which is based on servo drives, or the contactless linear synchronous motor as the drive system. Both reduce energy demand and CO2 emissions compared to products offered by our competitors.

With this development, you have combined the best of Crisplant technology with the best of BEUMER technology. Can you give us more information?

 Wiesmann: Both Crisplant, which today operates under the name of BEUMER Group A/S, and we have acquired extensive know-how in the development of high-quality sortation systems over decades. Since the acquisition in 2009, we have been able to expand our portfolio, exploit synergies and further expand our strengths in technology. The BG Sorter combines future-oriented features, which set new standards in sorting as large a product range as possible. Providing our customers with this scalable system, we facilitate their future growth and enable them to respond to changes in the market.

What demands do online retailers make on sortation technology today and how have they changed over the years?

Wiesmann: The competitive pressure on postal and CEP companies continues to increase. They must not only save costs, but also adopt a more environmentally conscious approach and follow market trends. Basically, material distribution technology is becoming more complex, and the systems must be able to perform increasingly specific tasks or adapt to changing conditions. Highly efficient processes are necessary to ensure quick delivery of parcels to the customer. Mail order companies are offering more and more products whose dimensions previously made it difficult to transport them automatically. In order to meet the increased performance requirements, more automation is required. In addition, the number of the required sortation and distribution systems is increasing, as more small-scale distribution centres are being built close to customers in order to be able to supply them even faster.

As a system integrator, you offer a flexible and modular warehouse control system (WCS) to control complete material flows in distribution centres from goods receipt to goods issue in real time. What are the features of this solution?

 Wiesmann: Our WCS centrally connects and controls material flows from quality assurance, picking of goods and order picking to goods issue, always in accordance with the actual occupancy rate. How effective this system is can be seen, for example, in the new European logistics centre of the Polish automotive spare parts supplier Inter Cars near Warsaw. There it controls the packing and goods issue sorter as well as the put-to-light system in the goods receipt department, coordinates the automatic provision and application of the labels required for shipping the goods, and handles the routing of the individual items on the conveyor lines. This route planning optimises the performance of the system and controls the distribution of the various spare part types.

As an additional module we also offer our BG Fusion system to operators. This visual display system provides the operator with a web-enabled user interface for configuration, monitoring and reporting. It displays system data as alarms in a uniform and centralised way and shows status messages, fault messages and all relevant data. The entire system status can be monitored via the interface to the machine control. BG Fusion combines machine and order data so that the responsible employee can track the current order status in real time.

Why are such software systems becoming more and more important, and what are the concrete benefits for the user?

Wiesmann: The software systems serve as link between the customer’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) or warehouse management system (WMS) and the entire material flow equipment. They ensure that the products reach the right place in the desired time within the distribution centre. Operators can perfectly coordinate their processes, increase throughput and reduce costs. With our know-how in sortation technology, we know exactly how to use these systems so that the user gets the most value out of it.

When developing the WCS software, what did you focus on?

Wiesmann: Unlike many competitors, our focus is not on adapting the customer’s processes to the WCS. We rather adapt the system with its modular design to the respective needs of the customer on a project-by-project basis.

Outlook for the future: What challenges do you see for the logistics industry, and how must providers develop their IT skills?

 Wiesmann: E-commerce is picking up speed and we are expecting double-digit growth per year in this area. In order to hold their own against competitors, the future success of mail order companies and logistics service providers will depend even more on the performance of their distribution centres. To increase performance, digitisation is inevitable.

What does that mean in concrete terms for us as suppliers? To position us for the future, we must complement our expertise in machines and systems, including the necessary software and controls, with digital innovation. We have competence in mechanical engineering. Here in Germany, there are many hidden champions who are global leaders with their products and systems. In my opinion, it is more convenient to adapt digital technologies for the required digital competence. For this purpose, we founded the BEAM GmbH in Berlin. With this autonomous company builder, we want to solve B2B challenges that are unique to the logistics industry in cooperation with start-up teams. For this we are planning on founding three start-ups per year and transfer them, consolidated under BEAM, into a separate company. Our goal is to open up new, but also disruptive business areas in logistics.

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