COHEKC (1C Logistics: Management of a warehouse)

The SONEKS company successfully works in all regions of Russia at the market of sales of household lamps (chandeliers, suspension, a sconce, floor lamps, etc.). Among products of the company there are household lamps domestic (under a trademark of SONEKS company), Austrian (EGLO company) and the Italian production. In assortment of the company several thousands of descriptions of goods. Clients of "COHEKC" are world famous network companies Metro Cash & Carry, OBI, Leroy Merlin and also more than 600 companies across all Russia which form wide distributor network.

The wide range and large volumes of a trading activity which were reached by the company by the end of 2004 resulted in need to take a number of actions for improvement of management of warehouse economy. In particular introduction of address accounting of storage of goods, formalization and automation of the main warehouse procedures, obtaining statistics on work of employees was required. It was necessary to reach considerably the bigger accuracy of accounting, to reduce dependence on personnel, to increase efficiency of its use. As an additional incentive by the beginning of the project the decision on moving of a warehouse to the new premises served.

The new warehouse represents the multi-storey building which three floors occupy goods of SONEKS company. The total area of storage is about 10000 sq.m., height of ceilings of 6 m. The warehouse is equipped with rack constructions: high-rise cargo racks under pallet storage and shelf under piece. Number of levels of storage from 3 to 5. In a warehouse the warehouse equipment working with high-rise racks is used. Some warehouse transactions are performed using a data collection terminal. The personnel of a warehouse make about 20 people.

On a decision instant about need of automation of a warehouse complex the company kept account of the warehouse stocks based on 1C: Enterprise 7.7 in the standard configuration "1C: Trade and Warehouse". On process of the company a system underwent significant changes and represented rather difficult mechanism of accounting. Considered to include in the same information base control block a warehouse inexpedient. As a result the decision on search and implementation of the isolated warehouse management system was made.

The company initially narrowed for itself a circle of search – for simplification of integration with a corporate system was decided to consider solutions on the 1C: Enterprise platform. After consideration of solutions of a number of the companies a final choice for benefit of AXELOT company was made. It was promoted by presence at the company of a number of successful projects in the field of automation of warehouses, including there are enough large-scale. As a warehouse management system the solution "was selected by 1C Logistics: Management of a warehouse.

On initial stage of the project critical parameters of the project which had a strong impact on all course of implementation were designated at once. First, very much deadlines – it was required to implement the project in two months (including New Year's holidays). Secondly, during the project moving of a warehouse to the new premises was planned. Thirdly, the space of storage of goods was located on three floors of the building at the same time.

Automation of warehouse processes of the company was executed based on standard algorithms of the warehouse transactions implemented in a system. The minimum changes considering specifics of a warehouse complex of SONEKS company were made. As a result at the moment in information base of a warehouse complex of SONEKS company the following processes are reflected:

• acceptance;
• placement;
• selection;
• shipment;
• inventory;
• internal transfers.

Moving of a warehouse had a considerable impact on development of the project. Actually, the project was executed in two steps. First of all issues of placement of goods were handled, tuning of topology of a warehouse is performed, the specifics of a multi-storey warehouse are considered, exchange with a corporate system according to receipt documents is adjusted. It allowed to begin movement of goods of a new warehouse of all in a month from the beginning of the project, without waiting for completion of all settings of a system.

Especially it should be noted that attention which was paid to interaction of a system and personnel of a warehouse. Special document forms were developed for transactions of selection and output control, the most clear for contractors and bearing all necessary information on the customer order which is selected for it goods and its location in a warehouse.

"The report of the manager of a warehouse" became a central object of a warehouse management system, from the point of view of the user. The report was developed as attendant workstation from which all process of receipt of the order for a warehouse and its status on each processing stage is visible. The operator does not need to search for necessary documents in long lists and it is collected "plunge" into multilevel menus – all information necessary for it for process control of selection of orders in one "Report of the manager".

Similar tools were developed also for the warehouse supervisor. A system allows to obtain statistical data on amounts of works, executed by each employee by warehouse transactions. It is possible to obtain information on the number of the transactions executed by the employee, on volumes of the commodity units processed by him, selection accomplishment speeds. The company is going to be these data the basis for creation of an effective system of motivation of warehouse workers.

Now in a system two operators work, two more workplaces are intended for execution of control functions of the warehouse supervisor and the system administrator.

The company management practically from the first days of a project startup noted considerable cost reduction of time for an order complete set. After system implementation time of a complete set of the order was reduced three times. The personnel by search of goods in places of its storage operate only with system tasks that allows to define quickly and accurately existence and a location of goods in a warehouse. Existence of flexible reporting system allowed to control the course of warehouse processes at once and to react timely to deviations.

The director of the company of "COHEKC" Oleg Nikolaevich Kulichenko noted that" … all project participants, both representatives of AXELOT company, and SONEKS company, showed big interest in a successful completion of the project and also professionalism that allowed to receive required result in very short time. Further development of a system, certainly, is necessary, but for this purpose there is already a strong basis and experience of mutually advantageous partnership of our companies".