Keeping consumers happy is not easy.
In a world where few are willing to
wait, retailers are under pressure to
deliver goods faster and more efficiently than
ever before.
Amidst growing consumer demand, supply
chains are being pushed to the absolute limit
to ensure they can operate not only faster and
more reliably, but also more cost effectively.
Doing this without the right systems is
nearly impossible, says Renko Bergh from
Forte Supply Chain Consulting. The company
has recently been and still is involved in the
successful implementation and optimisation of
ADOR4 WMS at Food Lover’s Market – and
it’s seen some big results.
“The company does have an existing
enterprise resource planning (ERP) system
but the flow of goods was not optimised from
the distribution centre (DC) to the various
stores and back,” he says. “The client
required an improved stock management
and stock visibility model that would bring
integration and optimisation to the warehouse,
ultimately allowing for better stock prediction,
management and flow.”
Operating in a fiercely competitive
environment, Food Lover’s Market opted to
use Forte Warehouse Solutions as the thirdparty
project manager for ADOR4 with regard
to the implementation of the WMS as they act
as the bridge between the client’s expectation
and the software development house.
“Also, having worked on a variety of
projects, they have experience – a very
particular skills and knowledge set that proved
very valuable in the ultimate success of this
entire project. It allowed us to focus on the
business side while they made sure it was all
executed properly,” says Garth Dante, project
manager IT and supply chain at Food Lover’s
Market.
According to Bergh, several challenges
were identified at the start of the project which
kicked off in 2015. “First and foremost was the
hardware and infrastructure that needed to be
addressed. It is essential that a DC can cater
for the functionality of the equipment ADOR4
functions on,” he says.
“At the same time, one must not lose sight
of the fact that such implementations bring
about big changes for any organisation and
its employees. Therefore, managing that
process is integral to the success of it all. We
had to make sure that everyone across the
warehouse understood the plan and process
and that change management took place
from a user level. This all had to be done
without impacting the trade environment at
all – meaning there was no shutdown of one
system and then an introduction of the new
one. It had to be done without interruption of
operations.”
With ADOR4 providing the development
experience, a lot of background work took
place as well. Thorough user acceptance
testing and dry runs were done before the first
grocery DC was moved onto the WMS in July
last year.
“Food Lover’s Market runs a combination of
departments in each DC and the requirement
was that all the divisions would operate
ADOR4 to cater for the specific requirements
within each department.
“The system had to be adjusted for such
scenarios as well as the various critical
requirements within each department,”
explains Bergh. “Most of the success was in
the adaptability of ADOR4 and how extremely
relevant and workable the system is at ground
level.”
The benefits have been incredible. Store
lead times are down by up to 50% and picking
accuracy has increased by 45%.
“Staff are trained, assessed and retrained
as and when required,” says Bergh.
These successes, says Dante, are thanks to
proper preparation.
“Thanks to the process knowledge and the
dedicated teams, we were able to develop
and test the software several times before
implementation – leading to fewer bugs and a
more effective process all round.” He says the
advantages of the new system have resulted
in increased productivity, which has positive
financial results.
At present two of Food Lover’s Market’s
distribution centres – Cape Town and Durban
– are live and operating on ADOR4 while it is
currently in the process of being implemented
in Johannesburg, with several other cities and
possibly countries set to follow.
