LECASUD automates manual processes for competitive advantage

LECASUD (Leclerc Centrale dAchat Sud), a co-operative retail business and part of Frances largest privately-owned retail chain, Leclerc, has replaced its largely manual supply chain processes with wireless, voice and computer enabled systems to cut the time taken to process orders.

Background

LECASUD, founded in 1981, is a privately owned co-operative retail company which centrally co-ordinates buying, procurement and supply to 35 stores in south east France.

LECASUD operates in the retail sector with an extensive product catalogue of 12,000 SKUs (grocery, beverages and alcohol, hardware, perfumes, cosmetics and hygiene, household cleaning, general merchandise, fruit and vegetables, frozen goods, ...).

LECLERCs operates central buying from two warehouses of 23100 m. The 100,000 sq metre warehouse moves 700,000- 750,000 pallets a year.

Systems goal

Products need to be delivered on time which means LECASUD must have everything in place in order to be able to deliver on its commitment to the stores to provide them with high quality and reliable deliveries.

LECASUDs objective in choosing to implement G.O.L.D. was to improve the reliability of its logistics flows across all warehousing operations.

Jacques Charotte, Director of Leclerc Lecasud Supply Depot, said, In order to optimise our supplies to stores, we chose Aldata G.O.L.D. stock, G.O.L.D. radio and G.O.L.D. vocal stock management and stock trading modules to give us total control of visibility of products from the moment they appear on site until delivery to stores.

All consumer goods are managed by Aldata G.O.L.D. Central (central buying), G.O.L.D. Stock (warehouse management), G.O.L.D. Radio (radio operations) and G.O.L.D. Transport (transport planning and scheduling).

The majority of the information flows are in real-time and include the use of radio equipment for reception, picking and dispatch. Lecasud also uses G.O.L.D. Vocal for order preparation.

Projects

Alain Robeau, Leclerc Lecasud IT & Quality Manager, said, Aldata provides us with the solution for each of the logistical tasks carried out at our supply depot from the moment the truck is booked in. The reception process for orders enables us to identify those products intended for storage and future preparation. This preparation is carried out either using a paper form, a radio terminal or more recently vocal commands. Meanwhile, the effective management of fork lift truck drivers enables us to reduce the amount of movements in the warehouse. He continued, Dispatch operations are carried out using a radio terminal which makes it possible for us to

produce reliable documents to make deliveries to our shops. The fact that all of these actions are recorded in the system makes it possible for us to guarantee the traceability of our products from the moment they enter the system till the moment they leave reception.

Reception

In paper mode at reception : The driver reports to the reception desk with a delivery note. The controller makes sure the appointment is met and directs them towards the in-loading gate. Products and loads are checked for accuracy. Once the reception report has been drawn up the label is printed & stuck on the pallet. The pallet is now ready for storage.

In radio mode : The reception operators equipment allows him to carry at the necessary checks to print the label directly at the loading dock. After validation the pallet is then ready for storage.

Reception Splitting Mode : In Reception Splitting Mode the system generates a pallet label and also calculates a splitting list. When the declaration of reception has been carried out, the pallet is ready to be divided out amongst the various shops.

Preparation

Paper Mode Picking : In paper mode, the preparation operator establishes the initial preparation declaration. He then follows the details shown on the document to withdraw the various goods. Each time he withdraws the goods he ticks them off from the document. At the end of preparation he declares the operation complete. The system then prepares a label for each prepared batch.

Voice Mode Picking : In voice mode the preparation operator follows the instructions issued by the terminal and carries out the picking operation directly. He can validate each of his actions which are directly recorded in the system. Once preparation is complete the system issues one label per batch.
Radio Mode Splitting : During splitting preparation in radio mode the operator scans the pallet at the time of reception to obtain details of the various client destinations and can start to divide up the merchandise.

Voice Mode Splitting : In voice mode, the preparation operator received direct guidance at each stage and confirms each operation before moving onto the next.

Automatic : In automatic mode once an item reference had been scanned all similar products are inserted into the sorting machine. They are them taken directly to the corresponding client areas. The prepared pallets are ready for dispatch.

Forklift Driver Management : Three types of operation are involved in the process of managing the forklift truck drivers: Storage operations to transfer the pallets from the reception area to the reserve. Picking replenishment operation. Marshalling operations when the pallets are intended directly to the shops.

Among other things, the G.O.L.D. radio solution optimises fork lift driver movements by allocating tasks based on their position in the warehouse.

Dispatch

Loading is carried out during a round. Each loaded pallet is scanned. When the loading process is complete a door closure declaration generates a shipment note for the delivered store in addition to a set of documents containing a delivery note, a release slip, if the shipment contains alcohol, a carriers receipt and a bill of freight.

Jacques Charotte, Director of Leclerc Lecasud Supply Depot, said, The organisation in place at the Leclerc Southern Depot has changed a great deal in the last 10 years. The support provided by Aldata has made it possible for us to update our various processes, in particular for order preparation. From the traditional pen and paper system that we used before, today we are using cutting edge technology to prepare orders including voice command systems.