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A-SIS helps DILISCO optimise its logistics

07.12.2016

DILISCO, a subsidiary of Albin Michel specialising in book distribution and marketing, has entrusted A-SIS with the reorganisation of its warehouse logistics, with the use of its LMxt Warehouse Management System and especially its expertise, via an innovative form of collaboration.

In 2015, DILISCO, a subsidiary of the publisher Albin Michel that distributes, markets and dispatches books on behalf of various customers, asked Division Savoye, the parent company of A-SIS, to mechanise its order picking workshop at its warehouse in Chéniers, in the Creuse département. This depot has a surface area of 20,000 m2 and houses DILISCO's core business: the reception and storage of books and all the activities involved in preparing orders. A second warehouse, at Bonnat, with a surface area of 5,000 m2, takes the overflow and also handles two specific activities: logistics exclusively for Albin Michel and the manufacture of point-of-sale furniture. A few months after this first project began, in December of the same year, DILISCO carried out a major technological switchover at its two warehouses.

To enable it to cope better with the growth of its activities and to increase the performance of its book distribution and marketing platforms, DILISCO installed the A-SIS LMxt WMS at its sites. »To manage our processes, we had previously been using the logistics modules of IBM's AS400 ERP software, which is really for accounting and marketing. We needed to maximise productivity to boost our development,« explains Alessandro Vai, Director General of DILISCO. »We therefore issued a call for tenders in 2014 and chose A-SIS at the beginning of the following year. A-SIS is a brand of the Division Savoye, so it seemed logical to work with two partners who know one another. But it was also the product itself, LMxt, that convinced us: we received some very positive feedback concerning this WMS from others in the industry.« DILISCO therefore switched to wireless processes, first concerning the reception and internal management of stocks, and then this year on the preparation of orders. A little less than a year after the installation of LMxt and the modernisation carried out by Savoye, the results are obvious. In addition to traceability and time savings, DILISCO now has 10% greater capacity at its Chéniers warehouse, with the creation of 2,000 locations and 22 new workstations. Between 2014 and 2016, the company has seen growth of 28%, gained in flexibility and improved its customer service.

A plan to improve operations, with real results
In order to continue this improvement process and offer its customers maximum flexibility, DILISCO has also asked A-SIS to provide expertise and assistance. This mission has identified new avenues for improvement, such as the mapping and streamlining of order preparation. It has also led to the development of an action plan for 2017 that will focus more particularly on the optimisation of volumes, the renewal of supplies and the management of returns. This strategic collaboration between the two firms has been given an unprecedented structure because the different actions, monitored by productivity and performance indicators, will be financed by the savings generated: »We decided to set up a win-win partnership: we will share the savings made by these missions, to deepen this notion of partnership, to which we are all committed,« explains Philippe Pradel, Expertise Manager at A-SIS.

On the strength of the installation of LMxt and the expertise of A-SIS, DILISCO is already preparing for 2017 with the launch of new services to its customers, as well as the deployment in its warehouses of:

  • a system of automatic documents deposed station controlled by the LM Warehouse Control System,
  • the Data Manager® system to automatically measure, weigh and photograph articles.

Warehouse operations will also benefit from A-SIS's latest innovative systems: the new generation of Pick-to-Light displays, the multi-modal mobility system and the PeakScreen system, which consists of a heads-up cap-mounted display with an HD OLED screen and voice command feature.



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