Economic Company BEWA LTD has existed since 1992. The Company produces and sells spring water and beverages. Majority of the production has been aimed at the biggest chain supermarkets in Poland, such as: Eurocash, Biedronka, Kaufland, Auchan and Carrefour. BEWA produces its goods on the basis of the water drawn from five wells, from which the two belong to the deepest in the country and reach up to 312 m into the ground. Currently Economic Company BEWA LTD is completely owned by PGE KWB Bełchatów S.A., a part of Polish Energy Group. Dynamic development of BEWA forced it to build a 11.000 m² warehouse hall in 2006. To ensure its effective and reliable operation the company decided to implement a system supporting warehouse management.

"The system was implemented to improve broadly understood warehouse logistics, speed the process of shipment and picking of goods, and to trace goods from the moment of acceptance from production. Apart from that, we expected the system to provide us with more control over the processes and a database for business analysis of current activity" - says Roman Siemieniuk from BEWA LTD.

BEWA belongs to the biggest producers of beverages in Poland. Each year the company strengthens its position on the market - in 2008 an average Pole drank 5.12 litres of water and beverages produced by BEWA. Production capacity of this scale requires perfect organization of all its stages: from acceptance of raw material, through its processing, up to a finished product leaving the plant. To be able to control such complex processes and keep the highest possible standards of quality, it is necessary to have an advanced IT infrastructure in place.

When the expectations regarding an IT platform were clearly defined, BEWA concentrated on selecting a company which would take on its implementation. After considering several offers of providers of mobile communication systems, BEWA finally chose BCS Polska.

"The reasons for choosing BCS Polska included an advantageous quotation, very good references, and functionality of the solution offered by this company - bcsTiger is not only a classic system for warehouse management but also - due to additional modules - a comprehensive tool for streamlining a company’s operation" - says Roman Siemieniuk.

Analysing needs and expectations of BEWA LTD, BCS Polska specialists developed a conception of a solution. The first stage of works was a thorough pre-implementation analysis and a solution design. At this stage it was decided that the best solution would be a system for mobile support of finished goods warehouses with production registration based on Motorola mobile terminals, Zebra Technologies fixed and mobile label printers and Motorola’s Spektrum 24 radio environment. The applications for managing this infrastructure include the system for warehouse management bcsTiger along with a transport management module and an interface to the ERP SAP Business One system.

"The bcsTiger system is responsible for all the warehouse processes taking place in a company. In the system, goods leaving the production are registered, and issues are processed. Warehouse tasks are performed by means of Motorola MC9090 mobile terminals, and acceptance from the production is performed on fixed terminals. Operational data, documents of inventory issue and acceptance are transferred through an interface from the system ERP SAP Business One. The system contains also a transport system responsible for managing external transport: registration and management of transport means" - says Robert Chajdaś from BCS Polska.

The solution was implemented for around 6 months. The division into particular stages of works took into account seasonal character of production, and the intensity of works was managed by an implementation team from BEWA to reduce the disturbance of production processes to the minimum. Apart from basic implementation works, BCS Polska experts also provided a comprehensive training for administrators and users of the system and optimized the operation of the radio network.

"We did not have to wait long for effects of the implementation. Although it is too early to precisely assess real savings and increase in profits, both regular employees and managers of our company experience considerable benefits of the system" - says Roman Siemieniuk.

The use of mobile devices - terminals working in the area of a radio network - significantly improved the work of operators and warehousemen. The system made the task of making consignments and the flow of goods in the plant significantly easier. This allowed us to save time and eliminate mistakes. The equipment used, as expected, develops the capabilities of the ERP system applied in the company.

"The most important benefit of installing a WMS (Warehouse Management System) system is shortening the time of performing warehouse processes - issues of goods. Due to a seasonal character of the production larger resources are required in periods of higher demand. The implementation of the system caused normalization of this situation" - says Robert Chajdaś.

Future plans include extending the system by support of a warehouse of raw goods to fully trace the path from raw material to a finished product.