Particularly when mass shipments have to be handled, the outgoing goods department can become a stumbling block for the fast processing of order and delivery processes. In this area, the automation of work processes is one of the most effective efficiency boosters for simplifying and speeding up processes. A family-run print and media company therefore relies on modular shipping software that ensures transparency along the entire freight supply chain. Thanks to automation, the shipping system creates efficient and permeable processes and, with the time savings and cost advantages gained in this way, consolidates the marketability of the medium-sized company. By Eva Günzler
Experience has shown the media service provider: It pays to put the pressure on when it comes to efficiency.
The communications and media service provider Walter Medien GmbH is based in Brackenheim and builds its entrepreneurial success on several pillars; in addition to the continuous further development of internal value-added processes, this means that above all a high level of quality, service and reliability prevails. Finally, the company’s own delivery of products also contributes to this in the best possible way. The family-owned company was able to optimize its shipping processing by means of automation with modular software for shipping logistics that reduces manual work steps and transparently displays the current status of freight and shipping completion in just a few clicks. “We came to the HEIDLER Strichcode shipping system (HVS32) in 2006 through a recommendation from GLS,” recalls Marcus Essich, logistics manager at Walter Medien. “It was important to us that we get a software solution that works along the complete freight supply chain and integrates different carriers, and at the same time comes from a single source – because what we didn’t want at all was a potpourri of modules from different providers.” After GLS pointed out that there was a solution that met these requirements, this met with great interest from the print service manager, who then “tapped” the software solution for other individually required special features. One requirement, for example, was the mass printing of shipping labels, where the recipient addresses contained in an existing CSV file that could be read out with Microsoft Excel were to be printed in bulk. Whereas before the shipping software was implemented, the shipping labels were laboriously labeled by hand using dot-matrix printers on the production line, labeling is now done centrally in the shipping office to save time. Here, the printed shipping labels of the “actions” are sent to the shipping department.
In addition to the requirement for mass printing of shipping labels, the use of the HVS32 solved another special logistical challenge at the Baden-Württemberg-based print service provider. “Our main business is calendar production. Of course, this makes it necessary for us to pre-produce so that we can ship the calendars in the fall,” explains Essich. “The software has been adapted to allow us to pre-date the finished packaged goods accordingly.”
One software solution for all carriers
Highlighting the shipping tool for the communications and media services company, however, is that the software allows them to have one solution with all carriers exclusively. “We have several carriers, three freight forwarders and two parcel service providers, which are all centrally integrated in the HVS32. So we don’t have to connect each carrier individually,” Essich says. “As a result, we can prepare shipments centrally and call them up in a unified pool. If we had to switch it all up individually and call it up on a daily basis, we could hardly manage it in terms of time, given our ever-increasing volume of shipments.”
Packages are delivered on time, every time.
With the right software, shipping runs smoothly.
