It’s always nice to see a customer positively featured in the news. And that happened to a customer of mine. Rf-Technologies from the Belgian town of Oosterzele received the ‘Factory of the future Award’ on 6 February 2019. This is the highest possible recognition for the manufacturing industry in Belgium. Rf-Technologies has been a customer of ours since 2017 and works with StackAssist. I got in touch with them because they were looking for a way to get a grip on their logistics planning process, costs and predictability of shipments.
Outbound process clear and visual
Rf-Technologies designs innovative solutions to provide customers with effective products for passive fire protection such as fire resistant dampers, ventilation grills or fire resistant boards. You will find these solutions in many commercial and institutional buildings throughout Europe: office buildings, hospitals, museums, government buildings and shopping centres. Using StackAssist, we made their outbound process predictable and visual. StackAssist is a software solution that helps to efficiently plan and execute order picking, stacking and loading. In doing so, StackAssist takes into account transport requirements in the broadest sense of the word.
More efficient transport and cost savings
Before Rf-Technologies worked with StackAssist, the logistics staff only knew how many pallets were needed after production and stacking. Only then could they call to arrange transport. Now they can arrange it in advance because they know the volume and the number of pallets beforehand. StackAssist has also made their own transport, ranging from large projects of large buildings to sending spare parts, more efficient. It saves considerable costs because fewer pallets are needed for large projects. And the cost price of packages versus pallets is taken into account for the spare parts, so that you also transport at the lowest cost. They can now make these kinds of choices in advance if, for example, it turns out that sending three separate packages is cheaper than a pallet.
A seamless translation of company data into Stack Assist
The biggest reason for choosing StackAssist was that it was the only tool that could deal with their complex situation. StackAssist is programmed in such a way that no adjustments are needed in customers’ systems. The tool can easily translate the company-specific situation without customisation requirements. This saves time and money. Extensions can also be realised quickly and at low cost.
How do you manage that with StackAssist at Rf-Technologies?
- Based on their production sequence, products are stacked on a pallet via the software, taking into account specific customer or product requirements.
- The number of pallets is passed on to the logistical planning department and the customer handling department so that transport can be arranged (by Rf-Technologies itself or by the customer).
- All stacking instructions are visualised so that the packer can see on a screen where to place the products for a particular order.
Greater efficiency but also higher customer satisfaction
By implementing it, we at Rf-Technologies have strongly reduced the turnaround time of the outbound process. The efficiency has increased and the predictability has been enhanced. As a result, the logistical planning process has become simpler, there is less follow-up work and fewer emergencies occur. This results in a lot of efficiency for the internal processes, but don’t forget the customer side! StackAssist also ensures higher customer satisfaction. Because you are seen as a reliable supplier if you say what you do and do what you say. Customers can trust that when Rf-Technologies says it’s three pallets, it really are three pallets.
The ‘Factory of the Future’ award requires a high level of effort to achieve the various transformations towards ‘Industry 4.0’. In my opinion, a well-deserved award for Rf-Technologies!
