Scientific studies have verified the great potential benefits of Industry 4.0.
LFD has also closely delved into this topic and has elaborated a specific road map. This road map with the working title “LFD21” is an innovative strategy paper, which will raise all company divisions to a new level. This extensive project is to start at the beginning of 2019, all necessary work and software modifications should have been completed by the end of 2020.
A new ERP system will relieve the employees from monitoring and routine tasks by means of automated workflows and in this manner create more space for customer support. Digitally received data will in future solely be processed further digitally. Many companies have already switched over to invoice dispatch via PDF. As a result, in future, incoming invoices will be read in automatically. A workflow running in the background will independently perform the balancing with the order.
When no deviations are found, the incoming invoice will be registered automatically. Likewise, when an EDI connection to the customer does not already exist, then the customer order will be scanned by OCR software and to a large extent will be adopted in the ERP system in an automated manner. Customers are automatically informed of framework contracts that are about to expire and most importantly are notified in a timely manner. An algorithm will support the procurement during the determination of the optimal order time. And with the hand-over of the goods to the forwarding agent, the customer will receive an e-mail generated by the system containing the tracking number.
Should the city of Dortmund grant the required permit on time, then LFD will build a facility with a size of approx. 7,000 m² and a height of 22 metres on an additional plot of land. An office building is already present at this location. With this facility, a fully automated warehouse with a max. capacity of 18,000 pallets on several levels will be created. This would more than double the in-house capacity of the current head office at the Giselherstraße in Dortmund and therefore would be a long-term perspective.
LFD will furthermore implement the advantages of INDUSTRY 4.0 both in the production as well as the entire logistics. Fundamental for the desired increase in efficiency with the smart networking of the flow of materials and goods is the smooth function of the utilised mechanical engineering elements.
The interaction of people, machines, systems, logistics and products that can communicate and cooperate with each other will relieve the people and help in achieving the desired increase in efficiency. An additional important advantage is the transparency of information. With the smart networking everyone will gain access to information.
The challenge lies in the technical standards or norms that are critical for the communication between man and machine or between the machines, which are still missing in part. Here, individually, a large number of adaptations are required. For this reason, LFD is working together with a large number of specialists, which in part are also are customers. Because to achieve smooth automation, a good bearing is required, preferably made by LFD.
