The retail food distribution market continues to be dynamic and consumers demand fresh premium products when they need them. Stores are also expected to remain open for more hours, so inventory replenishment activities will often take place during periods of increased purchase activity.
In addition, consumers want to have greater diversity when choosing their products. This means that deliveries from warehouses are getting smaller, with more frequent replenishment activities. The increase in online purchases, the concept of "dark" or "dark" store and e-commerce are also increasing the complexity of the supply chain for food distributors.
Increase Of Multi-Store Format
One of the most important trends affecting food distributors is the growth of the multi-store format. This issue currently occupies a prominent position in the agenda of the operators of warehouses and distribution centers and for good reason.
Until a few years ago, the basic layout for a store, such as a supermarket, varied very little from traditional design. However, since that traditional and common approach has been rejected by the demands of modern society.
Now the products can be purchased in numerous establishments, from gas stations to express stores, through conventional supermarkets and "ghost" stores. This puts significant pressure on the order preparation and distribution process since the final delivery point must be taken into account.
It is expected that this diversity will continue to exist according to the IGD study, which highlighted that: "The physical store will continue to play an important role in the future of purchases" but those "store schemes will need a greater differentiation counterbalanced by the need to maintain an efficient supply chain.”
With this in mind, distribution centers are looking for new ways to increase efficiency, reduce delivery times and reduce transport costs.
A Pioneer Field
Deliveries adapted to stores are often considered the ideal solution. This method consists in preparing the pallets or the cages in the CDs in line with the specific scheme of the final store. This creates a very positive impact on the inventory preparation and replenishment process since these processes are simpler for stores.
The main advantage of the gas adapted to stores is that CDs can prepare a pallet or a cage accurately, regardless of the layout of a store. The replenishment process could be carried out more efficiently through the automation of the forklift stacking process. One of the reasons is that the individual phonograms of the stores can be taken into account.
The collection of automatic boxes (ACP). "ACP technology allows us to automate the entire system flow, this ranges from the reception of the pallets of the supplier to the preparation of pallets of combined boxes that are sent to stores.
One of the main components within the ACP is our Load Programming Logic (LFL) software, which calculates the most effective preparation of the pallets. LFL transforms shop orders into a series of forklifts, pallets or cages. It takes into account the characteristics of the store and the product so that the products are stacked in a stable manner facilitating the process of replenishment in the store. "
The creation of pallets using the LFL also means that stores do not need operators to divide the pallets into smaller sections. This saves time and reduces costs. In a traditional manual operation, pallets have to be divided before they can be used for stock replenishment. This occurs because the manually prepared pallet contains different goods from the store.
However, when preparing pallets intelligently, the division process can not only be improved but potentially eliminated. In addition to reducing replenishment costs, you can free up valuable storage space. It can be used alternatively to improve the shopping experience for customers.
Optimization Of The Supply Chain
The advantages of an automatic preparation of the pallets with respect to manual preparation have already been recognized. We can include statements such as the following: "The automatic stacking method has a performance superior to the current manual stacking method. In general, we can conclude that automatic stacking software has a superior performance to manual stacking software in terms of forklift utilization and replenishment times. "
In addition to the layout of the store, LFL also takes into account the "limits of vertical orientation, stacking, stability, complexity, allocation, and distribution of weight, as well as the weight limit of the forklift". These considerations are crucial in a supply chain solutions in UK where "container loading is a paramount function, as insufficient performance generates unnecessary costs and unsatisfactory customer service".
The main benefit for food distributors is the replenishment of inventory in a very faster. Ultimately, products can be prepared on pallets in a way that satisfies their intrinsic value to consumers; always available on supermarket shelves.
The financial implications are considerable. If we rely on an average food distributor with 200 stores, store-adapted deliveries can reduce inventory replenishment activities in two to three hours per delivery, per store. This translates into savings of up to 20 million euros over a period of ten years. Transportation costs are also reduced by around 5 million euros in the same period. Buyers will always have their favourite products available and this is very important as product inventories are getting bigger and stores stay open for longer. The logic of load programming is the basis for the improvement that stores will achieve by passing manual processing from a warehouse to automated processing.
Through automation, the warehouses will benefit from an efficient and flexible operation, as well as a reduction in transport costs. At the same time, the efficiency in the store will be increased and the food distributors will be able to improve their competitive advantage even more.
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