German premium car manufacturer of luxury vehicles and motorcycles, Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, commonly referred to as BMW, has a dedicated team to deploy, manage, and store design models of BMW Group vehicles. This team requires a simple and efficient inventory management and retrieval system for multiple models of BMW Group vehicles across numerous warehouse locations. As their previous inventory management system became outdated, they searched for an innovative approach to fulfill their growing needs and streamline their process.
Prior to the implementation of its new inventory management solution, BMW Group faced many challenges.
First, their legacy software, a check-in & check-out inventory management system, was about to expire. This meant that they would no longer receive support from the vendor for the maintenance of their solution and that there would be no further updates or new features.
Second, search times for BMW Group vehicle models were often long and resource-intensive with their old solution. Once a model was no longer in its checked-in storage location, or check-out was missed, the logistics team started a manual search – sometimes across several storage facilities. There was also a lack of information on return times for the off-site lending of models, such as for trade shows. In addition, their previous inventory management system was based on barcode technology, which the team wanted to move away from due to the high degree of manual handling required.
On top of these issues, BMW Group needed to find a hardware system that would fit with the company-wide radio frequencies management policy. Their new solution had to prove that operations would not impact the functionality of their existing radio-based deployments (such as Wi-Fi).
As a result, BMW Group was looking for a one-stop solution that could automatically capture inventory, track the location of vehicle models in real-time, and also help their team manage the inventory of vehicle models with modern features such as reminders, alerts, and more.
Inpixon
Real-time location and inventory management via advanced IoT platform
Wirepas
Battery-powered mesh connectivity technology
ELA Innovation
Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) hardware tags
Inpixon's INTRANAV Inventory Manager is a complete solution for managing enterprise inventory, such as equipment, prototype models, rotating equipment, tools, products, boxes, and valuable loaners.
The advantage of the software is that RTLS (Real-TIme Location System) based on technologies like BLE, UWB, Chirp (CSS), or GPS, as well connectivity technologies like Wirepas, can be connected to track inventory in real-time.
The inventory management system has an automated inventory notification feature that can send notifications to staff to check on specific inventory items.
Here is a brief overview of some of the features:
INTRANAV Inventory Manager has an input screen that allows the user to add inventory objects to the system. The user can also add custom filters and fields to meet the internal inventory requirements.
INTRANAV Inventory Manager has an advanced and simple search form. This can be customized to the specific needs and requirements of the customer. It offers the possibility to search for specific identification numbers, inventory types, tracker numbers, item group types, and much more.
The user can get a comprehensive overview of the stored and managed inventory. Important parameters such as disposal information or file attachments can be quickly retrieved.
Searches can be performed via the inventory list or the search function. Here, the detailed selection from the inventory list is displayed. Next to the object name, the map shows where the inventory object is located.
