WAMAS® for a fast moving world

WAMAS^® for a fast moving world

SSI SCHAEFER optimises processes and reduces cycle times for Valora.

Valora AG is an independent trading company operating on a Europe-wide scale. It is based in Muttenz, Switzerland. Originally founded in 1905 as Merkur AG, the company was renamed to today's Valora AG in 1996. Valora employs about 6,500 people and runs approximately 1,400 shops in three European countries.

The Valora Group consists of three separate business divisions, all operating in consumer markets with high sales potentials:

·         Valora Retail

Valora Retail runs kiosks and other small retail shops in heavily frequented locations throughout Europe. Its region-wide marketing and distribution system comprises press products, consumer goods for daily use as well as impulse purchases.

·         Valora Services

Valora Services is the market leader in the distribution of press products to retail outlets and third party customers in Switzerland, Austria and Luxembourg - both in classic physical distribution as well as other services. Additionally, the business division sells food and non-food articles to third party customers in Switzerland.

·         Valora Trade

As an exclusive distribution partner, Valora Trade sells food and non-food articles to both, organised and independent retail trade. Valora Trade provides highly-specialised services when it comes to key account management, category management, field force services, supply chain management, warehousing, etc. to support not only manufacturers, but also retailers.

The brand-new central warehouse in Egerkingen for smooth logistics in Switzerland

As general contractor, SSI Schaefer was entrusted with the planning and realisation of a new logistics concept. Originally, a retrofit project was planned in the old warehouse location in Muttenz. However, just before the project start, the decision was made to pick a new, logistically better situated site in Egerkingen, Switzerland as well as a new infrastructure with further expansion possibilities in order to ensure the expected growth for the future.

Consequently, a manually operated warehouse was realised on a storage area of 27,000 m² by SSI Schaefer. In the future, the warehouse management and material flow system WAMAS is going to ideally manage the material flow. A partially automated pick by light system including container conveying technology was realised for the tobacco area.

Valora's main goal was to harmonise the previously differently organised processes the best way possible. Priority was given to the merging between goods and press logistics in one logistics system in order to consequently simplify the handling of the various goods-in processes, the transport planning and execution by a great deal.

At the same time, the system complexity, which had evolved due to various software solutions over the years, had to be reduced and therefore the stability and availability of the entire system had to be severely increased.

It was important not to interfere with Valora's ability to supply goods during the entire project cycle. Both, SSI Schaefer's and Valora's project team had to get down to work under enormous time pressure since the old warehouse in Muttenz had to be cleared in due time.  The excellent collaboration was a significant key to the success of this project.

Pick by Voice, Pick by Light

Due to the pick by voice system, time-consuming processes with lists and scanners can be replaced by an equally fast workflow without any interference. In this way, the picking quality could be optimised enormously.

A pick by light system is applied in the tobacco area.

Benefits - today and tomorrow

Due to the uniform work flows along all groups of goods, Valora can now profit from a significantly higher flexibility when it comes to staff employment, since most employees can now work in almost every area. The logistics system WAMAS provides transparency and therefore optimisation potential in all process steps.

Especially, the advantages in press logistics are tremendous. Where required, the necessary cycle time of 48 - 72 hours per magazine could be reduced to 24 hours. This represents a large profit, especially in the newspaper business, which relies on being up-to-date.

The logistics centre Egerkingen supplies almost the entire volume of magazines for Switzerland in due time. Daily papers are delivered from the publishers to the eleven warehouses throughout Switzerland.

On the whole, Valora could register a definite reduction in logistics costs, which among others could be lowered by SSI Schaefer's project by 14 %. However, a business following the principle "For a fast moving world" requires more  than just that: a replacement of the old SAP system (from 4.0 to 6.0) including associated interfaces, additional process optimisations as well as a goods-out buffer for 2,000 container storage locations including an automated palletisation are planned for 2010!