Concept Group announced results of the first year of work of technical support of Columbus Care

2016

At the beginning of 2016 the management of Concept Group made the decision to pass from independent round-the-clock support of a WMS system to use of Columbus Care service.

Columbus Care is service for support and development ERP systems on platforms Microsoft Dynamics AX Microsoft Dynamics NAV, IBM Cognos and also Columbus WMS.

An individual set of services Columbus Care forms based on packets:

• Columbus Hotline is technical support 24/7/365,
• Advanced Care is development and deployment of new functionality,
• Performance Care is services in optimization of system performance,
• ITSM 365 is providing the cloud Service Desk system.

Specialists of Concept Club selected service packages of Columbus Hotline and Advanced Care which provide user support of a 24/7 warehouse management system/365 and also operational solving of tasks on development of functionality of the WMS system. At the same time rendering services is executed according to the approved quality parameters stated in the agreement on the level of service (SLA).

Additional benefit of use of Columbus Care is the transparency and controllability of expenses, the packet of Columbus Hotline has fixed cost, and expenses on development of new functionality of a system within Advanced Care are estimated and approved previously with IT experts of Concept Club.

For the first 12 months of work with Columbus Care the Concept Group company achieved the following results:

• The number of incidents was reduced almost by 5 times,
• The incidents arising in use systems have no critical impact on work of the distribution center,
• The percent of accomplishment of the SLA parameters made 98%,
• There was a confidence in continuous work of processes in a warehouse.

2015

On June 17, 2015 the consulting company Columbus announced automation of the distribution center of Concept Group which is engaged in production and sale of clothes under the Concept Club, Acoola, Infinity Lingerie and Bestia brands.

Several years the retailer used a warehouse management system based on 1C. In process of development of the company the quantity of nomenclature positions and documents sharply increased, and a former system owing to insufficient power ceased to cope with loading. It became more difficult to work to personnel of a warehouse, completion and support of the existing solution required considerable resources. As a result the company replaced a system with Columbus WMS based on Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.

The information system Columbus WMS supports all warehouse transactions of the distribution Concept Group complex, executing orders of retail and wholesale networks, online stores, partner franchisees. A system is integrated with data collection terminals and printers of labels. As a result of implementation the company received a system, more productive and transparent in terms of data exchange, optimized and arranged management of internal logistics, simplified work of personnel.

The distribution center of the trading company works in the round-the-clock mode, completes and ships from 100 to 120 thousand units of production daily. Collections change 10-15 times a year, the active range of the company contains about 7.5 thousand trade names. Columbus WMS supports cross docking and multiarticle storage: goods are distributed in cells in the flowers, models and the sizes taking into account their lifecycle.

The warehouse complex includes several physically remote warehouses, each of which has specific operation algorithms. For example, the goods are stored in a discount warehouse in trays and may contain different nomenclatures of one brand. In the main warehouse goods in store cells are selected taking into account a brand, a commodity group and a collection, at the same time mixing of different commodity groups is not allowed. The project team finished algorithms of placement of goods so that to limit the number of articles of goods in one mixed cell. Besides, in a system the consolidated shipment of the goods which are selected in different warehouses is configured.

Now Concept Group finishes Columbus WMS that employees of the main warehouse could select according to parameters of collections only goods, relevant in a current period of time. Using a new system the retailer optimum uses warehouse spaces and resources, has always up-to-date and exact data about merchandising and a remaining balance that allows the company to save up to several million rubles on each brand monthly.

Before shipment to shops on each goods the label containing data on products and the price is pasted. Employees in a retail outlet scan a label using the shipping documentation, obtain information, necessary for sale, and place goods in a trading floor. There is no regrading, documentation prepares in full due to control of a complete set of orders which is supported by the Columbus WMS system. Goods acceptance time in shops was reduced by 10 times.

In total the project of automation borrowed over a year. A new system was started step by step in view of the large volume of works, thus the company could avoid serious failures in work of a warehouse.

The solution Columbus WMS helped to increase labor productivity and to increase quality of work of employees. Of course, the personnel needed time for system learning, but in general adaptation to new working conditions took place quite successfully. A system is intuitive and extremely convenient in use. For example, pickers waste a minimum of efforts to receiving tasks as data are automatically transferred to the shipping documentation. Working time is used most effectively, everyone goes about the own business.

Any task, time of its accomplishment, movement of personnel on a warehouse – everything is strictly fixed in a system. In real time it is possible to analyze which of 440 employees of a warehouse exceeds and who underfulfills the existing standards. Using a system the company precisely calculates resource requirement on each section of a warehouse, redistributes personnel if necessary. In WMS can trace which of employees how many acquired for change, to prepare the corresponding reporting, representatives of the company integrator reported TAdviser.

"We considered different solutions, many of them needed serious completion under our processes. On the contrary, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 system almost completely met all requirements and expectations, it was rather flexible in setup, corresponded to already used solutions and technologies. The Columbus command also made a good impression. We understood that we deal with professionals, and start will be successful", - Konstantin Yeliseyev, the director of the distribution center of Concept Group shares.

"In my opinion, defined our solution not how many a product how many the partner. The Columbus company accumulated considerable experience in the field of warehouse logistics, its system is used by many Russian retail chain stores, - Stanislav Gumnitsky, the CIO of Concept Group supplements. - You can ruin the world-best solution with the incompetent implementer and, on the contrary, achieve success at system implementation of the middle class, cooperating with professionals. Examination of a team of Vladimir Puchenkov and Columbus WMS strengthened our choice".

"One more important indicator which we trace - percent of direct not selection. Thanks to a new system we are sure of completeness and accuracy of a complete set", - Konstantin Yeliseyev says. - For example, the online store on average collects 500-600 orders, at the same time the warehouse is ready to process to 3000 orders for change. For online store it is very good indicator. We will easily endure any seasonal sale, for example, such mass as "Black Friday".

"Of course, from difficulties of implementation not to leave anywhere, any project does not do without them. Errors still are, but they are noncritical for our work, we completely cope, - Stanislav Gumnitsky notes. – But now in a warehouse there are perspectives for development as transactions became more transparent, are better controlled, information is updated and transferred to contractors in real time, and it allows to focus to the management on strategic tasks".

"We do not experience any difficulties, working in a system, tasks are performed in time and very qualitatively, influence of a human factor is minimized", - Konstantin Yeliseyev supplements.

The company emphasizes that it was very easy for them to interact with the Columbus command. "Consultants of practice of Warehouse Management very vigorous and competent, sincerely love the work and are always ready to come to the rescue. It is pleasant that they treat the project not as to normal implementation, try to understand how the company works, and sincerely take care of our progress", - Konstantin Yeliseyev says.

"In the future we as the dynamic company can look absolutely quietly. Columbus WMS completely meets our requirements, it gives us the firm base for development, an opportunity to flexibly change and improve processes. At the same time a system is easily scaled. We are sure that even in case of moving on a new warehouse failures in work on other platform will not be, and the quality of transactions will remain same high", - Konstantin Yeliseyev emphasizes.