It all began as a one-man company in a garage in Achim near Bremen. Hansa-Flex, a systems provider for fluid technology, now employs over 4,400 people. The new building, featuring an automated pallet warehouse, went into operation in 2022. The switch to Viadat 9.1 also proved to be the right choice.

The products and services range from simple hose lines for hydraulics and pneumatics to engineering, assembly, cylinder repair, and series production for original equipment. The new building comprises a four-part building complex with an area of ​​18,000 square meters, including administration, a logistics and production hall, and a high-bay warehouse.

At the same time, Hansa-Flex carried out a complete software landscape update at its three locations: The previous SAP system, SAP R/3, was migrated to SAP S/4HANA. This also involved an update of the warehouse management system with the goal of increasing the productivity of its logistics processes: "Our customers expect to receive their goods ever faster," explains Christine Linz, head of the central warehouse. "We also want to expand the capacity of our online shop to serve an even larger customer base."

Until then, Hansa-Flex used two systems for its logistics operations: The manual warehouses in Geisenfeld and at the "old" location "Zum Panrepel 44" in Bremen were managed with SAP WM, which will no longer be supported by 2027. The Viadat warehouse management system was used for the automated tray warehouse with 24,500 storage locations at "Panrepel" and for the automated container warehouse in Geisenfeld with 36,000 storage locations – initially in version 4.0 since 1993, and then in version 6.2 since 2006.

Fast service. Image: Hana-Flex

With the planned switch to SAP S/4HANA, Hansa-Flex faced the choice of managing all warehouse areas – automatically and manually – via SAP or the SAP EWM module, or using SAP S/4HANA only for the higher-level functions and implementing warehouse management via Viadat version 9.1. "But we definitely wanted to have all the materials in our various warehouses in one system," recalls Linz. Ultimately, the decision was made in favor of Viadat 9: "Our employees are familiar with Viadat – even though the new version is a big leap, they still have a certain level of recognition," says Christine Linz. "This made the learning process easier for them than with the significantly more complex SAP." Hansa-Flex rated Viadat 9 better overall than SAP EWM in terms of costs and time expenditure.

Hose lengths precisely stored

But Viadat 9 also impressed with its functionality, as Tobias Seidel, Supply Chain Manager at Hansa-Flex, reports: "Viadat enables individual hose length management in the automated pallet warehouse at our headquarters." Previously, the hose warehouse was managed by SAP, explains Seidel. However, the system only "knew" the total amount of hose material on a pallet. It did not record how many meters of hose were on the various reels stored on a pallet.

"Previously, a pallet would be retrieved and, if necessary, the required length of hose would be cut from a roll. Overall, this process was very time-consuming." Viadat 9.1, on the other hand, stores the exact meters available for each roll on a pallet. If, for example, a 30-meter hose is ordered today, the system knows whether the desired length is already available and retrieves the appropriate pallet directly. "This has significantly improved picking performance in the hose warehouse alone and reduced the amount of leftover stock," emphasizes Seidel.

Automatic replenishment

In Geisenfeld, Viadat not only controls the automated small parts warehouse, but also the fast-moving items area, including the tugger train: "We store the items in particularly high demand in the lower section of the shelves," explains Tobias Seidel. "From this area, an employee uses the tugger train to remove packaging units directly from the shelf, which enables particularly fast picking." Viadat fully automatically controls the replenishment of fast-moving items from the upper shelf areas.

In addition, viastore has implemented a free choice of storage location, as Markus Ott, viastore's project manager, adds: "The standard procedure is for Viadat to specify the storage location on the shelf. At Hansa-Flex, however, the warehouse employees were able to work more efficiently when they had the option of choosing the appropriate storage location themselves."

"We configured the system so that each user only sees the information that is actually relevant to them," explains Seidel. For example, the picking dialog is much more transparent and simpler, as Seidel continues: "For each picking order, the system also displays an image of the item to be picked – this significantly reduces picking errors." Furthermore, important key figures can be visualized graphically in individual dashboards. "Today, we pull the most important key figures from the system daily," says Christine Linz.

Working hand in hand...

Viadat has now been in use for over a year – and with success: "We're currently significantly faster in picking times in the hose area thanks to the interaction of the automated pallet warehouse and Viadat9," says Seidel, describing the productivity gains. Christine Linz emphasizes that picking quality has also been significantly improved. "Thanks to the visual display of the items in the picking dialog and a further scan of the item number, picking the wrong item is no longer possible."

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