Norauto Optimises Supply Chain Performance by Combining Manhattan Associates Supply Chain Solutions Capability with SAP Enterprise Systems Expertise

Car Maintenance Group Chooses Proven and Increasingly Popular Route amongst World-Class Businesses to Combine Best-in-Class Supply Chain Solutions with their ERP System

Leading supply chain solutions provider, Manhattan Associates, Inc. (NASDAQ: MANH), announced that Norauto, one of the leading car maintenance and equipment specialists in Europe, has successfully implemented Manhattan Associates' Warehouse Management solution at its international distribution centre (DC) in Lesquin, northern France. The deployment at the 13,000 square meter facility is the first stage of a multi-site roll-out that will provide Norauto with robust supply chain execution capabilities to complement and enhance its existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) system from SAP.

Founded in 1970 near Lille (north of France), Norauto is today firmly established as one of the leading international companies in the European car maintenance and equipment market. A key component of a business re-engineering project that would involve the complete redesign of its operational processes and IT infrastructure, Norauto selected and implemented Warehouse Management for Open Systems from Manhattan Associates to provide it with world-class supply chain execution capabilities. In addition to the solution's integration with SAP to facilitate the exchange of data between Norauto's front-end supply chain execution applications and its back-office enterprise systems, Manhattan Associates' Warehouse Management solution was also integrated with voice-recognition technology from Vocollect.

The new system, which was installed in just under eight months, has significantly enhanced Norauto's fulfilment operation, allowing the car maintenance and equipment specialist to substantially improve productivity at the warehouse, and allowing the facility to rapidly ramp up its fulfilment capability to 60,000 orders per week. In parallel, the solution has allowed Norauto to eliminate a significant amount of warehouse administration, optimise inventory levels, streamline inbound goods processing and rationalise the picking process for order preparation.

Order preparation and tracking improved steadily over the first 4 months of the project. At the end of this period, the 150 stores served by the Lesquin warehouse reported error rates to have been reduced by 75%, allowing Norauto to reach an order accuracy level of 99.9%. One year ago, 70% of the stores managed the tracking of inbound orders themselves. Today, only 30% of the stores are doing so, demonstrating the improved confidence they have in the distribution centre to prepare orders accurately at the first time of asking and proving that the benefits generated by the new system go beyond the four walls of the warehouse.

"With its advanced execution and optimisation capabilities, as well as its ability to integrate seamlessly with our SAP ERP system, Manhattan Associates' Warehouse Management for Open Systems has enabled us to improve productivity in our warehouses as well as the efficiency of our supply chain. Complemented by Vocollect's voice recognition solution, the new system has also allowed us to achieve an order preparation accuracy rate of 99.9%, a level which easily exceeds the minimum quality standards specified by the automotive sector," explains Laurent Houvenaghel, director of supply chain projects at Norauto.

Norauto is rolling out the implementation of Manhattan Associates' Warehouse Management for Open Systems solution to its other warehouses in France and Spain over the coming months. Furthermore, Norauto is currently implementing Manhattan Associates' Slotting Optimisation solution at the Lesquin warehouse. The solution's functionality will enable Norauto to improve distribution centre velocity by determining the most beneficial and ergonomically correct placement of goods in the facility.

"Thanks to Norauto's technological choices and the commitment of its staff to embrace the new solutions, Norauto has been able to substantially improve its supply chain processes. We now look forward to supporting Norauto during the next phase of the project, as it rolls out Manhattan Associates' solutions to other distribution centres across its network," comments Henri Seroux, managing director for Manhattan Associates in France.