Police Apparel Office - Central Warehouse
Well equipped
The Bekleidungswirtschaftsfonds der Exekutive (BWF) of the Ministry for the Interior supplies police and prison personnel with all kinds of uniform items – complete dress uniforms, police booths, and complete duty uniforms. On average 20 employees handle about 400,000 items for approximately 30,000 officers of the executive security forces per year. A total of 60,000 parcels are being sent and 1,200 material tests are conducted in the in-house textile laboratory. Additionally, the employees of the BWF act as consultants during fittings and initial reviews when new items are added to the collection.
Police academy classes & large-scale orders
Until now, the home of the BWF was the police barracks Meidling. But the premises in the somewhat aging building no longer met the logistics requirements. When looking for a new central warehouse, the BMW got lucky in the 23rd of Vienna’s districts. The logistics department was to be established there from scratch – with the help of Xvise expertise – and sufficient space was to be made available. The growing challenges of the executive security forces and the associated demand for new types of uniforms as well as new additions to the range necessitated more space. On the one hand, we are outfitting entire new classes of police cadets again and again, and fitting the future policewomen and policemen requires two separate changing rooms, the corresponding items are issued and packed straight away in the adjacent warehouse. Additionally, purchasing conditions are a logistics challenge and large-scale orders as well as acceptance criteria are no rarity. When a truckload of uniforms is delivered, you obviously have to find space for the stuff in the warehouse.
Data analysis and suitability tests
It was our task to furnish the entirely empty warehouse for BWF as required and to install suitable warehousing technology. To achieve this goal, the site was initially checked for general suitability as logistics site for the BWF. It was necessary to plan the odd construction measure or adjustment, in order to ensure an uninterrupted flow of materials. As the site had originally been designed for the producing industry, the layout of pillars and the height profile had to be reconciled with the necessary width between shelves and shelf areas, which did cause limitations at some points.
The basis for the subsequent selection of the warehouse technology and the corresponding planning was an analysis of the existing and order data as well as processes in the warehouse. This was used to deduct the required warehouse capacity and the size of the order-picking area, which were then designed accordingly. We also paid attention to efficient process management in the warehouse in order to, for example, optimize the frequency of supplies or to find the ideal solution for packaging and dispatch processes. Additionally, a specialized multi-storey warehouse was designed in order to be able to store as well as pick and pack uniform coats and dress uniforms in an appropriate manner, for example.
The employees of Bekleidungswirtschaftsfonds der Exekutive are thrilled with the new logistics location.
