Challenge

When fitters in the Leipzig BMW plant needed to reorder materials, they had to interrupt their task and call the colleagues in the warehouse. This delayed production, as it could take several minutes for the employee in the warehouse to note all the required materials over the phone.

Solution

BMW installed an IoT Service Button from Deutsche Telekom on every rack with materials. A fitter can press this button when stocks of a component are running low. When the button is pressed, an order is sent via the NarrowBand IoT (NB-IoT) mobile standard, notifying the colleagues in the warehouse who immediately begin to restock the missing materials.

Customer benefit

The digital button reduces the duration of the ordering process from several minutes to just a single second. In addition, the inventory lists in the storage system are always kept up to date with the digital solution. The Service Button can easily be installed anywhere as complex WLAN or Bluetooth systems are not required.