Aptean ProWMS
Aptean ProWMS
Sophisticated and User-friendly Supply Chain Solutions
Leading Roadside Forecourt Retailer
Chooses ProWMS from Aptean for optimised stock management and control
Industry
Food and Beverage, Retail.
Challenges
» Existing WMS required updating for improved control, reporting and flexibility
» Multi-store, multi-brand, multiple order and grouping expandability required
» WMS needed to fully integrate and match with existing SAP ERP system
» Seeking a locally-based WMS expert to closely support upgrades and future projects.
Benefits
» New fully customisable WMS designed and deployed optimising operations
» Full integration with existing SAP ERP system
» WMS data made available for the creation of real-time business intelligence and analytics dashboards
» Voice-picking management functionality enhanced
Background
Applegreen is a privately owned roadside forecourt retailer founded in Dublin, Ireland in 1992. It employs around 18,000 people across Ireland, the UK and the USA and operates 529 large-scale food and beverage operations. The company has partnerships with leading brands including Burger King, KFC, M&S, Pizza Express, Starbucks and Waitrose and its fuel forecourt sites are located at motorway service areas and travel plazas. The businesses brand reputation and success has been earned through quality retail and value offerings, including its low fuel prices, always promise and 100% traceable and quality assured fuel.
The Business
› Roadside fuel, retail and value offerings retailer
› 18,000 staff across 529 locations
› Operations in Ireland, the UK and the USA
Challenges
Applegreen has experienced considerable growth over the years and needed an established warehouse management system (WMS) in place to support increasing customer demand and future growth. The business was starting to outgrow the capacity of its previous decade-old WMS system and wanted increased agility and flexibility to support customer customisation and data volume capacity.
Solution
ProWMS warehouse management software from Aptean (formerly Principal Logistics Technologies) was chosen to address Applegreen’s operational challenges as well as to provide an agile and flexible platform enabling future business growth. A specific requirement was to engage with a locally-based WMS expert able to provide support and future upgrades as needed. Numerous business and operational benefits were delivered including the following.
“Principal Systems, being located nearby meant we could arrange face-to-face meetings periodically which was very beneficial to our team. Without this I don’t know if we would have all been on the same page at the same time. They were diligent in communicating regularly, both formally via time spent reporting and next step scheduling, but also via Teams to ensure we were always on track and informed.”
Jarlath
Cunningham, Warehouse Manager, Applegreen
Voice enablement for optimised picking and putaway
Previously data was batched between the previous WMS system and a separate voice partner. Data is now real-time and the voice solution is within the ProWMS system. This has resulted in considerable improvements in time efficiency as operators are now not sent on wasted journeys to empty locations, and they have control to skip slots. This also allows them to pick in a way that enables optimised stock item stacking in the cages and negates the need for repacking.
ProWMS task control functionality improves operator time and efficiency by providing more visibility over replenishments and their priorities. This has resulted in less manual intervention with the benefit of being ahead on replenishments and it reduces the need to reopen a pick for items left short.
WMS-ERP integration
Considerable improvement was made in WMS integration with Applegreen’s existing ERP system. This has enabled more proactive reporting and trend analysis which allows greater at-a-glance visibility of client stockholding and movements.
Operator involvement maximised
The customisable nature of the ProWMS solution has allowed Applegreen’s warehouse operators greater input into their own processes and to become experts in their areas - both operationally and technically. The business no longer defines processes alone, rather it and the operators now work collaboratively. Unnecessary or legacy steps were removed from the process and value-add, time-saving steps were introduced where possible. This has had a significant positive impact on staff morale and upskilling opportunities.
Rule-based order release
Considerable administration time-saving has been introduced in the order release process. Previously operators needed specific product and customer knowledge to ensure like orders were grouped together whereas now ProWMS automatically consolidates orders based on pre-defined rules.
Revenue-generating value-added services
Applegreen partnered with Marks and Spencer to implement an RF-controlled glove-based device which ensures accuracy when picking the predominantly chilled product distributed in non-distinguishable green crates with minimal labelling. ProWMS, having bedded in, enabled this new service to go-live 12 months later. More new value-added solutions and improvements are in planning to keep the business ahead of the curve.
“We found the Principal go-live team exceptionally understanding of the ways of working of a warehouse and they were happy to speak directly to operators when they had any issue. They also documented all issues that arose so that the office staff knew how to deal with these if they were to arise again in the future.“
Ross Cunningham, Head of Commercial, Applegreen
Go-live and conclusion
The project go-live process presented minimal business disruption to Applegreen. The team was able to process all orders submitted by its 126 sites and 80 brands together right from when the project went live. The process was seamless much due to fact that ProWMS was installed as a test system - subsequently becoming the live system with only the interface pathways needing to change on go-live day. This meant that only the transactional data would start to flow, as all static data was already present, having been checked numerous times in the weeks prior to go-live. This took considerable pressure away from the Applegreen team allowing it to focus on the warehouse floor instead of the WMS itself. Team members were included in all user acceptance testing which ensured familiarity with the GUI and process flows ahead of time.
Results Summary
› Planned business growth achieved with no additional headcount
› Warehouse staff now provide input into their operational processes and have become experts
› Revenue-generating value-added services quickly developed
› Previous voice control functionality enhanced resulting in operator time efficiency and picking improvements
› Operator task control functionality increases visibility over replenishments and priorities
› New upskilling opportunities made available to operational team
“The project manager highlighted a need for more days for scoping and process mapping than we had estimated. He discussed these in granular detail with us, which in hindsight was a critical success factor to the project. The scoping document was a great source of the truth to look back on when implementing and remembering the reason behind each decision. That is one thing I would recommend to anyone thinking of implementing a new system. Our prior systems had been in place for over a decade, and it is difficult to recall every change made or the triggers in the backend of the system for each.”
Anneli Kelly, Head of Supply Chain, Applegreen
ProWMS enterprise-grade warehouse management software is designed to optimise operational performance, reduce cost and increase revenue across 3PL, distribution, wholesale, manufacturing, and retail industry sectors. The technology supports multinational businesses operating complex single and multisite warehouse operations spanning 3PL, chemicals & hazardous goods, hard & soft commodities, FMCG, pharmaceuticals & healthcare and temperature-controlled environments.
About Aptean
Aptean is a global provider of industry-specific software that helps manufacturers and distributors effectively run and grow their businesses. Aptean’s solutions and services help businesses of all sizes to be Ready for What’s Next, Now®. Aptean is headquartered in Alpharetta, Georgia and has offices in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific.
To learn more about Aptean and the markets we serve, visit www.aptean.com
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