How SBB Keeps Switzerland Connected With the Help of Scandit

SBB, Switzerland’s national rail company, implemented Scandit Smart Data Capture across several web apps to increase operational efficiency by empowering train maintenance employees with high-performance, mobile-based unified scanning workflows.

SBB keeps Switzerland connected daily, transporting 1.3 million passengers and 175,000 tons of freight. In 2023, the business embarked on an ambitious seven-year strategy to evolve its service, offering greater flexibility to meet customers’ changing needs.

The SAP S/4 transformation of core processes, including those supporting rail maintenance with its essential scanning workflows, is integral to the strategy’s success.

Two issues were important to us when implementing the web-based rail maintenance mobile apps. The first was guaranteeing the scanning solution’s high performance across multiple types of barcode. The second was how well the product would be supported. Scandit outperformed alternative open-source and plug-in solutions on both fronts.

Stefan Graf, Product Owner, SAP Cloud Technologies, SBB CFF FFS

Challenge

In the rail industry, punctuality, and operational readiness are critical success factors. A rail business like SBB must keep rolling stock on the move to ensure smooth passenger and freight service delivery.

Digital transformation focused on mobility

SBB’s Strategy for 2030 is the organization’s vision that shares its goals and commitments to drive a sustainable and efficient core business for its customers.

The strategy is broken down into 13 goals, with a strong focus on mobility. The first foundational challenge was to replace SBB’s incumbent ERP system with SAP S/4.

“Mobility and customer expectations are constantly changing,” explains Stefan Graf, Product Owner, SAP Cloud Technologies, SBB. “That’s why SBB is on a transformation journey to ensure our digital environment is flexible, efficient, and future-proof to accommodate customers’ changing needs.”

SBB adopted a “greenfield approach” meaning the apps and processes that would integrate into the new SAP S/4 system had to be built and redesigned from scratch. This digital IT transformation is the backbone of SBB’s operations and spans functions such as HR, finance, infrastructure, and logistics.

A need to automate and unify scanning workflows

Work to streamline and automate passenger train maintenance tasks is an important part of the broader goal to standardize business processes and increase operational efficiencies.

Having implemented SAP/4, SBB prioritized maintenance operations and looked to improve the many scanning workflows. Tracking and auditing rolling stock throughout its life cycle was also a key requirement.

The challenges that SBB needed to address included:

• Time and cost inefficiencies in maintenance schedules due to disconnected workflows and parts availability.
• Reliance on error-prone manual inventory checks and parts retrieval, which slows the maintenance process down.
• Stock understocking and overstocking due to a lack of inventory visibility in real-time.

In rail logistics, many processes require scanning across different types of barcodes in often challenging real-world conditions. Also, the parts involved in passenger rail maintenance come in many different package sizes. A fast, reliable scanning solution was required for the new employee-facing web apps used in these vital processes.

The Solution

Over the past two years, SBB has benefited significantly from using Scandit products. The original SAP Fiori Client and Scandit native plug-ins served the business well. SBB currently has 1700 active devices and around 4000 scans per month. As part of the S4 Transformation, the next releases will upgrade these mobile processes with Scandit’s Barcode Scanner SDK for the Web.

Superior scanning performance and flexibility

While some open-source (and also SAP) barcode scanning plug-ins were tested, SBB found that they could not scan the multiplicity of barcodes required during rail maintenance operations. Standard plug-ins also had scanning performance issues, particularly when decoding small 2D codes or scanning in low-light conditions.

“Scandit was able to deliver the required scanning flexibility and high performance we required. Light conditions can vary in warehouse and maintenance environments. Scandit’s scanning performance enables barcodes to be scanned and read accurately and quickly regardless of their material condition, distance away from the scanner, or varying light conditions,” explains Michael Hildbrand of SBB Infrastructure, Business Development Operations.

Meeting the needs of multiple tasks with multiple barcode types

By replacing the outdated ERP solution, SBB leveraged and integrated Scandit Barcode Scanner SDK for the Web into a series of employee-facing apps to support tasks, including:

• Goods receipt and storage in warehouses.
• Goods issue from SBB’s storage centers.
• The reordering of parts simply by scanning the barcode.
• Stock counting of material inventory in facilities.
• Locating and tracking serialized goods throughout their lifecycle.

Scandit Barcode Scanner SDK for the Web brings powerful, reliable barcode scanning technology to web apps.

By creating a unified scanning user experience integrated with SAP that is both proven to work and delivers operational efficiencies, SBB plans to roll out more apps to different parts of the business using the same development criteria. Developing once and using many times on this and larger projects is a core principle of the broader digital transformation program.

Results

SBB has seen operational efficiencies in its train maintenance warehouse processes since deploying its various web apps powered by Scandit Smart Data Capture.

Reliable mobile working that saves time and money

“It’s impossible to complete the processes needed during train maintenance without the high-performance scanning features we get from Scandit. With the mobile solution, employees no longer need to work in the back office on PCs. They can perform a task like goods receipt or scan an item to reorder a part in the middle of the warehouse – saving time, money and downtime,” explains Michael.

Also, historically, the manual recording of serial numbers on parts or a recipient’s address details could lead to inputting errors – costing time and money to correct mistakes. The accuracy of the scanning apps linked to the SAP system has addressed this issue by capturing and recording data accurately and in real time. Additionally, reducing stock-picking errors saves time and eliminates the need to send replacement parts.

The employee web apps are deployed under a COPE (corporately owned, personally enabled) device strategy. This gives workers total flexibility of mobile working using a selection of devices. Because employees have smartphones, new releases and solutions can be rolled out very quickly.

Enterprise support that goes the extra mile

One of the critical success factors was and still is the enterprise support SBB receives from Scandit for the implemented solutions. “Rail maintenance is a 24-hour operation. All scanning processes are critical, so we need a partner who is available for technical questions if there are any issues. This is important for us during the annual release upgrades of all our SAP systems where version conflicts can occur.

By being readily on hand, Scandit provides the exceptional level of enterprise support we need to keep our processes and, ultimately, our trains running like clockwork.” Michael added.