Page 117 - AMEFT Journal 2021-4

(Source: Image © SSI SCHAEFER)
Karl Graber, IT Project Manager WAMAS Enterprise, SSI Schaefer
- Comprehensive warehouse and stock management as the quantity displayed in the shop must be avail- able to its full extent.
- A guaranteed management of weight items and price labeling in goods processes and across all sys- tems.
- Consistent expiration date and batch tracking.
- Careful handling of goods and con- solidation of items of different tem- perature zones.
- The used software systems must have a certain degree of flexibil- ity to be able to provide additional services. These are value-added services for the customer, such as free items or the illustration of short-term or temporary promo- tions.
How long-established companies are reacting to the e-food trend: Coop.ch
Many renowned supermarket chains are hesitant to take the step towards digitalization and e-commerce – Coop is different. What began as a small re- tail cooperative is now an international retail and wholesale company with around 90,000 employees.
The successful online shop coop.ch was launched as early as 2001. With more than CHF 150 million in sales, the online division of the Swiss supermar- ket giant already contributed 1.5% to the total sales of Coop supermarkets (CHF 10,452 million) in 2019.4
Due to the sudden increase in de- mand during the COVID-19 lockdown in spring 2020, the company reached the limits of its capacity. To avoid sup-
ply bottlenecks, a quick solution had to be found. Coop relied on a 2-pillar strategy.
As the first pillar, Coop defined its own Top 100 selection of items for the e-com sector, which contained the 100 most important products of an aver- age Swiss household. With this mea- sure, Coop was able to quickly take the complexity out of the online selection, which normally consists of 11,000 ar- ticles, and did so without having to make noticeable cuts for customers in their demand. In addition, the reduc- tion in size of the selection of items simplified the customers’ shopping ex- perience.
As a second pillar, Coop planned a new warehouse location for the Top 100 assortment. The implementation time? An unbelievable 14 days. For this tour de force under enormous time pressure, Coop rented a 6,000 m2 warehouse. SSI Schaefer sup- ported Coop with the installation of WAMAS®. The new location had to be equipped with IT and a logistics infrastructure from scratch and be connected to the Coop network. The logistics processes of the new loca- tion were deliberately kept as sim- ple as possible. For example, it was decided to route incoming goods directly to the picking station. This made it possible to dispense with separate reserve areas due to the fast warehouse rotation.
Only 14 days after Coop asked SSI
TECHNOLOGY & SUSTAINABILITY
Schaefer for support, more than 100 order pickers were handling the daily online orders. The fact that most of the employees had never worked with WAMAS before underlines the particu- larly user-friendly and very easy oper- ability of the software and the uncom- plicated training phase.
The retail trade is not the only busi- ness area that is faced with the very particular challenges of the e-com- merce boom. While facing these chal- lenges, it became apparent that digi- tization and automation make a very significant contribution to the eco- nomic success. Seasonal fluctuations in demand can be observed in many industry sectors.
Businesses are familiar with peak times and prepare for them months ahead. However, sometimes it is simply not possible to predict fluc- tuations in time and intensity. Nev- ertheless, the supply chain must work smoothly. Situations like these require fast solutions, maximum flex- ibility, strong implementation, and of course a competent software part- ner, who not only understands the industry sector, but also the custom- er-specific requirements.
Author: Karl Graber, IT Project Manager, WAMAS Enterprise, SSI Schaefer
Source: Das E-Food Buch: Märkte- Player- Strategien, Matthias Schu https://www.efoodbuch.ch/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Auszug- Schu-2020_Das-E-Food-Buch.pdf
2 Source: www.cash.at/handel/news/gastkommentar-harald-dut- zler-der-leh-nach-corona-23205
3 Source: Das E-Food Buch: Märkte- Player- Strategien, Matthias Schu 4 Source: Das E-Food Buch: Märkte- Player- Strategien, Matthias Schu
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