Improving Shop Floor Logistics Step by Step

The Challenges

As Gräper continued to grow within the rapidly evolving energy transition market, the volume of orders and material flows increased significantly. What was once manageable through visual stock control became increasingly difficult for the Logistics, Purchasing, and Finance teams to oversee efficiently. This created several operational challenges:

• Too much time spent on manual stock checks and replenishment
• Frequent shortages in the main inventory
• Rush orders to avoid production delays
• Occasional downtime caused by missing materials
• Limited insight into live stock levels and consumption

To stay agile and competitive, Gräper needed a smarter solution capable of streamlining processes, improving inventory visibility, and providing better control over operational performance.

Scalability was also a key requirement. The system needed the flexibility to grow alongside the organization and support future process optimization.

The Implementation

The rollout was executed as one integrated project, taking both the technical and logistical requirements on-site into account. This included setting up the network infrastructure and configuring permanently linked SmartLabels across the facility. The current setup includes:

• A central supermarket equipped with 139 SmartBin Clouds
• 81 different Bossard product types
• 178 SmartLabels across 11 shelving units
• 5 access points for stable connectivity

The implementation also had to fit alongside existing inventory processes. In one production area, separate shelving was introduced: one dedicated to Bossard components and another for non-Bossard items already in use. This ensured a clear and manageable logistics structure while allowing phased expansion.