A major challenge for us was the development and implementation of custom software for shipping and inventory tracking in Just-In-Time warehouses for the Volkswagen manufacturing plant in Bratislava. Based on the requirements and a subsequent thorough analysis conducted directly at the site of our long-term client Faurecia (now Forvia), we developed the Production Monitoring Board solution.
The proposed system enables the tracking of shipments—including loading and unloading—of transport carts carrying components for specific vehicles based on orders from the Volkswagen manufacturing plant. These trolleys are placed directly from production into so-called TPA zones in the order specified in the orders, from which they are subsequently shipped to the customer. The system controls and records the movement of each transport unit—from storage in the TPA zone, through shipment via a specific truck, to receipt by the recipient—VW.
Since the company faces significant financial penalties for any delay or hold-up on the production line caused by a failure to follow the delivery sequence, the supply to the production line must be continuous. At the same time, the required sequence of transport units must also be followed. Therefore, in In the event of unforeseen circumstances (e.g., a problem with the carrier, a drop in inventory levels…), alerts are automatically generated for the responsible staff members.
In addition to visual indicators on the information display in the production area, order picking from TPA zones is also signaled by flashing lights above each zone, which prevents trucks from being loaded incorrectly.
The need to access process information from any device and any location was addressed by deploying a web application in the cloud, which gives us, as the vendor, the ability to provide fast, remotely support and maintain the system without having to wait for the customer’s IT staff to make the server available.
Employees who track individual shipping units use portable PDA terminals with a data connection to a cloud server.
