Versteijnen
About Versteijnen
Versteijnen is a leading European Third-Party Logistics provider who pride themselves on the value they add to their clients across their end-to-end logistics process. Headquartered out of a large-scale distribution campus in the Netherlands, Versteijnen provide their clients with warehousing, order management, picking, packing and distribution through their own fleet of trucks and in partnership with the leading carriers. Their client list is impressive and spans a broad range of industries including Automotive, Chemical, Clothing, eCommerce, Electronics, Medical and Solar Panels.
Background
Versteijnen business has grown significantly from its origins as primarily a pallet-based distributor to one of Europe’s leading Third-Party Logistics providers. They now provide a broad range of value-add services for clients across a wide set of industries, each with their own specific requirements and service level agreements.
Having the best possible Warehouse Management System (WMS) in place is mission critical for Versteijnen in order to drive efficiencies across their operations and meticulously manage their performance against client contracts. The extensive flexibility of this WMS is also key to enabling them to support the broad range of requirements from their clients as well as avoid situations where they are unable to take on new business due to limitations of the system they use.
Challenges
Versteijnen had been using Blue Yonder Dispatcher WMS (formerly JDA and previously RedPrairie) since 2005, but the scale and complexity of their operation had outgrown this original deployment. Whereas they believed Dispatcher WMS to be the right solution for their business, they recognised that they needed to upgrade to the latest version of the software to gain the functionality they needed.
In upgrading to the latest version of Dispatcher WMS, Versteijnen was looking to improve the management of their operation against key client KPIs and to optimise picking routines to meet a vast range of SLAs such as order cut-off times and next day dispatch. They were also looking to improve the way they dealt with special handling and storage requirements including hazardous materials and the support of Quality Assurance operations.
Another key goal of Versteijnen was to streamline operations through closer digital integration, pushing third-party billing captured in Dispatcher WMS to financial systems, smoothly flowing tasks into their automated picking solution Autostore and triggering carrier booking through their online tool.
Solutions Delivered
Versteijnen selected Socius24 to assist them with the upgrade, configuration and integration of the Dispatcher WMS. Having looked at other Blue Yonder partners, Versteijnen found Socius24 to be very knowledgeable and clearly demonstrated an understanding of their business, leveraging a wealth of experience of working with other Third-Party Logistics providers. Socius24 took the time to understand what Versteijnen were trying to achieve and guided them through the upgrade process and the introduction of new functionality as well as the integration into their other systems.
Outcome
With the support of Socius24, Versteijnen are now leveraging the extended capabilities of Dispatcher WMS gained through the upgrade. They have also been able to closely integrate Dispatcher WMS with their other systems to streamline processes and drive greater operational efficiencies.
Key outcomes achieved include:
SPEEDING UP OPERATIONS
Through the ability to define the unique requirements and SLAs for each client within Dispatcher WMS and to efficiently direct operations to meet even the most challenging KPIs.
STREAMLING PROCESSES
Through the smooth integration of Dispatcher WMS with other systems including the tight coupling of overall picking control within dispatch processes with automated picking and packaging and leveraging web services to trigger requests to carriers.
ACCURATE CHARGING
By tracking the time spent on each value-added task for clients and passing this detailed third-party billing information through to financial
systems to enable accurate charging and achievement of required margins.
WINNING MORE BUSINESS
By utilising the reputation of Dispatcher WMS as a benchmark for a quality operation and ensuring that no opportunity is lost due to restrictions in the capabilities of the WMS solution being used.
Blue Yonder Dispatcher Warehouse Management System
Blue Yonder is one of the most recognisable and implemented solutions in the world.
Socius24’s expertise comes from our involvement in the design and development of the original RedPrairie Dispatcher solution, which enables us to fast-track deployment and ensure that our clients use its capabilities to the full. This reduces the cost and risk of deployment, leveraging a broad set of pre-built templates and plug-ins, allowing our customers to quickly gain the functionality they require.
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