Preventing theft of transport racks for Fensterbau Otto with smart tracking

Transport racks are essential for logistics in window and door manufacturing – yet they are often an underestimated cost factor. At Fensterbau Otto GmbH, a regional manufacturer of window and door elements in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, valuable racks repeatedly went missing or were stolen over the years. The result: high replacement costs, additional workload for the team and a lack of transparency in day-to-day operations. In early 2025, the company therefore decided, together with IT service provider IT Progress, to implement a digital solution: an IoT-based tracking system from Sensolus that today provides greater security, visibility and efficient processes.

Fensterbau Otto ships its products on individually manufactured metal racks, which are indispensable in daily operations. Despite their value, a reliable system to document their stay was missing. Racks were repeatedly left at customer sites, mistakenly delivered to other companies or disappeared entirely.

The challenge was to find a solution that addressed the theft issue, created transparency across the entire circulation of racks and integrated seamlessly into the workflows of a craft business.

IT Progress evaluated several providers and ultimately chose Sensolus. Key factors were the compact, durable trackers with a battery life of up to ten years. They can be discreetly placed inside the metal frame of the racks, making them difficult to detect – even in the event of theft.

The cloud-based Sensolus platform also convinced the team. It is intuitive and clearly structured while offering a wide range of functions and presenting relevant information in an easy-to-understand format.

The battery-powered trackers transmit position and movement data at regular intervals. This allows Fensterbau Otto to track where a rack is located and how long it has been at a customer site – without requiring integration into other systems.

Before the project could begin, it took around three months to review all offers and reach a decision. After that, things moved quickly: the trackers were ordered, delivered within a few weeks and fully activated by January 2025.

Implementation itself was straightforward. The roughly 100 devices were activated via magnet and registered on the platform within two hours – a process handled entirely by IT Progress. A short online crash course provided by Sensolus was sufficient to understand all central basic functions of the platform.

In addition, IT Progress set up geofencing – the digital definition of geographic zones with automatic notifications when entering or leaving them. One zone was created around the company premises, another around a nearby business that had repeatedly and inadvertently received racks meant for Fensterbau Otto. When a rack leaves or enters one of these zones, the system automatically triggers a notification.

Since the introduction of the IoT solution, the situation has improved significantly. The number of losses has decreased almost entirely, and the team now has a reliable overview of all racks in circulation. If a transport rack remains at a customer site for longer than six to eight weeks, the system automatically sends a reminder – a simple function that greatly facilitates retrieval and optimises internal workflows.

From a technical standpoint, the solution has also proven stable. The trackers have remained online almost continuously since the project started, with a connectivity rate of around 94 percent – even across borders, as the operating area extends throughout the DACH region and into the Netherlands.

The cooperation between Fensterbau Otto, IT Progress and Sensolus was consistently positive. Short lines of communication, quick response times to inquiries and fast hardware availability ensured that the project was implemented without delays.

Fensterbau Otto is already planning to equip additional racks with trackers. In parallel, IT Progress is evaluating the use of the Sensolus solution for other customers, including container logistics with additional fill-level sensor technology. The platform already provides all necessary functions for this.