Hilti Corp

The Hilti Group is a world leader in developing, manufacturing and marketing

added-value, top-quality products for professional customers in the

construction industry and in building maintenance. Their product range covers

drilling and demolition, direct fastening, diamond and anchoring systems,

firestop and foam systems, installation, measuring and screw fastening systems

as well as cutting and sanding systems. They are committed to excellence in

innovation, total quality, direct customer relationships and effective marketing.

Hilti's central warehouse and service department for Sweden and Denmark

sits in ArlÐ"¶v, just outside MalmÐ"¶, Sweden. The company has been around for

roughly 40 years, but in previous years Hilti had warehouses and service

centers spread out over several cities. However, in 1997, the warehouse was

centralized in ArlÐ"¶v, and in 2001 the service centers were joined here as well.

After considering the use of a bar code system for many years, Hilti finally

decided to take the plunge when the company introduced its new business

system, SAP. It was then that the company would be forced to invest in new

computers, so the time seemed right to commit to the bar code system as

well. "The main reason that we wanted to introduce bar code technology is

that the accuracy level is so high," states Lasse Liffner, service manager. "We

have already brought down the number of errors and we save time, too!"

Datalogic's Business Partner, DataFÐ"Ґngst Svenska AB in MalmÐ"¶ provided this

solution with bar code readers and mobile computers to Hilti. The bar code system

is used in the service center, where the system follows the product all the way from

time the product is reported in for service to its return after being repaired, and

during order picking to simplify order management.

Hilti performs about 30,000 services/repairs per year and this should be a

fast and simple process. Most often, the entire process - from receipt of

complaint until the time that the repaired product is received back by the

customer - takes only three days.

The customer calls and reports the problem to the customer service

department, which is then logged into the business system. A shipping request

with the transport company, TNT, is automatically created and a label is

printed out, and faxed to the customer. The customer prints out the label and

attaches it to the box with the damaged or broken product. If the report is

made before 13:30, the box will be picked up by TNT the same day.

When the box is received by Hilti, the product is scanned by Datalogic's

DragonÐ'™ M101/D hand held bar code reader, to check the serial number for the

Customer

Hilti

Industry

Manufacturing

Application

Repair & Returns

Warehousing

Country

Sweden

Datalogic Business Solution

Work in Progress, Warehouse Management

Systems

Datalogic Products

DragonÐ'™, Formula ColorÐ'™

Datalogic Partner

DataFÐ"Ґngst Svenska AB

Hilti introduces a bar code systemtomanage its products and spare

parts. Now, after only a fewmonths of use, the investment is

already paying off in increased accuracy in delivery and reduced

time spent for both servicemanagement and order picking.

Case History

www.scanning.datalogic.com

Hilti's New Bar Code System Saves

Time and Increases Accuracy

product's warranty status. A new bar code is printed with the information about

the customer and attached to the box which is then sent on to service. "The

receiving of service orders goes remarkably faster with the new bar code system,"

says JÐ"¶rgen Olsson. "We save a half day's administrative work every day, which

can now be spent doing something else!"

Every work station is equipped with a DragonÐ'™ cordless reader to avoid

bothersome cables. It also has a display allowing easy confirmation of a good

read. When the product arrives at the service department, the bar code is again

read allowing the service technician to see what the problem with the product is

and any other pertinent information about the customer and the product. Every

spare part that is used in repairing the product is also scanned in. This

automatically decreases the errors in inventory for each part in the system which