BRAFAB GOES FROM PAPER TO PERFECT WITH ASTRO WMS® 

Swedish Brafab has gone from using an older system of Excel sheets for warehouse management to state-of-the-art features in Astro WMS®. The result? Twice the speed of picking order lines with 100% accuracy. As well as more satisfied customers and happy salespeople. 

Challenge

Brafab sells furniture for outdoor living in patios, gardens, poolside, and balconies, including tables, benches, outdoor kitchens, recliners, umbrellas, and accessories. 

Before adopting Astro WMS®, the company did not have a dedicated warehouse management system (WMS). Instead, they incorporated additional features into their Navision ERP system. Pickers would work with pen and paper and later with hand units. However, the system never worked in real-time. This created several problems: 

• There never seemed to be enough space for inbound goods. 
• Warehouse operators faced difficulty in locating stored goods. 
• As picking was paper-based, a picking round could take days in the 355-meter-long, narrow warehouse. 
• Goods were randomly stacked, lacking logic. 

• The warehouse dimensions were not used to their maximum potential, which gave the false impression that the warehouse was full, reducing its capacity. 
• As the ERP was not updated, salespeople could not trust the inventory's accuracy while making sales. 

Solution 

Brafab contacted a consultant who looked at flows in the warehouse. He suggested a dedicated warehouse management system and recommended Consafe Logistics as the best supplier and Astro WMS® as the best for their purposes. After some reference visits to other Consafe Logistics customers, Brafab was convinced.  

Consafe Logistics suggested a pre-study about where to find savings. Together, the companies looked at how to optimize flows, types of hardware, and where to find efficiencies. By prioritizing the pre-study and investing time in the analysis phase, the implementation process was seamless. 

Now, Brafab uses Astro WMS® for everything from inbound goods to creating article numbers and outbound deliveries. The company continually accesses reporting in real-time, managing everything in the warehouse. In addition, the warehouse has been rebuilt, taking advantage of full pallets and multicycles. 

Key benefits of the new solution include the following: 

• Since the WMS system allocates locations for incoming goods, forklift drivers know exactly where to place items in the warehouse
• Optimized forklift use: due to the WMS controlling inbound and outbound flows, forklifts never drive empty. 
• Greater delivery security due to delivering on pallets rather than loose goods. 
• Quicker delivery: the number of order lines per day has doubled, from 60-70 to 150. 
• Everything is measured, making setting and achieving KPIs for each part of the warehouse process easier. 
• Salespeople can sell and deliver much quicker and with 100% accuracy, offering significantly improved customer service. 
  
  

Next phase, OpView  

Brafab is testing OpView to help increase efficiencies even more. OpView is a scalable module that collects and visualizes data from one or many data sources, giving you a clear overview of operations.