Lost without a trace? Detection that delivers transparency in incoming goods

Continental and SICK have joined forces to achieve transparency in incoming goods at the automotive supplier’s facility in Regensburg. Building on a test version, the two partner companies gradually developed the Incoming Goods Suite (IGS), a system solution for digitalized incoming goods handling, to the point of operational readiness – a solution steeped in real-world experience.

Up to 400 individual parcels a day, not to mention innumerable pallet consignments, arrive at the incoming goods department of the Continental logistics center in Regensburg. This means a broad spectrum of standard and express shipments, priority and less urgent deliveries, complete consignments and individual batches, and even the odd misdirected or damaged parcel, all of which are handed over by countless parcel firms with their own unique proof-of-delivery systems. “It is not completely unheard of for a parcel to disappear without a trace, as you can soon lose track of what’s happening in these kinds of scenarios,” explains Marco Immisch, the man in charge of the Continental logistics center in Regensburg.

His colleague Otto Schweiger, who handles processing technology in the logistics center’s incoming goods department, outlines the implications: “Whether it was the uncertain status of shipments that had been announced but not necessarily received or parcels getting held up in incoming goods and being assigned to the wrong category, it all made pinpointing individual consignments a complex business; it tied up resources, consumed valuable time, disrupted other processes, cost money, and resulted in frustration, both for incoming goods and in-house recipients.”

Similarly frustrated about a complex system that was supposed to make life easier, the two Continental managers became interested in the IGS system from SICK. Even the initial presentation by Alexander Aberle, Head of HSCC Product Management at SICK in Waldkirch, and his distribution colleague Carsten Kunze from SICK Vertriebs-GmbH in Düsseldorf lived up to expectations of a “simple, cost-effective, and flexible system that could be implemented quickly,” recalls Marco Immisch. “However,” recounts Otto Schweiger, “there was still work to do to modify the IGS version at the time to cover all processes and logic systems used in incoming goods at Continental in Regensburg and to deploy it as a live system that needed to be connected with a data center.”

A further consideration was that Continental was not looking for a proprietary solution for exclusive use at its own company. “Therefore, we entered into a partnership agreement with SICK, the aim being to take over the finished system while also designing it as a marketable solution for other companies,” explains Marco Immisch. “This was, of course, very exciting for us,” recall Alexander Aberle and Carsten Kunze, “as this allowed us, in tandem with Continental, to gradually transform the first stand-alone test system into a network-enabled live system by adding application-specific extension modules. As such, the current incarnation of IGS has been developed from the bottom up – in a step-by-step process that always centered on customer preferences and practical needs.”

IGS functionality gradually expanded

The joint functional development process for IGS began with a stand-alone test system. Mobile devices – and their functionality, user friendliness, and therefore acceptance – represented another focal point. “The system’s performance and ergonomics were continuously optimized, and a wealth of features incorporated within the Operator Assistance App developed by SICK, which assists users with the real-time parcel registration process,” points out Otto Schweiger. The basic functions, such as optimization of the user interface and the automatic recognition of labels from different parcel companies, were included within the IGS solution. Custom features, e.g., storage place allocation (which Continental uses to temporarily store parcels on pallets), were developed as functional extension modules. “Continental or any other company can therefore tailor the functionality of IGS to their own requirements,” explains Alexander Aberle.

IT integration of the software within the Continental data center in Regensburg was also completed step by step. “The standalone version was initially limited to incoming goods,” recounts Marco Immisch. “In order to nonetheless provide SICK with remote access for support and service reasons at this stage of development, a corresponding connection was set up via VPN and a mobile network. Subsequent integration within the data center could be prepared alongside testing of the increasingly more functional IGS.” Today, each parcel is entered into a database in real time when it is scanned by a mobile computer. The central overview list not only stores the shipment number, but also other shipment-specific delivery and processing data, e.g., tracking numbers, assignment to parcel delivery providers, data and time information, priority status, storage location ID, and information on completion of the internal transport process.

Alongside improvements to the processes themselves, IGS also enables the aggregation of incoming goods data for specific analysis. The IGS solution can generate and show data analysis in real time to ascertain, for example, which providers have delivered how many parcels and when, the condition of these parcels, the volume of priority shipments, and the times at which delivery volumes peak and diminish.

Unearthing valuable incoming goods data

Digitalization begins with data collection; in this regard, each incoming consignment harbors valuable data. Together with SICK, the managers at Continental have successfully mined this data, transforming what was once a “black box” into a transparent incoming goods department. But the potential extends still further, as Marco Immisch and Otto Schweiger now want to use this data for claims management documentation. The idea is to photograph damaged shipments as soon as they are received and registered, before quickly and unambiguously associating this data with the existing shipment details. The relevant supplier and parcel company data is completed using the ERP system, meaning that a digital complaint instruction can be automatically generated at the push of a button – and eventually via AI. Another idea is to adapt the IGS to the outgoing goods and shipping departments, as there is considerable overlap in terms of requirements.

Keeping track of incoming goods – thanks to digital detection with IGS.

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