Czech corporation KOH-I-NOOR HARDTMUTH a.s., the biggest manufacturer of office and art supplies in central and eastern Europe will manage its foreign markets dispatch warehouse using the DCI MySite Warehouse Management System from a Pilsen based company Aimtec. The main reason why KOH-I-NOOR chose this information system is the aim to improve customer service and to save costs associated with goods picking.

KOH-I-NOOR HARDTMUTH a.s. is a part of the KOH-I-NOOR holding a.s. Group. The company boasts a long tradition. For more than 200 years it has been offering a diverse portfolio of high quality products – for example pencils, charcoal, lead, pastels, crayons, chalk, oil, tempera and water colours, writing and drawing supplies, rubbers and a whole range of other supplies. 90% of the production is sold to customers in over 70 countries worldwide.

Aimtec as a key logistics partner

It was specifically at the foreign markets dispatch warehouse where the company needed process support. During the tender process, main decisions were made by the foreign trade management team, who also raised the call to change the current situation. The company chosen in the end was Aimtec, a Pilsen based company operating on European markets. Aimtec is a key logistics partner for KOH-I-NOOR. The Warehouse Management System DCI MySite supplied by this company is a flexible product, the main advantage of which is its rapid deployment to customer needs and the ability to be easily modified for further enhancement in large corporations.

The aim of the project is, firstly, the improvement of customer service, i.e. elimination of errors associated with goods dispatch, guaranteed picking strategies according to the rules of FIFO and FEFO and error-free preparation of mixed palets at the level of packages and pieces. Other areas where the information system can be of benefit is reduction and simplification of operator tasks in the warehouse, management of the bottleneck before the packing line and not in the least reduction of the overall inventory levels. The new WMS will be integrated into the current company information system K2.

DCI MySite = a flexible system

The WMS implementation project has been underway since November 2009, with live operation planned for February 1, 2010. In early 2010, a project of distribution warehouse management is planned in Senec, Slovakia. This will be followed by expansion of the information system in a warehouse in Pelhrimov, which is the central dispatch warehouse in Czech Republic. In the future, implementation of the system is also planned for production plants in Bulgaria and China, based on which both operations should be able to send out goods already marked with customer labels. Another project is the support of electronic communication with major suppliers using electronic data interchange (EDI).