Page 31 - Hafen Hamburg | Port of Hamburg Magazine 4.2022

Coffee from Brazil:
NKG Kala annually handles 400,000 tons of green beans in Hamburg
Sample taken: The NKG Kala staffer notes the state of the produce
Radio traffic abolished: All the relevant details ap- pear on the display
Simple to use: Yard drivers re- ceive orders via the tablet mounted in the vehicle
The basic version of YardManager offered NKG Ka- la an overview of the yard and its slots, which are programmed in. This enabled the company to allo- cate available slots to all containers on arrival. Day and night, yard drivers on duty automatically re- ceive tour instructions on tablets installed in their vehicles. In three shifts, from Monday to Friday, a team of drivers is on the move around the site aboard such special vehicles as reach-stackers and tractors, fetching containers from the slots for un- loading, and returning them. Once an order has been met, the system automatically generates an e-mail to the forwarders. They receive the message that the empty box can be collected.
simple to operate and self-explanatory. Depending on shift and volume, on av- erage 15 people currently work simultaneously with the application.
Before coffee is stored, the containers are given an ar- rival inspection. Every load unit delivered by forwarders
THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION ■
NKG Kala’s yard is divided into various areas. A silo building houses three reception lines that convey the loose produce into various areas. In addition, the company runs a conven-
tional 8,000-square-metre warehouse, in which it stocks and handles coffee in bags. There are seven loading gates. Staff here prepare containers for ex- port. In accordance with customer instructions, the beans are cleaned, weighed, mixed or specially processed, stored and then re-loaded into trucks or containers.
All tours ordered to the various loading and unload- ing points are displayed by YardManager. An over- view shows which orders are active. Every driver in the yard knows at all times what needs to be done. “Everything runs via a program and no longer by radio, telephone or notes. We are relieving our staff and save a lot of time,” says Kratzmann apprecia- tively. According to Kratzmann, YardManager is
is first brought to the sampling ramp. The staffer responsible there initially examines the con- tainer for signs of external dam- age, checks the produce, records its condition, and takes a sample. If everything is in order and the customer has released the con-
tainer, yard drivers are deployed.
All containers are listed by YardManager under consignment numbers. Drivers can collect the data relevant for them and execute the order. If a con- tainer stands at the place earmarked for it, the pro- cess is completed for the moment and it disap- pears from the yard driver’s display. Kratzmann: “Previously, countless manually completed lists and numerous document folders were in play – that was anything but convenient. None of us can any longer imagine how this functioned without the tool.”
Via interfaces, YardManager also communicates with NKG Kala’s own logistics system that picks out the data needed for container tracking, for ex- ample. Forwarders employed for many years are also linked to YardManager via the logistics sys- tem. The coffee bean specialist pays a monthly lump sum for using it. Should a tablet fail to func- tion, then MID immediately ensures its replace- ment. ■ (njo)
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