From Silos to Synchronization: How Britax Römer Unified Warehouse and ERP with Dynamics AX

The Customer  

Britax Römer is an international manufacturer of child safety solutions and a global market leader in child mobility, best known for its child car seats and pushchairs. The brand traces its roots to 1938 and brings together the British Britax and the German Römer names, and it has helped protect millions of children on the road since launching its first child car seat in the 1960s. It even co-developed the ISOFIX child-seat mounting standard, now used the world over. Today the business employs around 1,000 people across operations in 12 countries. 

Reliable, transparent and stable logistics are central to that mission. Britax Römer operates with complex supply chain requirements and places strong emphasis on maintaining control and visibility across its processes, so that products reach its platform, retail and B2B customers on time, every time. 

The Challenge  

Britax Römer undertook a major strategic shift, closing its logistics and production operations at its Leipheim site in Germany and transferring warehouse operations to an external logistics provider. It was a move designed to streamline the business, but it carried real risk: delivery performance could not be allowed to slip during the change. 

The brief was demanding. The full transition to external logistics had to be delivered within a non-negotiable timeframe, with zero disruption to delivery capability, particularly for the platform business and B2B channels, and full transparency maintained across all stock movements and logistics data. The external operation had to be integrated with an existing Dynamics AX 2012 R3 environment that was deeply embedded in day-to-day processes, enabling real-time, accurate data exchange across master data, goods receipts and outbound deliveries. On top of this, operational processes had to be aligned with the logistics partner, Rhenus, covering packaging, labelling and handling-unit definitions. 

Failure to meet the deadline would have had an immediate business impact, which made this a high-risk, mission-critical initiative from day one. 

The Solution  

Hitachi Solutions implemented a structured integration approach, building on proven experience from a similar deployment in the UK. Rather than replace the core platform, the team kept Dynamics AX 2012 as the system of record and extended it to connect seamlessly with the external warehouse. 

The approach combined reuse with careful local adaptation: 

• Retained Dynamics AX 2012 as the core system of record 
• Extended integration capabilities for seamless connectivity with the external warehouse 

• Reused approximately 60% of the existing UK workflows, adapting the remaining 40% to local German requirements 

• Developed and refined interfaces and message processes to support automated, real-time data exchange 

• Delivered through a structured methodology with clear ownership, defined milestones and handover points 

• Executed a multi-stage testing and phased go-live strategy to minimise risk 

• Coordinated closely with Rhenus to define and implement labelling, packaging and handling-unit processes 

Following an initial scoping workshop in Nuremberg, the project was largely delivered remotely, keeping it efficient without compromising alignment between the teams. 

Why Hitachi Solutions  

For a deadline-driven, mission-critical project, Britax Römer turned to a partner it already knew and trusted. Hitachi Solutions had acted as a long-term partner across ERP, CRM and global support, and brought a proven methodology with strong governance and delivery discipline. By drawing on accelerators and reusable components from international projects, together with a deep understanding of Microsoft Dynamics environments and logistics integration, the team could move quickly without taking shortcuts on quality.