Faster, More Efficient eCommerce Warehouse Processes

The Company

TB International GmbH (TBInt.), one of Germany’s leading fashion wholesalers

TB International GmbH (TBInt.) distributes over 15 textile and accessories brands, selling its fashionwear to more than 15,000 retailers worldwide. Dedicated investment into technologies that drive digitization and automation of their logistics processes is an important pillar of their corporate strategy. With Inpixon’s INTRANAV Smart Warehouse solution, TB International helps ensure the company’s long-term competitive advantage.

The Challenge

Across 25,000 square meters of logistics space in their large Groß Gerau warehouse, where dozens of 40-foot containers are delivered daily and up to 1.3 million cartons leave the warehouse each year, TBInt. had to introduce a new process for goods registration, processing, intralogistics transport and preparation of outgoing goods in order to be able to continue to overcome growing cost pressures and guarantee fast delivery times. 

• High number of manual identification and confirmation steps
  Many manual logistics workflow steps from inbound to outbound, such as sorting, searching, and manually scanning cartons, across all logistics zones of the warehouse.
• Mispostings and packing errors 
  From time to time, incorrect bookings and packing errors occur, which result in costly process reworks and additional time expenditures.
• Transport orders cause long search times for forklift drivers
  Forklift drivers often can’t quickly find where available transport orders are located, resulting in empty runs, bottlenecks and delays.
• Inefficient routes and lack of storage space, transport and goods flow transparency
  Forklift drivers attempt to navigate the dynamic environment with little visibility into what’s the best route to take to their destination or where’s the most efficient and available storage space to take certain goods.
• Errors in storage and retrieval processes
  Forklift drivers store a pallet in the wrong location or pick up the wrong goods, resulting in critical inefficiencies and errors for outbound and retrieval processes.
• High sorting effort
  High manual sorting effort in goods receipt processing.

The Results

INTRANAV Smart Warehouse Module and UWB + RFID technology helps TB International increase efficiency by nearly 40%.

TBInt. monitors and controls its entire intralogistics process, from receipt of goods to shipping, through multi-RTLS layers with UWB and RFID technology. They have eliminated many manual processes and implemented an automatic transport order processing system controlled by INTRANAV Smart Warehouse software to ensure superior reliability and efficiency.

• Elimination of scanning processes
• Real-time optimization of transport orders
• Reduction of empty runs
• Optimization of routes and capacity utilization

The RFID implementation of whole-carton handling increased efficiency by nearly 40% and increased productivity while reducing processing time. The Smart Warehouse solution will also enable TBInt. to sustainably increase efficiency at its other logistics locations - an important milestone for the company and its digital supply chain strategy.