Sales Centre West

Adolf Würth GmbH & Co. KG is a leading specialist supplier of assembly and fastening materials. It is the largest subsidiary of the Würth Group, with a worldwide headcount of 67,000 staff and sales amounting to around EUR 10 billion in 2014. The sales force distributes more than 100,000 products directly to tradespeople and industrial customers.

The corporate philosophy of “every customer has their own Würth” focuses on individualised delivery services whilst simultaneously maintaining high productivity rates. Despite the huge variety of stocked products both at the Sales Centre West and the connected warehouse facilities, orders must reach the customer within 24 hours if required. These principles required the development of efficient yet highly flexible processes in ergonomically optimal workspaces.

Against this background, io-consultants had to apply a focused approach to the new Sales Centre project – from concept work and fine planning to realisation and final implementation. io-consultants’ innovative solution was an alternative format for outbound products: a “buffer” shuttle warehouse that supplies four articulated robots in outgoing goods with cardboard boxes. io-consultants was also responsible for the project management. The planning and consulting specialists enabled joint access to overlapping assignments within the project portal, thus giving themselves and Würth a constant overview of the project’s progress in terms of schedule and budget adherence. A key challenge for their IT experts was the introduction of SAP EWM, as the software was integrated in the existing classic SAP system.