Customer focus: e-commerce logistics

A web merchant specialized in the repair economy entrusted us with the logistics of its catalog of 380,000 references. Its supplier orders were received in the morning and all customer orders had to be processed in the afternoon. In order to take advantage of the purchasing thresholds of its suppliers, our customer did not order exactly the parts requested by its online store but often more. Conversely, since he was interfaced with our real-time inventory, he did not recommend when stock was available.

The first challenge was to identify the parts, because with 380,000 references, 80% of the parts of the day were coming to us for the first time. Moreover, the same part could come from different suppliers depending on the opportunity of purchase: manufacturers, importers, wholesalers, brokers, retailers, etc. We set up 4 identification stations and developed a specific application integrating the maximum number of barcodes and photos as well as all the elements related to the supplier orders of our customer. For example, a part could be identified thanks to the content of the whole order and by deduction after having identified the other parts. After identification, each part was coded with our customer's unique reference and sent to two splitting stations. At these stations, the parts were scanned and the IS allowed them to be routed in three directions: parts corresponding to single-line orders on hold, those corresponding to multi-part orders and those in excess of the order portfolio. The first ones were transferred in bulk to 5 order preparation stations. The operators only had to scan the parts one by one, each scan being immediately followed by the printing of the order's transport label and its invoice.

Packaging was done immediately afterwards and so on at very fast rates. The parts corresponding to multi-piece orders were transferred to two hives, each of which was assigned by the IS to a multi-piece order. As soon as a bin was complete, the IS signaled it and printed the transport label and the invoice so that an operator could proceed with the packaging and release the bin. Parts that were received but not assigned to an order were placed in the picking area. At the end of the reception process, a second batch was used to launch the picking of the parts already in stock and corresponding to pending orders. One pick was destined for the single part channel and the other to complete the hive of multi-part orders.