Lord of the Racks

Endless space: the high-level racks in the Sonneberg logistics center.

The logistics centre in Sonneberg, Thuringia, is the hub of the Simba Dickie Group’s sales organization. This is where the containers arrive with all the toy articles from Hong Kong that are then temporarily stored here before making their onward journey to the stores. Sounds a bit boring? Be assured it isn’t. A visit to the giant warehouse.

What expectations do you have when you visit a logistics center? Gaunt, chilly halls, a rumble of noise, lots and lots of boring boxes? A tour of the Simba Dickie Group’s site in Sonneberg, Thuringia, gives you an idea of what it’s really like to dispatch more than 4,000 different sorts of toys, in unimaginable quantities, all over the world. Sonneberg does however mainly serve Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The BIG toy factory in Burghaslach, Noris-Spiele in Fürth and Smoby Toys in France run their own logistics.

The Sonneberg centre is made up of thirteen halls with 52,000 pallet spaces in a built area of around 50,000 square meters. All in all the area even comprises 150,000 square meters. Countless individual items come and go from this high-rack warehouse. Every day 20,000 shipments are dispatched, more than 500,000 items. Since the Simba Dickie Group introduced SAP in early 2009, it’s been possible to check the exact current status of everything down to the tiniest toy car, at any moment.

The destination of a long journey

Five or six times a day you can witness an impressive spectacle: the arrival of one or more containers from Hong Kong, where some of the toys are manufactured. Container ships bring the "high-cubes" from China to Bremerhaven, where they are loaded on trains which take them to Sonneberg Thür Ost, the rather grandly named "Container Terminal" in this little town of just over 23,000 inhabitants. The Simba Dickie Group is by far the biggest user of this terminal.

The journey takes 25 days. Until recently it was only 22, but now the ships go more slowly so as to save diesel – a contribution to protecting the environment that also cuts costs. The record is nine containers in a day. More than 1000 arrive every year. That’s a lot of containers. Each container houses up to 800 cases crammed with toys.

Lord of the Racks: branch manager Norbert Pillmann.

A different kind of Ferrari

A huge specialized crane lifts the Cubes from the tracks on to the waiting trucks. This monster container crane is the Ferrari 269 with 300 PS. The skilled driver grips the container as if were a matchbox and hoists it from the track on to the truck.

In less than a quarter of an hour the container docks at the warehouse. It was sealed by customs and only the driver is allowed to open it. There‘s a cracking sound and the doors fl y open. This is always a bit like opening an Easter egg: what’s hiding inside? Aha! A consignment of Schuco miniature cars or Simba dolls or Dickie toys. Unloading takes two to three hours.

One article per box in every consignment goes straight for inspection. "They’ve got it made," says Pillmann, introducing his fi ve colleagues. "They get to play with toys all day." Well no, it isn’t really playing. The inspectors check the toy for quality and safety. They sail plastic boats and steer RC cars round the car park, check electronic parts and feel wooden items for smoothness, weigh and measure, pull dolls’ hair.

Immediate product inspection for quality and security

Picking is still done by hand The high-rack warehouse is not an unpleasant place. Perhaps it’s the sunny yellow color of the racks or the architecture of the hall that makes it feel sunny, warm and peaceful. Fork-lift trucks race unceasingly along the aisles, dodging the pickers tramping along with their trolleys. These logistical whiz kids swarm round the racks like ants, gathering in the orders in accordance with a "route optimization" plan incomprehensible to an outsider. They can provide all the little extras to order. If the customer so wishes, he can receive the item complete with price tag, or shrink- or gift-wrapped.

Each fork-lift truck is equipped with a display screen, and they are all radio linked. The cases are distributed systematically, logged in and logged out, and as soon as a rack is empty, the SAP system triggers a supply alert. "In three months it’s already boosted effi ciency by 20 per cent," says Pillman happily. He greets anyone he meets of his 100 plus employees by name as he strides between the racks.

Personal contact with the boss

That’s important to him and you can see that everybody knows everybody else here. "We all co-operate really closely," says Pillmann. ‘Our employees and the whole region belong together.’ This homely feeling also makes it easier to co-operate with the parish, district, and leading politicians, he adds. "Official channels are pretty short hereabouts."

If you escape from the labyrinthine warehouse you fetch up in the post offi ce. There’s plenty of room here, and lots of conveyor belts carrying packages – some as small as shoeboxes, some as big as tea-chests – towards the waiting yellow Deutsche Post vans. Only small orders are sent by post, but this still means three to fi ve large vanloads a day.

And off goes the post.

The employees are mostly locals and are happy to have a secure employer like the Simba Dickie Group. Because it is part of a tradition. At the end of the 19th century there were 321 toy makers in Sonneberg and 481 export fi rms. The term "World Toy City" was coined in 1913. Often the wholesalers’ showrooms contained more than 20,000 items. The local toy museum has a display of items from this period. Until the political upheaval of 1989 nearly 3,000 Sonneberg people worked at the Sonni VEB ("people’s factory") making toys for the whole of the Democratic Republic, the Soviet Union and even the West.

The huge spare parts store for Tamiya and Carson.

The tradition lives on

Little is left now of that large and important toy-producing region. But Norbert Pillmann is working on that. He organizes children’s parties and races on the Tamiya model car raceway behind the warehouse. The two racetracks, each 250 meters long, have traffi c lights, paddocks and computer-controlled chronometers up to international standards. People come from all over the world to see the annual finals of the Euro Cup and Fighter Cup.

Repair service: it helps the image.

Service helps the image

One fascinating storage area holds spare parts for Tamiya and Carson models. This is a unique service for when those speedy cars and aircraft suffer damage when their owners lose control of them. Millions of parts can be ordered, from tire sets to engine components. But that isn’t all. Two service departments will repair these high-value toys: one for Carson and Tamiya, the other for Dickie. It all looks like a real auto repair shop: tools in all shapes and sizes, some tiny and some quite big; men in overalls and the smell of oil. The model repair workshop houses five specialists for boats, planes and land vehicles and who also deal with complaints.

The Sonneberger management team on the Tamiya raceway viewing platform.

The branch manager is already looking forward to an extension to the logistics center by the end of this year: another 6,700 square meters are to be added, approximately 12,000 new storing positions for palettes. It’s a good sign: the Simba Dickie Group is still growing and creating several new jobs in the former toy city. And another challenge for the logistics manager." In less than six months it’ll all be going like clockwork." And if the Lord of the Racks says it will, it will.

A lofty visitor

Touring various firms in the Sonneberg area, Thuringia’s Minister for Economy, Employment and Technology, Matthias Machnig of the SPD, made his first visit to the Simba Dickie Group’s logistics center. He was amazed and fascinated by the huge dimensions and hi-tech efficiency of this distribution facility, which is one of the region’s biggest employers. The proposed extension to the logistical control center, which will create still more jobs, was welcome news to the Minister: “It’s important to keep people in the area by giving them strong social partners.” Partners like the Simba Dickie Group. In the photo: Matthias Machnig (right) chatting to Simba Dickie Group COO Uwe Weiler.

Real interest: Branch manager Norbert Pillman (left) explains to Matthias Machnig (centre, yellow tie) how the Sonneberg logistics center conducts its worldwide services for the Simba Dickie Group.