When Aarbakke, a RamBase Cloud ERP customer since 2024, invested in a new automated storage system from Remmert, they didn't just want the two systems to exchange data. They wanted full control over every unit, every location, every movement on the shop floor.
Getting there required more than a standard integration. It took close collaboration between Aarbakke, RamBase partner Mazeppa, and RamBase's Customer Solutions & Integrations (CSI) team, a team that closes the gap when systems don't connect the way a business needs them to.
This is the story of how that collaboration solved a problem that looked simple on paper, but wasn't as straight forward.
The challenge
Remmert is an automated storage system. In Aarbakke's case, a high-density automated warehouse with room for around 3,000 europallets, tracking exactly where each one is at all times.
For a machining operation like Aarbakke's, that's a real advantage. When the next operation on a part isn't due for weeks, it no longer has to sit on the floor gathering dust and taking up space. It can be stored in the Remmert and retrieved precisely when production needs it again, allowing more work in progress to run simultaneously, less floor clutter, and a tighter grip on a logistics operation handling several hundred tasks a day.
But an automated warehouse is only as good as its connection to the system running production. That's where the challenge began.
Without an integration between RamBase and the new storage system, keeping track of where a part sat in production meant manual updates, fragile traceability, time-consuming searches, and a steady stream of coordination over email and Teams. With 300+ production resources spread across three separate halls and a high degree of physical movement between operations, that added up to hundreds of logistics tasks every day.
Together with Mazeppa, Aarbakke mapped out the problem and brought a brief to RamBase's CSI team. The ask, although straight forward, a complex one: build an integration to Remmert that could send store and extract orders, control location down to the individual unit, handle goods reception and picking to production, follow production status and planned dates, and be futureproof.
"We knew that they had big ambitions for this, and received a specification that scared us a bit. But the people we collaborated with at Aarbakke had a solid sense of realism." says Sverre Tveit, Team Leader & Project Manager at RamBase.
In practice, the brief quickly ran into the kind of complexity that often surfaces in integration projects like this. Some data points still needed to be defined, certain processes needed to be mapped out in more detail, and the two systems needed a shared way of understanding each other before they could work together the way the business needed.
What Aarbakke needed wasn't just a simple bridge between two systems. The final solution needed to reflect how production actually runs on the floor.
The solution: built together, with humans in the loop
This is exactly the kind of challenge RamBase's CSI team exists to solve: not a standard configuration, but a custom-built solution shaped around how a specific customer actually operates.
" We didn't just build an integration. We also created an advanced user layer. This has improved Remmert, improved RamBase and ensured that Aarbakke gets very good use of both systems.", says Sverre Tveit.
Rather than forcing a fully automated system-to-system handshake, the CSI team designed the integration around the people who know the floor best. They built a web interface that lets Aarbakke's operators provide the feedback that Remmert couldn't yet give on its own:
- Production operators dictate the needs: what has to move, what has to be stored or picked
- Logistics operators facilitate the movement, with a clear view of what goes where and when
- Warehouse operators respond to RamBase on behalf of the WMS, closing the feedback loop
Several trigger points were moved out of RamBase and into this interface, and custom fields on the units were used to hold the critical location data. The guiding principle: people aren't a workaround, they're an integral resource, and the smartest integration is one that gives them better information and better controls.
Development was deliberately iterative. The first three months delivered a bare-bones solution covering the original scope. Then the Aarbakke team began testing, learning, and spotting opportunities for new features. Feedback fed straight back into development, and the cycle repeated.
The delivered scope ended up going well beyond the original request, covering everything from goods reception and automated picking to temporary storage and moving parts directly between operations, all with location control down to a single unit.
The result
Today, the picture looks very different. The integration between RamBase and Remmert has given Aarbakke:
- A faster, more continuous production flow
- A visually clear overview of logistics tasks: what goes where, and when
- A significant reduction in manual work
- Improved quality and accuracy in location tracking
- Less clutter on the production floor
- One unified, shared workflow across production, logistics and warehouse operators
The parts move, the data follows automatically, and the people on the floor have the controls and visibility they need to keep production running.
"It started with a vision of how we could handle things in a secure way. Now we have a platform that gives us control over where things are." Erlend Erevik, Improvement Engineer at Aarbakke
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