Heineken Holland når ökad lagertillförlitlighet i sina distributionscentraler. (eng)

Using nine distribution centres throughout the Netherlands, HEINEKEN Wholesale supplies around 20,000 catering venues with beer, soft drinks, wine and other products every week. The DC in Oss was the last of these to have the WMS from Consafe Logistics implemented in 2008. The result is higher productivity, fewer errors, less administration and greater stock reliability. Maarten Bakhuizen, regional logistics director of HEINEKEN Wholesale: "Young and old can handle the system with ease."

Every day, 22 lorries from HEINEKEN Wholesale leave Oss for cafés, restaurants, hotels, sport canteens and company restaurants. In the 10,000-square-metre distribution centre, they are loaded with beer, soda, coffee, tea, wine, spirits and associated articles such as glasses, beer mats, crushers and skimmers, and return with empty packaging in the afternoon. HEINEKEN Wholesale has eight more DC’s similar to Oss throughout the Netherlands, supplemented by four supply points in Zeelandic Flanders and on the West Frisian islands. There is also a DC in Waddinxveen for articles with a lower turnover, which is outsourced to a logistics service provider. "Together, we serve half of the catering establishments in the Netherlands, amounting to some 20,000 addresses", says Maarten Bakhuizen, regional logistics director of HEINEKEN Wholesale and responsible for the operations in Oss, Deventer and Heerlen.

An informed decision

The DC in Oss, which was opened in 2008, is the last of the nine DC’s in which the Warehouse Management System (WMS) from Consafe Logistics has been put into operation. "The decision to purchase a new WMS was made in 2006. Up to then, we had, in fact, still been working with order pick lists on paper, with all the associated disadvantages. There was a strong need to improve logistics processes, i.e., accelerating the order pick process and reducing the number of order pick errors", explains Bakhuizen.

The fact that the breweries of HEINEKEN Nederland have been running with the Consafe Logistics WMS since 2002 certainly played a role in HEINEKEN Wholesale opting for this system. "They had good experiences with Consafe Logistics, but we didn’t make this decision lightly. We ran through a thorough selection process, and looked at several systems. Consafe again emerged as the best option, after which the system was rolled out in all the DC’s over a period of two years", says Bakhuizen.

Support for slotting and batch picking

In principle, the WMS works in the same way in all nine DC’s. The order pickers drive on order-pick trucks with three roller containers running simultaneously along the pick location. Their hand-held terminals show the pick locations and the number of items to be picked. The WMS first sends the order pickers to the barrels, and then to the crates, so that the heaviest items end up at the bottom. Each pick is preceded by a scan of the pick location, so that pick errors are avoided as much as possible. When an order picker has completed a pick order, the hand-held terminal indicates the loading area on the expedition floor where the roller container must be placed.

The WMS includes several functions that ensure the high productivity of the order pickers. One example is slotting, which ensures that the fast selling articles are situated at the most easily reached pick locations. Items that are often ordered together, for example, sport canteens that sell various sports drinks, are also placed next to each other as often as possible. "We also want to work with batch picking. This means that our order pickers no longer start off with three roller containers for the same client, but with three roller containers for three different clients who have ordered the same items", explains Bakhuizen.

Stock reliability essential

Another function from which HEINEKEN Nederland benefits is the support in the area of stock reliability. "That is essential for us. If we think that we have ten pieces of a particular item in stock, but there are in fact only eight, we will not be able to pick, and will not be able to deliver everything to our customers", says Bakhuizen, who particularly praises the functionality for cycle counting. "Previously, we had to do a lot of counting in order to keep the stock reliability at an acceptable level. The WMS now ensures that we can count smarter, for example, if the pick location is almost empty. The counting then costs hardly any additional time at all."

The support in the area of shelf life dates also has certainly made work in the DC’s a lot easier. The WMS now automatically sends the order pickers to the items whose shelf life expires first. Bakhuizen: "We can now easily generate clear overviews of the items whose shelf lives are close to expiring. Previously, we had to run ‘best before’ rounds in order to physically check the date on the pallet labels."

Better overview of stock levels

The nine DC’s learn a lot from each other with regard to the use of the WMS. HEINEKEN Wholesale has thereby set up a WMS user group that includes representatives from all the various branches, as well as internal consultants and IT administrators. The experience with the WMS is positive in all the DC’s. "In any case, the administrative burden has decreased considerably in recent years. In addition, we now have a better insight into our stock levels and have fewer picking errors. There’s also no doubt that the productivity has increased."

Bakhuizen praises the user-friendliness of the system in particular. "All our staff are able to work well with the system, whether they are 18-years old or 63.", says the regional logistics director, who regards the relationship with Consafe Logistics as very constructive. "They are people who know what they’re doing, and who react quickly when there is a problem. That’s a very pleasant way of working."

Together with Consafe Logistics, HEINEKEN Wholesale will also work towards better performance in the future. "It is also certainly possible that we could move on even further, to a technique such as voice picking, in the future."

Customer profile

Company: HEINEKEN Wholesale
Activity:The sale of beverages to catering establishments, sport canteens, companies, etc.
Location:Oss, one of the nine dc’s and four depots throughout the Netherlands
Items in stock: 1,400; the total range amounts to 4,000 items
Number of warehouse employees: 70, including support staff and drivers
Number of order lines: 50,000 to 60,000 per month
Warehouse: 10,000 m2Website: www.HEINEKENgroothandel.nl
Consafe Logistics solution: Warehouse management system

About Heineken
HEINEKEN is not only the producer of strong beer brands, but is also a catering supplier for beverages, ranging from beer up to and including wine, and for dairy products, up to and including food and non-food. In addition, HEINEKEN is a partner who thinks along with you with the aim of obtaining more business from catering establishments. For example, the Good Draft (Goed Getapt) programme, which has already trained many entrepreneurs and their staff, with tangible results in quality improvement and more yield from the overall range of products. This programme has recently been extended to include training courses in the categories of special beers, soft drinks, wine, spirits, and coffee & tea. In the field of product innovation and new concepts, HEINEKEN keeps a close eye on developments and trends in the catering market. Examples of this are the introduction of a new category of cider with the Jillz, Strongbow Gold and Bazar brands, and a completely new total concept for coffee and tea.

Information about the company: Consafe Logistics AB

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