The fleet management theme is becoming ever more important for efficient warehouse logistics. The Hamburg-based company STILL GmbH will underline its reputation as a leading solutions supplier in this area at the CeMAT 2018 trade fair in Hanover from 23rd to 27th April – with the STILL neXXt fleet online portal’s web applications and Intralogistics Consultancy service.
A growing company is a healthy company, but increasing success also raises the demands imposed on its intralogistics. Whereas a handful of trucks may still be relatively easily manageable, this becomes disproportionately more challenging as the fleet size grows and the number of machine classes rises. At the same time, industrial truck fleets used efficiently promise a noticeable competitive advantage in saturated, hard-fought markets. Optimised, cleverly managed fleets are increasingly often the factor that decides who leaves the competition behind – and who doesn’t.
The two pillars of fleet management
STILL combines its solution competence in the fleet management area into two pillars: Number 1 consists of intelligent software tools that customers can use for device-independent control of their fleet’s efficiency anywhere in the world. Pillar Number 2 is the intralogistics consultancy service in which a team of experts from STILL accurately analyses the customer’s fleet and requirements, after which it points out solution strategies and recommendations for action.
STILL software manages 100,000 industrial trucks
More than 100,000 industrial trucks worldwide are now managed using existing software solutions from STILL. The Hamburg intralogistics expert offers STILL neXXt fleet, an innovative online portal as powerfully performing as it is user-friendly, and which provides access to various web applications.
The new portal gives customers access to a current set of nine applications with different core functions. Billing is via a subscription model, and each application can be tested for 30 days free of charge. Subdivision into applications with various core functions gives great benefits to customers: they can subscribe flexibly to exactly the applications they really need – instead of paying for big suites of software whose functional scope exceeds what they actually need.
Philipp Schmidt, STILL’s Head of Product Management Applications & Services, says: “We have created STILL neXXt fleet, a future-proof platform that is easy to handle and constantly offers our customers new digital services for optimum management of their fleet.”
There is a growing demand for intralogistics consultancy
There is also an increasingly large demand for intralogistics consultancy, which is why STILL is progressively strengthening its team of advisers. Five experts currently advise customers in seven countries. The specialist consultants are scheduled to grow to a 30-strong team in the next two years. According to Marina Hein, Head of Intralogistics Consulting: “We are pleased with the steadily rising demand for our intralogistics consultancy. Enlarging our team of experts will also enable us to serve the high demand successfully in the long term.”
The scope and exact structuring of STILL’s consultancy are as diverse as the customers’ application profiles and requirements. It ranges from optimising an existing fleet to the concept design and implementation of entirely new storage worlds. These always start with an accurate determination of the current situation, followed by an analysis whose findings are prepared for and shown to the customer in an easily understandable way, and are discussed with him – including the presentation of various solution strategies and recommendations for action.
The satisfied consultancy customers include Schwarzmüller GmbH, a leading Austrian full-service provider of towed utility trucks. Schwarzmüller brought STILL’s team of advisers on board the project ship when seven existing warehouses need to be consolidated to form one central warehouse. A special challenge was the very large variety of items, nearly 6,000 articles, including a wide diversity of load carriers.
After careful analysis and discussion of various solution strategies, a logistics centre came into being with various storage areas linked to the production area by a custom-fabricated tugger train concept. Lenz Müller, Schwarzmüller’s Project Manager responsible for the development, sums it up: “Through collaboration in partnership, we not only developed a fantastic concept, but were also able to win our employees’ support for the scheme. We are now approaching the goal together – and the result is something we can be really proud of. We now also have a premium warehouse to match the premium quality of our trucks.”
STILL offers customized intralogistics solutions, and implements the intelligent teamwork of forklift trucks and warehouse technology, software and services. The achievement created by the Company’s founder Hans Still in 1920 through a large amount of creativity, entrepreneurial spirit and quality quickly developed into a strong brand well-known throughout the world. Today around 8,000 qualified staff in research and development, production, marketing and service are involved for the sole purpose of fulfilling customers’ needs throughout the whole world. The keys to the company’s success are highly efficient products ranging from sector-specific complete offers for large and small enterprises to computer-assisted logistics programs for efficient warehouse and materials flow management. Please also visit STILL on the Internet at www.still.de or on Facebook www.facebook.com/still.