In this series of interviews, we talk to employees of E. Breuninger GmbH & Co. about the joint project for the multi-channel warehouse in Sachsenheim. In the second part of the interview series, we talk to Reza Mohammadi, Head of Logistics, who gives us an insight into the collaboration from an operational perspective.
Thank you for taking the time to talk to us. Can you introduce yourself and your role in the company?
I’m Reza Mohammadi and I’ve been with Breuninger since April 2019. I initially worked in the project side of the SME sector. I only joined the Breuninger project in the final phase, when the design was largely complete. At the moment I’m responsible for warehousing.
What expectations did you have going into the project based on your experience in the SME sector?
I didn’t have any particular expectations. Basically, I wanted to do something bigger. Ultimately, it was the challenge that appealed to me and that I wanted to take on here.
What was the current situation when you joined and what was the desired outcome?
The planning was relatively advanced. Many departments had already written test cases for the project. At the beginning, I took care of smaller organizational issues, such as stocking and labelling the shelves. Later on, I was assigned to the warehousing department. There, I delved deeper into the processes by reading the joint documentation in order to write test cases and carry out tests myself.
Were there any particular milestones or solutions that were developed together in these test scenarios?
We had clear goals and set ourselves the target of being at a certain point in week four and at the next one in week eight. That didn’t always work, as is the case in test phases, but overall we achieved the goals we set ourselves at the time.
Were there any milestones that you reached that were particularly important to you?
There were a lot of small things. It started with a container leaving the automated small parts warehouse or our shuttle taking a certain container to the workplace. It was a memorable experience to see a robot that had previously just been standing there bringing containers to a workstation, or for a hanging garment that we had placed on level five to find its way down to level zero. For us, there were many different smaller milestones that made us happy in those moments.
What was it like working with us on a personal and professional level?
In the beginning, there were points of friction, as you would find even in good relationships. But we very quickly grew into a team with TUP on a professional and personal level. I am delighted that we are currently working on an expansion project and that we are continuing our close collaboration.
How would you describe the availability, speed of response and quality of the collaboration?
In the beginning, it took TUP some time to find out which of our specialists were responsible for the respective areas, but once that happened, we were always able to react quickly. We managed to achieve a go-live despite enormous challenges: the coronavirus pandemic, huge incoming orders in e-commerce and we still managed it with confidence. This shows that the collaboration was excellent and that the right issues were dealt with at the right time.
What advantages do you see in the solutions used from your perspective?
The WMS has many interfaces that help us operationally and some of which we developed further after the go-live. Together with TUP and the teams on our side, we have created views to display worklists transparently and individually tailored to us, for example. This helps us enormously in our day-to-day implementation.
Thank you very much for the interview!
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