The distributor of household chemicals and Yurves cosmetics implemented a warehouse management system

The Yurves company is the Moscow distributor of global manufacturers of cosmetics, perfumery and household chemicals. Several warehouses of class A and B which total area is 13.2 thousand sq.m are a part of the warehouse Yurves complex. Height of storage of the central warehouse reaches 12 meters, the zone of high-rise pallet storage is expected 5000 pallets. The zone of shelf storage provides processing up to 15000 SKU goods, placed by batches, and the five-level mezzanine includes. Core business of the company - distribution of goods of household chemicals and perfumery – not only defines types of the stored products, but also sets high intensity of processing: any order should be executed from the date of receipt next day.

According to Eduard Mysev, the managing director of Yurves company, need of implementation of a specialized warehouse management system of the class WMS was connected with commissioning of a new high-rise warehouse of category A. The technology of address storage implemented in the low-level warehouses "Yurves" did not provide sufficient fillability of a high-rise warehouse and did not meet the requirements for lot-based accounting of a number of commodity nomenclatures.

Selecting the WMS solution, the management Yurves pursued the solution of several business challenges:

• support work of a warehouse complex as rather reliable and easy-to-work management system and accounting;
• provide unceasing transition from earlier used warehouse management system to another, more flexible and scalable;
• perform system implementation in short terms without significant performance penalty of a warehouse.

The choice of a warehouse management system and the partner of the project was caused by several criteria at once. First of all, the customer carried out the assessment of long-term reliability of supplier companies, implementation cost and operation of the solution. Besides, the speed of adaptation of a system to the set business processes of a warehouse complex and qualification of a command from the partner were considered. By all these parameters the management Yurves preferred consulting company Columbus and its WMS solution based on Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009.

After end of an analysis stage of key business processes of Yurves in one of warehouses of the company the pilot project was started. Specialists of Columbus configured the working version of WMS, provided its integration with the accounting system. In one and a half months the additional modifications of the solution intended for management of the main warehouse of the company were developed.

The topology of the warehouse "Yurves" means the complex organization of business processes which with success were automated using the system of the class WMS developed and implemented by specialists of Columbus. For example, such processes as placement and package replenishment of a zone of the mezzanine through transit cells (consoles) completely is controlled the WMS system. In Columbus WMS the possibility of parallel selection of separate commodity categories and their transfer to a consolidation zone for repacking in pallets for the subsequent shipment is in addition configured.

One more feature of the project implemented in the warehouse "Yurves" - use of technology of "revolving" processing of goods which means a binding of the goods arriving on a warehouse to the set delivery addresses (for example, to retail stores), placement in the storage area on the corresponding cells of the client or moving to a shipment zone. Such method of processing of goods in combination with the WMS system of Columbus allows to reduce logistic costs and to increase quality of assembly of customer orders.

All works on Columbus WMS system implementation in the central warehouse "Yurves" were completed in January, 2012. In a project deliverable the customer purchased new opportunities for expansion of a range of the provided logistics services, improvements of their quality and volume.

It should be noted that in the period of system implementation from the customer from 3 to 5 functional specialists of Yurves under the leadership of the managing director entered into project team. After start of the solution in commercial operation the staff of the company extended due to input of an additional position of the senior technologist of a warehouse complex and also two system administrators of WMS.

The managing director of Yurves company Eduard Mysev is positive for Columbus work. According to him, the project team of Columbus implemented the project at the scheduled time and with proper quality, showing enviable efficiency on each arising question. Now customer representatives jointly with specialists of consulting company Columbus continue to model business processes of a warehouse complex and to develop the existing functionality of the WMS system.

See Also

Interview: Eduard Mysev: Columbus WMS is qualitatively new level of internal logistics of a warehouse