When the company made the change to the modern and electronic LeanwareWMS, their logistics became more traceable, measurable and efficient.
Tuomi Logistiikka is a grouped procurement and logistics company based in Pirkanmaa. A significant part of the company’s business are logistics services, through which several goods flow to the public sector. The company’s customers are e.g., hospitals, healthcare services, schools and daycare centers.
Cooperation with Leanware began through a public procurement call for tender. In the background was the need to combine two separate warehouses to form one large one and at the same time update the entire process to be more efficient and modern.
“Our warehouse operations were guided quite superficially by ERP and, for example, picking was done using paper lists. For a year, we did definition work on how we would be able to develop our operations as a whole. In 2018 we made a call for tender for a warehouse management system. Through this, Leanware was chosen as the supplier of the WMS,” says Tuomi Logistiikka’s Head of Logistics Antti Sinervo.
The change from two warehouses to one was huge. It meant many practical changes, one of which was warehouse management. When moving to the new warehouse, the processes were completely renewed, storage machines were implemented and tools were updated. When previously one person would pick a single shipment in its entirety, now items are picked form various warehouse areas and are combined at a certain phase.
“In the new warehouse, we wanted to make the use of floor space more efficient and move products to the people and not the other way around. This is why storage machines were needed. LeanwareWMS was a sensible choice for their control. At the same time, warehouse management became electronic, we got real-time tracking and we stopped using printed paper lists for our daily operations,” says Warehouse Manager Timo Vuorela.
“Operations pertaining to warehouse management changed completely. It can’t be done with anything else apart from a WMS, at least not very easily. This way we were able to modernize operations and improve quality, because paperwork and the chance of human error associated with it was decreased,” Antti Sinervo says.
Tuomi Logistiikka has more than 500 suppliers and about 35,000 different items travel through the warehouse, more than 5,000 of which are stocked continuously. When customers include e.g., demanding special healthcare, delivery reliability, productiveness, speed and reliability are as important as efficient operations.
The same shipment can include products from various healthcare product suppliers.
“Our customers want everything in the same shipment and not as separate deliveries. Supply shipments have an impact on people’s health and even their lives, so our standards are high,” Sinervo says.
During the years 2018 and 2019, the company moved warehouses, implemented the WMS and established the new warehouse operation on a reliable level.
“One of the biggest challenges has been how to fit the entire information system chain together. For example, our order information has to travel faultlessly from the order system used by the customers, through ERP, Leanware’s WMS and the transport management system. It was only after going into production and testing the product in real life that we have encountered several of the issues that had to be fixed. The implementation project was on a tight schedule,” Timo Vuorela says.
Results can already be seen.
“Productivity has gone up by 20 to 30 percent when compared to the starting point,” Antti Sinervo says.
When corona hit in 2020, luckily most of the changes and development work had already been done. Tuomi Logistiikka has had to be able to rely on the acquired tools also during the pandemic. The shipping of protective supplies has gone well with the solid expertise of the Tuomi Logistiikka staff.
“The WMS works in the background making everyday logistics work easier and we are able to trust it as a tool,” Antti Sinervo summarizes.
