KWE Case Study
KWE Case Study
“It was back in 2001 that KWE first implemented the Dispatcher WMS in Liege, Belgium. The experience and the professionalism of the person performing the installation was outstanding yet little did we know at that point we were establishing a trusted partnership that has now lasted over two decades and delivered significant value to our business.”
Alex Skinner, Head of IT EMEA, KWE
About KWE
KWE provides comprehensive one-stop services and solutions that incorporate airfreight forwarding, ocean freight forwarding and a full-range of logistics services to provide “Optimum Distribution Solutions” to its clients on a global scale. The origins of the business date back to 1948 when the Operation Bureau of Kinki Nippon Railway Co., began handling international freight and travel service. Twenty-one years later in 1969, Kintetsu Air Freight Service Ltd. was established in Hong Kong and in the same year Kintetsu World Express was established in the USA. Today KWE operate throughout 4 continents, with 834 locations across 46 countries.
Background
As a Third-Party Logistics company, KWE provides multimodal forwarding and logistics services to a wide range of customers, all of which have their own specific requirements. Expanding rapidly across the world, KWE was looking to standardise their Warehouse Management System (WMS) in the EMEA region and selected Blue Yonder (formerly JDA and previously RedPrairie) Dispatcher WMS as the solution that could fulfil their needs.
The founders of Socius24 were then working for RedPrairie and were involved in the design and implementation of KWE’s first system in Liege, Belgium. From that very first installation a high degree of trust was established and when the team went on to form Socius24, KWE had no hesitation in continuing this partnership to support them and further develop their use of Blue Yonder Dispatcher WMS.
Challenges
For KWE it was not just about selecting the right WMS platform but establishing a trusted partnership with a team that could help them along every step of their journey, guiding and supporting them to align technology with their ever-changing business needs.
In terms of a WMS, they needed a solution that was highly configurable. Every client has specific requirements regarding storage, repackaging and shipping and the solution had to support every nuance across clients rather than restrict their operation to a ‘one size fits all’ approach.
As for a partner, KWE was looking for someone who would take the time to truly understand their business, who would apply their experience of utilising a WMS in a 3PL environment and would challenge them to maximise the technology to add value to their clients and drive operational efficiency.
Solutions Delivered
KWE is a perfect example of the best solution being a combination of the right technology and the right partner. The initial Blue Yonder Dispatcher WMS solution was delivered almost two decades ago, yet today, with the help of Socius24, KWE are continuing to expand its application across their utilisation across their operation to deliver greater value to clients and increase operational efficiency.
Outcome
The combination of Blue Yonder Dispatcher WMS and Socius24 has and continues to deliver significant value and benefits across KWE’s EMEA operations.
MEET CUSTOMER NEEDS – The flexibility of Blue Yonder Dispatcher WMS along with the Socius24 USP application enables KWE to meet the unique needs of every one of their clients, managing the specific end-to-end logistics, storage and repackaging requirements of each client within their contracted SLAs.
DRIVING OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY – Working alongside Socius24, KWE have been able to automate and optimise many of their processes across their operation. This has not only meant being able to fulfil challenging turnaround times for their clients, but to do so in a far more cost-effective manner.
ENABLING OPERATIONAL AGILITY – The speed at which processes and priorities can be adjusted within Blue Yonder Dispatcher WMS enables KWE to be highly agile for their clients. This has proved to be invaluable in the first half of 2020 when the Coronavirus Pandemic created numerous operational challenges.
GIVING CONFIDENCE IN THE FUTURE – Having a Blue Yonder Dispatcher WMS partner they can fully trust provides KWE with confidence about the future. They know that Socius24 are always there for them when they have a new client requirement to be implemented or looking to expand their system. They also know that Socius24 is looking after their best interests, proactively guiding them in ways they can gain more value from Blue Yonder Dispatcher WMS and challenging them to continually improve the alignment of technology to best practice and business need.
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.
