ant Technologies to automate Henkel’s warehouse

Ant Technologies and Henkel have made a contract to automate Henkel’s warehouse by using a WMS system called the “Logistic Vision Suite.”

A Fortune 500 company, Henkel is a leading manufacturer in the Russian market. The company produces a wide range of products, from detergents and cleaners to cosmetics and personal hygiene products to commercial and domestic adhesives. Henkel has several production facilities in Russia, including the factory in Engels, Saratov Region, whose warehouse is going to be the deployment site for the Logistic Vision Suite.

The Engels warehouse is used to store materials and finished products. Due to the expansion of production, more intense turnover and increased number of warehousing operations, it has become difficult for the company to operate its warehouse efficiently using the conventional paper technology. At the same time, the needs of the customers encourage Henkel to strive to meet the highest industry standards for completeness and shipment of ordered products. In order to achieve a new level in warehouse management, Henkel decided to completely automate all the warehouse operations. In a competitive bidding to choose the WMS system and systems integrator with the participation of several vendors offering both Russian and foreign systems, the most complete solution came from ant Technologies. Based on the Logistic Vision Suite, a WMS system that becomes more and popular in Russia, that comprehensive IT-based solution meets all of Henkel’s requirements, including:

• Implement the FIFO algorithm for processing product batches;
• Implement partial stocktaking;
• Monitor storage terms and conditions;
• Take into account a variety of attributes when accepting, storing and shipping goods;
• Implement various placement strategies for products;
• Form complete sets to orders;
• Generate real-time reports on product movements and availability at the warehouse;
• Zone warehouse space;
• Make inventories.

Henkel highly appreciated the flexibility and full functionality of the Logistic Vision Suite, as well as the local technical support availability for that system in Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovenia, Turkey and Ukraine where the company has its operations. The latter factor is very important for Henkel as it plans to use a single software platform to automate all its production facilities in Russia and Europe.

Under the contract, ant Technologies will implement the Logistic Vision Suite system, provide consulting services to review and formalize customer warehousing processes, integrate the WMS interface with the SAP R3 corporate system and train the customer’s personnel to operate the system. The system is expected to be put into commercial operation in December 2007.

About Henkel:

Henkel is a leader in the field of technologies and products designed to make our life easier, more comfortable and better. A Fortune 500 company, Henkel focuses on the following three areas: detergents and cleaners, cosmetics and personal . A Fortune 500 company, Henkel focuses on the following three areas: detergents and cleaners, cosmetics and personal hygiene products, as well as adhesives and technologies. In the 2006 fiscal year, the company’s sales totaled €12.7 billion. Henkel has over 50,000 employees all over the world. People in 125 countries around the globe trust in products and technologies from Henkel.

In Russia, Henkel manufactures and sells detergents and cleaners (Persil, Pril, Bref, Vernel, Pemolux, Pemos, Lasks, Deni and Losk), cosmetics and personal hygiene products (Fa, Taft, Schauma, Gliss Kur, Diademine, Palette, got2b, Brillance, IGORA System, Natural Styling, Bonacure, OSiS, Seah, Silhouette and Indola), as well as adhesives and technologies (Moment, Metylan, Pritt, Ceresit, Thomsit, Makroflex, Teroson, Liofol, Dorus, Technomelt, Optal, Loctite and P3).