'Stock accuracy is now 99.9%'

With 24 supermarkets, Amazing Oriental is the largest Asian food retailer in the Netherlands. However, the company behind this chain, Oriental Holding Europe, does much more than just food retail. "We are the largest trading company in Asian food. As a wholesaler, we supply customers throughout Europe and through our web shop we receive orders from all over the continent. In addition, we have developed a restaurant concept under the name Amazing Taste," says Patricia Sjauw-Eik, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Oriental Holding Europe. "We have been growing since we opened the first store in 1986 and the ambition to grow is still there. For example, we recently opened a branch in Antwerp."

Working more efficiently

Previously, growth was virtually impossible for the company. The company struggled with inefficient logistics processes because there was no proper system support. "A few years ago, we didn't have a real WMS. Everything was in the heads of a few people and order picking was done with pen and paper. That was not a tenable situation. Our employees had to work longer and longer hours to get all the orders out the door and had difficulty taking time off." Ordering from the supermarkets was done with a Point of Sale system, which also managed inventory in the warehouses. "However, that system did not have the functionality you would expect from a WMS. There was absolutely no steering for efficiency."

ERP system

In addition to a new WMS, it was necessary to have a new ERP running in order to work according to a Single Source of Truth (SSoT). For that purpose, SAP Business One was selected. This presented Sjauw-Eik with a difficult choice. Could the two warehouses be controlled by the WMS module of this ERP system? Or is a best-of-breed WMS needed? "I know there are several ERP systems with the necessary WMS functionality, but food retail places special requirements on a WMS. For example, the registration of THT data, working on the basis of FEFO (First Expire First Out) and the handling of daily fresh products."

Significant figures

Since the retailer has been working with Locus WMS, productivity in the warehouses has increased significantly in part due to the use of barcode scanning. For example, there has been a productivity improvement of 10% to 14%. Stock accuracy has improved from 80% to 99.99% and the annual stock count now only takes 12 hours instead of 3 days. Order fulfillment is currently at 97% - 98%. Sjauw-Eik: "That the stock accuracy is now 99.9% is really special and something I have never seen before. If you make sure that your stock is kept up to date and you follow the system, you never lose any pallets and picking and counting errors are limited. There are still occasional errors at our picking locations, but our bulk is actually always correct."

Easy to learn, easy to do

As important as these numbers are then, Pearlsy Sjauw, Supply Chain Solutions Manager at Amazing Oriental, says they are especially pleased that employees enjoy working with the system. "Locus WMS is stable, works pleasantly and allows our people to work efficiently, with less stress. An employee recently told me that it used to take him up to two hours to complete an order; now it's 45 minutes. This allows us to turn much more volume with the same number of people." Another big advantage Sjauw-Eik mentions is that employees can quickly get started with Locus WMS. "The learning curve is very small, everyone can work with it in no time. That's a big advantage for us because the staff turnover of temporary workers is quite high."

Extra step

"At the time of the implementation, there were some teething problems that we had to deal with," concludes Sjauw. "That's also because we switched to three new systems in one fell swoop: ERP, WMS and POS, and we wanted to implement them quickly. Together with Centric, we looked for a solution for every teething problem. Centric was willing to take extra steps in this. And that's what it's all about in the end."