Cherubini case study: hierarchical management of load units

Behind every digitalisation project is first and foremost a company that cares about the service it provides to its customers.

Cherubini S.p.A., an Italian company specialising in solutions for solar shading and home automation, has been operating since 1947 in an international environment characterised by multiple production sites worldwide and complex production and logistics flows. Today, the company operates in 6 countries and has more than 280 employees. It was Its strong focus on customer service and quality that drove Cherubini to evolve its logistics processes.

“Our collaboration with Stesi has enabled us to structure information management more effectively, helping us provide a better service to our customers” ⁓ Liviana Barbàra, Marketing Manager, Cherubini S.p.A.

Logistics challenges: managing the complexity of the electronics industry

Managing Cherubini’s electric motors requires end-to-end traceability, from the individual product to the load unit prepared for shipment. The electronics industry (and consequently its supply chain) is highly regulated in this respect. It is also characterised by highly fragmented flows across geographically distributed production sites (e.g.: subcontractors and other entities) as well as by the need for effective integration between departments (e.g.: production lines, testing and warehousing).

Before the project, some labelling activities were handled by several small software applications developed internally in Java. Information was retrieved from different databases, resulting in fragmented data management. There was also a need to manage pallets made up of multiple packages, known as “overpacks”, each identified and tracked by serial number, variant, batch and production order.

Solution: WMS software and hierarchical load unit management

Cherubini chose to implement silwa, a software platform for managing goods receiving, production reporting, put-away, picking, packing and shipping processes.

The project introduced hierarchical load unit management (LU): the pallet is managed as a parent load unit, within which the WMS identifies and tracks individual overpacks as child load units. Scanning the parent load unit with the warehouse terminal immediately reconstructs the pallet’s contents, making this information available for subsequent warehouse operations, from stock receipt and put-away through to partial picking.

“For a company like ours, characterised by a multi-site structure and complex processes, traceability is essential to ensuring continuity, quality and operational control” ⁓ Liviana Barbàra, Marketing Manager, Cherubini S.p.A.

At the same time, Stesi rewrote and consolidated the different Java micro-applications used for labelling into a single centralised application. The new system guides operators through the label printing process and feeds a consistent data source that is subsequently used by the WMS.

When Cherubini later decided to migrate to the new Microsoft Dynamics ERP, integration became essential. As Mario Avdullaj, our Software Developer who worked on the project, explains: “When a company changes its ERP, it always entails a sort of internal revolution. So there was a great deal of integration work between Stesi, Cherubini and their ERP provider to keep the logistics flows running in the new system. It was a success, because from the moment we switched over they continued working smoothly and without any interruption.” The project also enabled the WMS to be integrated with the company’s new ERP, supporting Cherubini throughout the transition from its previous management system while preserving the continuity of its logistics processes.

Results

The project transformed a fragmented logistics operation into an integrated, guided ecosystem:

• hierarchical load unit management, providing full visibility into pallet composition and the ability to perform “partial pickings”;
• consolidation of labelling software systems into a centralised data source;
• more structured and standardised logistics processes, from goods receiving to shipping;
• operational continuity during the migration to the new ERP, thanks to integration with the silwa WMS.

For Cherubini, logistics innovation means improving the service provided to customers and gaining an additional competitive advantage over competitors, while maintaining control over the complexity of its supply chain. A supply chain in the electronics industry that is highly international, fragmented and subject to strict traceability requirements.