Kesko Reduces Costs, Boosts Efficiency With Enterprise Grade Print Solution
Serving both professional builders and consumers in 16 department stores in Sweden, Kesko offers a wide variety of products that are distributed mainly from a central warehouse. The company constantly seeks the latest solutions to develop and renew itself as a business.
Zebra Success Story: Kesko
Overview: Manufacturing, Warehouse Challenge
Improve consignment label printing so it’s reliable, high quality and cost-effective.
Benefits / Outcomes
- Quick, accurate and reliable printing
- Time savings
- Reliable operation with minimal downtime
- Remote monitoring for proactive maintenance
- Reduced operating costs
- Intuitive operation
- Enhanced user experience – e.g. immediate wake up and full shift battery
About Kesko
Kesko and K-retailers together form K Group, the third largest retail operator in Northern Europe. Kesko operates across Finland, Sweden, Norway, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. Kesko also trades in the construction and technical sectors as the market leader in building and home improvement. Kesko serves both professional builders and consumers and has 16 department stores in Sweden, from Umeå in the north to Malmö in the south. The company’s wide variety of products are distributed mainly from a central warehouse located in Örebro, the sixth largest city in Sweden based in the south of the country. The Kesko warehouse supports both K-Bygg, K-Rauta and Onninen.
The Challenge
The building, DIY and retail industries are constantly changing and are highly competitive. To stay ahead, Kesko constantly seeks to develop and renew itself as a business, with the vision of making shopping at building and home improvement stores surprisingly easy, leaving hobby and professional builders with more time for their projects.
Ensuring the right products are available at the right stores, at the right time, is vital to deliver against this vision. The Kesko Örebro warehouse supports both K-Bygg, K-Rauta and Onninen with everything from the smallest flower seeds to robust wood and building materials.
When it comes to building an efficient supply chain, every detail counts, which is why Kesko wanted a more efficient way of handling shipment information in the Örebro warehouse with a harmonised set of printers.
The warehouse manages a large range of products and orders. A shipment is triggered by an order from any of the stores. The order is assigned to a warehouse operator who picks the order by forklift truck in the storage area. When everything on the pick list is gathered onto a pallet, the operator prints a consignment note and affixes it to the pallet.
The consignment note contains the serial shipping container code (SSCC) which is used to identify the shipment throughout the course of its journey. It is of utmost importance that the printer in the forklift is working, has access to labels and can handle the information securely and correctly.
The warehouse was previously using a variety of printer brands. Information was transferred by USB from the enterprise resource planning (ERP), and planning systems to the printers, making the process difficult to monitor and inefficient to operate, with different label designs for the different printers and no visibility on which printers were working and not. What’s more, Kesko needed to purchase and stock labels and printer supplies from a range of vendors. Any shortage of supplies could impede operations while managing and maintaining a mixed estate of printers increased operating costs.
Given the importance of reliably printing consignment labels, and the inefficiencies of running different printer models, Kesko looked to deploy a more advanced and enterprise grade printing platform.
Accurate, quick and trouble-free printing is essential to the smooth operation our warehouse. With the help of Pro ID and Zebra, we’ve deployed a reliable, high quality and secure print solution which helps our teams work with greater efficiency. It will also provide many years of service at a predictable cost.
The Solution
The Kesko warehouse evaluated different solutions and printer providers, but also wanted to collaborate with a partner that had significant technical skills as well as in-depth knowledge about the industry and the business.
Kesko decided to team with with Pro ID, a Zebra Registered Business Partner, which offers complete solutions for automatic data identification using barcodes and RFID and specialises in improving efficiency in warehousing and production. Pro ID proposed a solution that would harmonise the printer environment to increase efficiency and security while simplifying printer management and decreasing operating costs.
Pro ID recommended replacing the mobile printers in forklifts with the Zebra ZQ630 mobile printer. The printer was selected for its dependable wireless connection abilities, latest security protocols and easy navigation and battery capacity.
The Zebra Difference: Outcome and Benefits
Pro ID has installed the new printer set-up in all forklifts in the Kesko warehouse. When a package is completed, the operator can automatically print the consignment note with all the necessary information about the receiver and the identity of the shipment. As the ZQ630 mobile printer communicates over Wi-Fi, the shipment information is correctly and accurately updated in both the planning and the ERP system.
Standardising on the Zebra ZQ630 mobile printer makes it easier to manage and maintain the devices, so reducing operating costs. The printers are rugged and robust to provide reliable service over many years and further optimise return on investment. Using Zebra Print DNA, Kesko can protect its printers over their lifecycle. It can remotely monitor each printer’s status and key components such as batteries, to schedule proactive maintenance and avoid downtime. While using PrintSecure, a feature of Zebra Print DNA, security settings can be easily changed, supporting encrypted data transfer when needed.
End users are delighted with the printers. The devices instantly wake up when needed, integrate fast roaming technology to provide dependable connectivity on the move and with Plus Power Smart Print Technology™, battery life is optimised by delivering the exact amount of power required for the highest quality printing. This saves an estimated 20% to 30% of battery power. The devices also have large bright screens and are highly intuitive to use.
Each ZQ630 mobile printer is connected to forklifts using a Brodit ProClip holder. As the holder includes a large label roll operators save time as they don’t need to change these as often. Also, Kesko only needs to keep one size in stock for all its printers, easing management and reducing supplies costs. The consignment note is the same for all printers, making it easier to simply switch in a new printer in the unlikely event of a printer malfunction.
The solution implemented by Pro ID, has enabled Kesko to operate more efficiently, and prepare for the future. Designed tough to cope with life in the warehouse, protected by Zebra Print DNA and with the ability to remotely monitor and thus proactively maintain each device, the printer solution is built for years of high-quality service at a predictable cost. Local expert support is provided by Pro ID, which has been an important aspect in the successful set-up.
Featured Products and Solutions
