It said this is the first stage in a major revamp of the Co-op’s entire supply chain, following a 2003 review that revealed serious limitations in how its warehouses delivered goods to its 3,300 UK stores.
We needed to redevelop the whole of the supply chain: the physical distribution, as well as the systems, which were old and tired. The distribution centers were too many and too small and we were working with inappropriate processes which were supported by reliable systems, but lacking in functionality and hard to service from a hardware and software point of view, said Trevor Ashworth, director of food retail logistics at the Co-op.
Part of the changes identified included reducing its distribution centers from 20 to 13 and improving the speed and accuracy of getting foods from the warehouses onto the store shelves. Ashworth said early results from using the Warehouse Management component of the open source supply chain platform at the Thurrock center have been extremely positive.
We’ve seen massively improved productivity levels and massively improved levels of accuracy. It does improve the rate at which people can pick and pack in the warehouse, he said. Most processes are automated so there’s also a reduction in the clerical administration. It also means that in these stores there’s less admin processing of errors, which releases store staff from non-value adding administration. Our error rate using Manhattan Associates is massively reduced by a factor of 10.
