Vögele: Safely Retrofitted

For the management of its intralogistics fleet, the Joseph Vögele AG utelises the software and hardware of Mobile Easykey. The decision for a fleet management system was due to a lot of unreported shelf damage, among other things. A test setup with three units was followed in the same year by the first large order for the retrofitting of 80 units.

“How many people work here?” “1,000 at the Ludwigshafen site, wait…” Sascha Krier turns to his computer, starts the Mobile Easykey software and makes a few mouse clicks. “…301 people at Vögele have a forklift licence. Oh yes, and 35 supervisors have a master transponder.” And with an opening question about the company, he is already right in the middle of the topic: Intralogistical fleet management at the machine manufacturer Vögele.

Fleet Management with Mobile Easykey

Anyone who has ever seen a road construction site should know Vögele. And it almost doesn’t matter where. After all, Vögele is the world market leader for road pavers. Sascha Krier takes care of the vehicle fleet and the shelfing technology of intralogistics at the site. He organises the management of the vehicle fleet with the software and hardware of Mobile Easykey – also, to implement the high safety standards of the traditional company, which was founded in Mannheim in 1836, for the intralogistics fleet.

Electric pallet trucks, front stackers, electric or diesel-powered, high order pickers – 200 pieces of Jungheinrich and Linde equipment are in use at the Ludwigshafen site. About half are equipped with the Mobile Easykey hardware “modular” including crash sensor and the other half with “smart lock 3”. “modular” is the classic of Mobile Easykey, which has proven itself on the market thanks to its multifunctional and multiple expandable use. “smart lock” is the compact module that can simply replace the conventional switch lock on lift trucks, for example. Both enable one thing, above all: traceable use, exclusively by authorised employees with a personal transponder.

“Many unreported shelf damages and of course the necessary raising of awareness of colleagues were the main reasons,” says Sascha Krier when asked why he went in search of a fleet management system. “That was in 2019. I researched on the internet. We decided against the solutions of the forklift manufacturers, because we didn’t want parallel systems in-house. And with the manufacturer-independent ones, Mobile Easykey remained after our research. “Also because of the references.” 

A test set-up with three units followed and in the same year the first large order for the retrofitting of 80 units. That the number of major damages had decreased was immediately noticeable. We set the crash sensors in such a way that they put the forklift into crawl-speed when not driven appropriately. This also benefits the driver’s back – from which the people and the company benefit equally.

Focus on safety at work and data security

In addition to occupational safety, Vögele naturally also focuses on data security. Sascha Krier: “We are currently planning a back-up mode that will automatically delete all personal data after seven days.

In the long term, Sascha Krier also wants to use Mobile Easykey to reduce the size of the fleet overall. With just a few clicks, he not only knows how many employees have a forklift license, but can also make a statement about the efficiency of the machine. “I can immediately see which forklift has not been used for far too long. Krier is currently setting up an equipment pool.

Vehicles with low utilisation are to be withdrawn from the departments and placed in a pool that can be shared and is available in case of bottlenecks. A quick overview of utilisation is provided by the new FFZ-KPI, the key figure from Mobile Easykey, which has been nominated for the IFOY Award 2023 in the software category.

Sascha Krier describes the technical side of implementing Mobile Easykey as “completely problem-free”. On the advice of Vögele’s IT department, he had signed a software maintenance contract, which, in addition to regular updates and server maintenance, also guarantees a fast response time from the help desk. “I’m really not a computer nerd. But the half-hour software training was enough to get me started. I figured out the rest on my own. And when I have problems, the help desk provides support.”

Cooperation with the customer is part of the success

Sascha Krier describes a partnership that is also emphasised by Norman Seib, Key Account Manager at Mobile Easykey: “A large part of our success is the cooperation with customers. We listen and implement.” For example, an idea by Sascha Krier for mounting the crash sensor is currently being tested in Ludwigshafen. Norman Seib comments: “I don’t want to reveal much yet, but it looks like it will be even easier and work just as reliably as before.”

Technical journal Technische Logistik,  Special issue:Retrofit & Maintenance 2023