How Firestone Industrial Products Used Handling

Unit Management and Mobile RF Technology to

Improve Customer Satisfaction
John Fearnow Firestone Industrial Products
John Gardner Dickinson + Associates

AGENDA

Who is Firestone
Who is Dickinson + Associates
Business Problem
Handling Units
Solution
Wrap Up

LEARNING POINTS
How Handling Units can be used for
Load validation
Generating customer specific label formats at the point of use

Using Handling Units and Standard Transfer Order

functionality to help pickers report correctly as they
pick

Corporate Profile

Firestone Building Products

http://www.firestonebpco.com/
5

Ipad App
http://www.firestonebpco.com/Tools/iPad_App/

Firestone Industrial Products Markets

http://www.firestoneip.com/

Firestone Industrial Products HD Truck &

Trailer

Potentially up to 18 air springs on a class 8 truck & trailer application

Firestone Industrial / Building Products

Global Reach
Woodstock, Ontario,

Mississauga, Ontario

Brussels, Belgium
Wolstzyn,Poland

Rotterdam, Holland
Beijing, China

Headquarters
Carmel, IN
31 U.S. Locations
Monterrey, Mexico
Sao Paulo, Brazil

Gurgaon, India

Turrialba, Costa Rica

Singapore

Firestone Business Technology Vision

To provide innovative, comprehensive,

dependable solutions that support and align
with the objectives of the business.

We Are:
Focus:

Delivery of quality SAP ERP, BI/Analytics, Mobility

consulting services to customers across North America,
Europe, and Asia.

Our People:

A team of 140+ full-time SAP professionals reflects the

ideal mix of years of relevant business knowledge, very
strong SAP credentials, and solid communication skills.
Our team has an average of 15 years SAP and 19 years
business experience.

Offices:

Chicago, IL (Headquarters)
Satellites: New York, NY | Scottsdale, AZ | Cincinnati, OH

Consistent Growth: 15 years revenue growth

We are:

10

Service Offerings

ERP

Professional
Staffing

SAP Strategy +
Implementation

Mobility

Analytics

Process
Optimization
Services

Support
Desk

SAP
Upgrade
Services

11

Customer Labeling Requirements

New labels
Carton Label, Shipping Label, Mixed Load Label
Unique Packaging ID for each carton/pallet printed on the label
Shipment ID printed on label
Specific requirements for applying labels to packaging

New Packing List

Sorted by packaging ID
Contents of each packaging ID listed on pack list

Changes to EDI ASN (need to transmit packaging ID structure)

12

Label to EDI Synchronization

13

Requirements for Applying Labels

Requirements for Applying Labels

Business Challenges
Weak print infrastructure
Existing labeling infrastructure was on legacy systems
Picking was in SAP but packing / load verification was a
manual paper based process
Labels were printed after the fact from the legacy system
Multiple pallet picks appeared on a transfer order as 1 line
item / pick
Inventory discrepancies where noted when found and then
addressed after the fact in SAP
Customers require customer specific labels on the pallets
Customer shipments contain individual piece picks and
multiple pallet picks
Customer requires labels and EDI information to reference a
shipment number
Label data and ASN EDI data needs to be aligned

Obstacles for Printing Labels

Label formats vary based on
Customer
Packaging material
Device type

How do you manage the complexity without a

complicated program?

Handling Unit Management (HUM)

Definition Process used to identify structures of packages and its
material contents
Used to simplify logistics processes
Inventory Management
Production Execution
Warehouse Management
Delivery Processing
Shipping

Handling Unit (HU) contains

Materials
Other Handling Units (Nesting)

Key Attributes
Unique Identification Number
Dimensions, Weights, & Volume
Status
Materials and quantities
Packaging materials

18

Handling Unit Structural Overview

1000000209
1000000210

1000000208
1000000207

123456

1000000205
1000000206

1000000203
1000000199

3000000051

Phased Approach
Implement packing functionality for label generation
Validate process and approach
Replace after the fact labeling with real time labeling
Implement Pick Pack into 1 operation to eliminate QA
steps after pack

Final Design Full SAP Solution

Label design with standard

tool (Bartender)

PC Label Design
Application

Shipment
Packing

RF
SAPConsole
Packing

Output Determination Logic

Load Label format into SAP

as standard text

Output Type
Print Program

Output determination logic

setup for different packaging
materials (box, pallet, mixed
load, etc)

Z table links customer label

design to packaging material
output
Shipping location
Ship To Location
Device type

RF
SAPConsole
Pick + Pack

Smart
Form

Std
Text

Customer
Specific
Label Table

BFDP SAP Print Server

ins140printsap

TC/IP Print Service

Pick and Pack To-Be Process Vision

Shipment Creation.

2
User accesses Shipment.

Delivery

Delivery
Delivery
Delivery

SAP Console

SAP Delivery Processing.

TOs
TOs

TOs
TOs

Transfer Order Creation.

Assign Deliveries (Link TOs)

4
6

User Selects HU
Type.
5

5
User picks and packs
material.

Pallet

User prints labels.

Attaches to the HU.

Carton
123456

User confirms activity.

Nest HUs as required.

User stages
complete HUs to
outbound Staging
Lane.

Business Process Flow

Pick and Pack Process Flow

Pick and Pack Start Screen / Dashboard

Provides overview of shipment

How many picks remain
Status of pack operation
Total Number of Handling Units on the
shipment
Total number of Parent Handling Units
Expected total weight of the shipment
# of handling units that have been packed but
not capped

General Operation

Enter the
Packaging
Material
being packed.
Press Enter

Handling unit is
created.

Confirm the
bin and
quantity.
Press enter to
Validate

Confirm
becomes
active.
Confirm to
pack item
into Handling
unit

Item 1 is
complete

Pick / Pack item Short Pick Process

Diff. Indicator

Shipment being packed

1 Theft

Difference will be posed to

Storage Type 999
Storage Bin LOST&FOUND

2 Source
Storage Bin

Difference will be posted back to

the source Storage Type and
Storage Bin
(i.e. Stype F1F Bin D1031019)

3 Pick
Difference

Difference will be posed to

Storage Type 999
Storage Bin DIFFERENCE

New Post Processing Feature:

Enter bin and

shortage quantity.
Press F1 or F7

Select Diff. Indicator

Press F1 Confirm
User is routed accordingly
F1 Item is confirmed and packed
F7 User is routed to Full Pallet
Screen

When a short pick occurs, RF will

automatically attempt to create another
pick to fulfill the shortage quantity.
IF a new item is created, it is added and
sequenced in the list.
IF not, a warning message will be
displayed.

Picking short and less material in the BIN

than the system

System will post the

difference quantity to
the differences bin. It
will then create a new
TO if there is more
material available in
the warehouse

System says pick 4,

but only 1 in the bin

Tell system there is a

quantity difference in
the bin.

For full Pallet, a shortcut

Selecting New HU
prints out a label
for the current
handling unit and
allows creating a
new handling unit.
Multiple handling
units of the same
type can be created
in 2 steps.
Confirm Bin and
Quantity and select
FulPal

Enter how many

handling units the
quantity
represent and
how many of
parts in each HU.
Confirm and Cap
creates the
Number of
handling unit
labels

Handling Unit Management Screen

This shows detail of what should be in

Handling Unit, Reprint of labels and
deleting an uncapped handling unit.
Capped handling units must be deleted
using the SAP GUI
Enter the selector number for the handling
unit and F1 Sel to move to the packing
screen

Lessons learned
Have to use gun and labels to design and test. This is a
case where you have to do it exactly as an operator
would
Work closely with people that do this every day during
design and testing
Have a good partner and developer

BEST PRACTICES

Leverage standard SAP BAPIs and Function Modules

Design the screen flow to enhance the physical flow
Look for creative ways to simplify processing and data maintenance
Dont over engineer or under engineer, make it just right!
Too much information can be an overload
Not enough feature / functionality causes additional overhead

Partnership

Extensive SAP Experience

Right resources with the right skills
Project methodologies and tools

Transparent Communication
Cost-effective Solutions
A REAL partnership
Shared approach to risk management
Dedicated to IT and Business Success
Commitment to strategic SAP Roadmap
Lets just do it!!! Because its the right thing to do!!!

THANK YOU FOR PARTICIPATING

Please provide feedback on this session by
completing a short survey via the event mobile
application.
SESSION CODE: 1003
For ongoing education on this area of focus,
visit www.ASUG.com