Intralogistics Automation at BASF Coatings
- =Improve in-plant transport with the help of IoT and mobile apps
- =Mobile frontend for Telekom IoT Service Buttons
- =Intuitive mobile solution for service dispatching
- =Sufficient reliability for manufacturing
Challenge
Optimized Processes for Intralogistics Automation
BASF is the largest chemical producer in the world with a revenue of EUR 59bn, 247 manufacturing sites and 110,000 employees. BASF’s Coatings division employs 11,000 people and develops, produces and markets innovative solutions for automotive OEM and automotive refinish coatings and industrial coatings as well as architectural coatings and related coating processes. The team responsible for on-site logistics at the Münster site was looking at ways to improve processes for transporting raw materials and finished products on-site.
They discovered unnecessary idle times of transport trolleys and were looking for a smart on-demand dispatching and better utilization of drivers and transport trolleys.
IoT Service Buttons of Deutsche Telekom came into a play as a solution to request transport cars when finished products needed to be picked up at a manufacturing station for transport into a warehouse.
What was missing was a mobile frontend for drivers, i.e. an intuitive app for mobile service dispatching. This was also meant to replace phone calls, call-backs, emails and other inefficient work around service dispatching.
Solution
SIGNL4 and IoT buttons for optimized Intralogistics Automation
SIGNL4 complements currently 60 IoT Buttons at around 30 pickup stations distributed across BASF’s Münster’s manufacturing site. These buttons are used for transport requests. SIGNL4 comes with a 2-way connector to integrate with Deutsche Telekom Cloud of Things to pick up any button press events.
When a worker at a production place or pickup station, presses an IoT button, SIGNL4 creates an alert and notifies transport drivers on duty upon this new pickup request. Using the alert enrichment and tagging of SIGNL4, alerts are marked with all relevant information, colors and icons, so drivers can immediately and visually understand where a pickup is needed. In the SIGNL4 app, drivers can then confirm a pickup request which is immediately visible to other drivers in the team. This transparency avoids callbacks and other waste work.
SIGNL4 runs in the cloud and its availability is more than sufficient for the high uptime demand in BASF’s on-site logistics scenario.
Benefits
Effective and cost-efficient Intralogistics Automation
The combined solution of IoT Service Buttons and SIGNL4 delivers a modern, effective, and inexpensive in-plant transport dispatching solution. The solution is strikingly simple and delivers impressive results.
BASF Coatings in Münster internally guarantees a 3 hours pickup window for finished goods before such pickup requests gets escalated. With the new solution involving SIGNL4, average pickup time has fallen to 45 mins and ever since no escalation has happened. The return on investment is 10-fold, mostly through higher productivity and time-savings. Cost saving is a mid 5-digit amount annually.
Serving as the front-end, SIGNL4 is an intuitive and highly customizable solution for effective service dispatching. Tracking of confirmations of any pickup request leads to unprecedented transparency of work distribution and improved team spirit while avoiding waste work. The solution which runs entirely in the cloud is extremely stable.
Derdack’s 2 hours support response time proved to be highly beneficial during the rollout process.
„SIGNL4, is a highly intuitive seamless mobile control system for intra-logistics processes. We were looking for an attractive visualization that enables a smooth change management within the teams. Changing process is always a challenge but the greatest sceptics soon became the greatest fans of SIGNL4.”
Next Steps
Learn more about SIGNL4 and start your free 30-days trial
Blog
What Our Customers Say: The Real Value of Incident Response Tools
We’ve put together a selection of use cases from a wide range of industries and applications. Enjoy exploring how different teams use our incident response tool in practice.
AT&T Email-to-Text Service ended: Why SIGNL4 is the Best Alternative
In a move that caught many businesses and IT teams off guard, U.S. mobile carrier AT&T officially discontinued its email-to-text gateway service. ATT email-to-text was shut down on June 17, 2025. This change means that sending sms messages and mobile text alerts...
The AI Revolution in Incident Management: Insights from the Frontlines – by Doreen Jacobi
Cofounder Doreen Jacobi spoke with several of our customers about the revolution AI is bringing to incident management. Artificial Intelligence has seamlessly integrated into our daily lives, often in ways we barely notice. But what does that actually mean for...
