The context.
Knauf Pinkenba was running its Brisbane warehouse on a non-WMS base. The visible cost of that decision was familiar: delays in real-time inventory updates, accuracy issues, complex reconciliation between manufacturing output and physical warehouse stock, and a longer sales lead time to the customer. The hidden cost was the operator effort and the conversation that had to happen on every exception.
The supply chain leadership inside the business made the call to implement Knauf's in-house SAP EWM template, internally known as GWMS. GWMS was already deployed across multiple Knauf sites globally and was the established standard. What the business needed was an in-country partner: a local conduit between the German build team and the operations team standing on the Pinkenba floor.
The brief.
The initial scope was deliberately narrow. Guide operations on change management activities. Get the floor ready for go-live. Translate the template for the people who would have to live with it. That brief held for the opening weeks. As the build phase moved forward, it became clear that several of the gap areas would benefit from a senior EWM voice with delivery accountability, not just facilitation. The role expanded into full project responsibility on the EWM stream.
The intervention.
Luminar leveraged its partner relationships to recover lost time during the hardware replacement workstream. The original hardware estate was not fit for the Knauf global standard and had to be replaced under time pressure. The replacement programme proceeded without disrupting the build path. In parallel, we supported the internal field service department on the network due diligence activity required for the new hardware. That work landed at approximately fifty per cent under the original cost projection.
During the build phase, gaps emerged in the global template against Australian operational reality. Two of those were significant: Goods Receipt from Manufacturing, and outbound Shipping. Both were addressed using standard SAP EWM functionality. No Z code. The solutions designed for the Pinkenba site were subsequently adopted into the Knauf global template for future implementations.
UAT was supported with high availability and quick error resolution. The objective was to keep stakeholder confidence high in the solution; lose confidence during UAT and the go-live conversation gets significantly harder. In conjunction with the global process owner team, we ran key user training against real scenarios with pragmatic fault-finding, so that the trained users could carry the knowledge to the broader user community at go-live.
On the hardware side, we set up the Getac mobile devices and Zebra scanners with the configuration required for the GWMS RF flow, so that mobile data entry and scanning landed simply for the operator. We then supported go-live with quick error resolution to remediate identified errors, reducing rework and downtime.
The most successful rollout we have signed off to date.
Global Process Owner Team · Knauf GWMS
The outcome.
- Seamless transition between the legacy non-WMS environment and live SAP EWM (GWMS) for daily operations.
- Immediately able to process increased outbound volumes, with peak days running approximately thirty per cent more volume, with no additional overtime required.
- With only nominal system errors, the Luminar and IT team were able to refocus on small tweaks and operator-driven improvements in the second week of go-live.
- Positive feedback from subcontractor drivers arriving on site who had seen a competitor going through the same rollout and facing severe issues during loading, leading to demurrage costs in that comparison case.
- Operational management feedback: warehouse activities are traceable, accuracy has greatly improved, and loading errors and stock differences are no longer the conversation.
- Global Process Owner Team feedback: the most successful rollout signed off across the GWMS programme to that point.
What this case proves about how we work.
The Knauf engagement is the cleanest expression of the Luminar point of view. Outcome focused, not budget focused. User focused, not system focused. Standard SAP EWM where standard SAP EWM can carry the load. Gap-fill solutions designed once, in a way that the global template could absorb, so that the next country site inherits the work rather than reinventing it. And a senior practitioner on the floor for the whole rollout, not a graduate analyst being trained at the client's cost.