BLE Container Tracking at BAUKING

Initial Situation and Challenges

Not every material can be kept in stock at every location on a permanent basis. That is why material containers are transferred daily between BAUKING branches to quickly address material shortages.

However, as the number of stock transfers increased, so did the documentation workload. Questions such as the following kept coming up:

• Has the container actually arrived at its destination?
• Where was it unloaded?
• Why do inventory discrepancies occur?
• Where are lost or missing containers?

Especially when it comes to high-quality building materials, a lack of transparency and manual accounting processes can quickly lead to high costs. At the same time, raw materials have become significantly more expensive in recent years, meaning that any loss of material has a noticeable economic impact.

The Idea

BAUKING was looking for a solution that would allow it to track containers automatically across multiple locations.

Together with the regional logistics manager, SIGMA first analyzed the existing processes directly on-site. Based on this process assessment, a concept for automated container tracking was developed and the appropriate technology was selected.

The result: An intelligent tracking system based on Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)
and the GRAIDWARE® software platform.

The Solution

In GRAIDWARE®, each transfer order is assigned to a unique BLE beacon. The material container is then equipped with the beacon and can be automatically tracked throughout its entire transport route using the company’s own trucks. The trucks are equipped with special gateways that detect the beacons in the vicinity and transmit this information, along with the truck’s GPS coordinates, to GRAIDWARE®.

GPS-based location tracking provides a transparent overview of the current location of the transferred materials at all times. Transfers between locations are automatically detected and documented—without any manual entries by employees.

In GRAIDWARE®, all warehouse and material locations are defined as zones. Using the web application, employees can select these zones, view the associated orders, and search specifically for a container. The locations are clearly displayed on a digital location map, which reduces search times and increases transparency.

Beacons are assigned to the respective transport or stock transfer orders via the GRAIDWARE® web application using mobile scanners. In total, the solution covers tracking at more than 50 locations.

At the customer’s request, the solution has been fully implemented as a cloud application. It operates in German data centers owned by a German provider. As a web application, GRAIDWARE® is available to all authorized BAUKING employees. Individual access rights are assigned via GRAIDWARE®’s user and rights management system.

With GRAIDWARE®, BAUKING now has:

• Automatic recording of cross-location transfers
• Transparent, real-time tracking of all tracked containers
• Significantly reduced search times
• Fewer inventory discrepancies
• Less manual documentation
• Greater process reliability in internal logistics

The result is a noticeable increase in efficiency as well as significantly greater transparency across the entire material flow.