Baur au Lac Vins Hits 96.6% Accuracy with SAP Mobile Data Entry

Baur au Lac – for over 170 years, the name of the traditional Zurich hotel has stood for luxury and the highest standards of service for its customers. It's a promise that its sister company, the premium wine merchant Baur au Lac Vins, also feels committed to.

Since 2010, the company, headquartered in Regensdorf, has been using an MDE solution for its logistics processes with SAP. For customer-facing processes in the shop or during wine delivery, as well as for all background logistics processes, highly IT-supported workflows and mobile data entry—amounting to approx. 125,000 mobile transactions annually—ensure continuous quality and efficiency.

"We are a premium wine merchant with the 5-star Baur au Lac hotel behind us," clarifies Daniel Hunziker, SAP Administrator. "We want to offer a premium service, and that means the demands on our processes are very high to ensure that everything runs smoothly." Continuous and transparent data management is the prerequisite for this.

Since 2010, Baur au Lac Vins has been using mobile data entry in its warehouse logistics and its shops. This was implemented during the construction of a new headquarters in Regensdorf, just outside Zurich. "SAP was introduced in the company a year and a half before that. The new warehouse was the impetus to switch to Warehouse Management. And in that context, introducing mobile scanners was a logical step," recalls Hunziker.

Today, a good dozen mobile handhelds are used throughout the company's intralogistics and delivery logistics: from goods receipt at the central warehouse and replenishment requests from the five shops—located in the hotel on Lake Zurich, in Männedorf, at the Zurich main station, in Tiefenbrunnen, and in Regensdorf—all the way to shipping by the truck drivers.

Baur au Lac Vins uses the Ontego software platform for its SAP-integrated mobile data entry. "Our standard SAP processes are often individually customized and supplemented with our own processes," explains Hunziker. For that reason, he says, they chose the flexible Ontego solution, which can be widely adapted to customer needs.

How exactly was the scanner solution implemented in each area?

• In the Warehouse:
  For goods receipt, Ontego is used both as a mobile application and as a browser-based application on a PC workstation. Here, incoming boxes and wine bottles receive a unique QR code in the form of an adhesive label, which allows the items to be identified in subsequent processes, such as handling the approximately 75,000 customer orders each year. These mobile-supported follow-up processes include picking, transfers, and rolling inventory counts.
• In the Shop:
  Employees in the four branches use their mobile computers to order replenishment stock directly from the shelf. They also access the Ontego warehouse solution to book goods receipts in SAP and to conduct inventory counts.
• In Shipping:
  Since 2021, Baur au Lac Vins has been using OntegoGL, a specialized solution for delivery logistics. Due to their custom processes, this solution interacts with the mobile warehouse solution: The dispatcher can use the mobile warehouse solution to assign orders to a specific tour or driver. After the assignment, the delivery data is transferred to the delivery solution. With this, the four drivers have an electronic delivery note on hand for their 11,000 annual deliveries, allowing them to record delivery quantities, returns, or breakages, and to confirm the documents with an electronic signature.

When you ask Hunziker about the advantages of mobile data entry, he quickly gets specific. For him, the focus is on the efficiency gains and the accuracy of the mobile-captured data. "During inventory counting, we are much more accurate today than when we worked with paper lists. We have far smaller inventory discrepancies." Today, he says, their warehouse inventory accuracy is 96.6%. The company also benefits from picking. "You can handle the same workload with far fewer employees; everyone knows where to go, how much to pick at once, and they confirm it once on the mobile device to post it in SAP." He adds: "And it's also child's play to use."

The mobile solution proved its worth under the difficult conditions of 2020, when two emergency teams had to be formed in the warehouse due to COVID-19 restrictions. Each team received a one-hour training session, where most of the time was spent on warehouse organization—learning where the devices and pallet jacks were located. The mobile solution was largely self-explanatory.

Hunziker can also clearly name the advantages of digital work for the shops: there are fewer errors with replenishment orders. "Previously, people would walk through the aisles with pen and paper and then laboriously create the orders in SAP at a computer." Today, employees still walk through the aisles, but now they simply scan the barcode of the desired wine, select the vintage if necessary, enter the quantity, and easily place the order on their mobile device. For the approximately 500 orders placed per year, this optimized process results in extreme time savings and is a great relief for the employees.

Another measurable advantage is the rolling inventory count, which is now handled on mobile. According to Hunziker, the stock levels for the approximately 550,000-bottle wine warehouse are very up-to-date and have no significant discrepancies. He adds another saving to this. "Previously, the branches had to close for a whole day each year, which meant a corresponding loss of revenue and significant personnel costs. Today, one person can do the inventory alone and has 365 days to do it."

In delivery, they are still gathering concrete experience. At Baur au Lac Vins, they hope to get away from paper and, in doing so, streamline their paper-based filing. Additionally, the expectation is that the loading process will run even more smoothly thanks to the electronic loading list.

In the meantime, Baur au Lac Vins has also tackled the switch to a new generation of Android-based devices and software. After 8 years, they had to consider a successor for the Windows CE-based devices they had been using until then. Additionally, various optimizations were planned in SAP, which also had an impact on the mobile solution.

In the warehouse, devices from Zebra are used, currently the TC8000 model. For the shops and for delivery, the decision was made in favor of the Zebra TC52. The transition went smoothly—employees are already used to operating modern mobile devices and software from their personal lives.

When Hunziker looks to the future, he can imagine further optimizations and automations. Customer requirements will evolve, and so Baur au Lac Vins will adapt accordingly: to always offer a perfect customer experience and the highest level of wine enjoyment, with continuously optimized processes both in front of and behind the scenes.