A new vending machine called The Tool Server Modular (TSM) promotes itself as having “everything under control”, according to leading workshop equipment and manual workstation producers, Bedrunka + Hirth.

TSM is an ‘intelligent system’ for dispensing consumables and for storing. The machine notifies the accounting department about delivery orders, restocks orders when the minimum stock level is reached, receives a measuring device when calibrated and replaces items with minimum processing steps to the correct storage drawer.

The machine electromechanically locks metal covers, allowing access only to authorised individuals by a pin code or proof of ID.

Medium-sized suppliers, automotive industries and larger aerospace companies have started buying this product, noticing the benefits, with 13,000 customers worldwide.

“According to customer testimonies, the precise access control alone decreases the consumption figures by 20-30%,” says Thomas Dicks, Head of E-business and Marketing at Lerbs AG, a shipping and marine supplier.

Bedrunka + Hirth installs the TSM systems and hooks up the vending machine with the customer’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP).

“The Lerbs approach is to offer Supplix customers a full-service e-commerce system. This makes close and seamless co-operation with Bedrunka + Hirth even more important. Bedrunka + Hirth installs the TSM systems and, during the initial walk-through with the customer, also hooks up the automatic vending machine with the customer’s ERP,” added Dicks. “It’s a system that takes us into the future.”

The trading house based in Stuhr, close to Bremen in northern Germany, offers a product portfolio of around 150,000.

Written from press release by Leah Alger