Egemin has automated Vandeputte’s brand new distribution centre. For this, it developed and integrated a semi-automated warehouse concept. Through automating its intralogistics Vandeputte is able to process up to 2,000 orders daily, instead of 1,500, with the same number of employees.
Vandeputte distributes personal protective equipment (e.g. overalls, safety shoes, gloves) to industrial companies. It moved its distribution centre to a new building in Puurs before the summer to better meet the change in customer demand. Nowadays Vandeputte receives more and more electronic orders from its customers. These are usually smaller orders – before gloves were ordered per 100 pairs, while now they are ordered in ten batches of ten. The automation enables Vandeputte to respond to this change and to further optimize its logistics process. This results in a more efficient delivery to the customers.
COMPLETE WAREHOUSE SYSTEM
The warehouse system consists of an extensive reception area, an automated miniload warehouse with 36,000 totes and three miniload stacker cranes, four picking stations and a comprehensive transport and sorting system. This automatic installation is controlled together with the manual pallet warehouse by Egemin’s warehouse management software E'wms. E'wms controls the flow of incoming and outgoing goods and communicates with the SAP system that manages the order, inventory and billing.
ERRORS ARE PRACTICALLY IMPOSSIBLE
"We used to have a batch picking system. Our employees had to travel long distances to pick the goods, bend a lot and carry out many manual operations. Thanks to the automatic installation we work much faster and more ergonomically and the work is more enjoyable for the employees. Because everything is scanned, errors are practically impossible and we have a correct picture of the stock at any time. Goods can be traced at any time. Such transparency is very important to us and to our customers,” says CEO Dirk Vandeputte.
INTEGRATED PROCESS
When the goods arrive SAP checks which order are open; E'wms then takes over and decides where the goods need to be stored. Depending on the type of product, the number or pending orders, there are three possible locations: bulk storage, pick-to-belt stock or the miniload warehouse. Once the goods are in place, E'wms passes this on to SAP, which adds the goods to the available stock. SAP passes outbound deliveries on to E’wms, which determines where the goods are picked and in what order, whether any special instructions are needed, such as placing stickers on the packaging for certain customers, and whether the goods need to leave the company on a pallet or in parcels. "Egemin could supply the total package: not only for warehouse management system E'wms and the link with SAP, but they have also arranged for the transport lines, the hardware, the racks, the news tickers above the sorting line, and so on. The cooperation has shown that Egemin is an expert in logistics,” says Peggy Daneels, ICT & Supply Chain Director.