Cquential case study - SA Tyre Distributors
Cquential Warehouse Management solution helps keep SA Tyre in the service fast lane
Cquential’s sophisticated cloud-based warehouse management solution has positioned SA Tyre Distributors for new growth and innovation, supporting the wholesale tyre distributor’s programme of service excellence, growth and innovation.
With its warehouse optimised using Cquential’s cloud-based Warehouse Management System (WMS), SA Tyre Distributors is now able to offer fitment centres speedy ‘tyres on the go’ deliveries, reducing the cost and complexity fitment centres previously faced in storing a huge ranges of tyres.
Background
When South African tyre distributors SA Tyre decided to bring their warehouse operations in-house instead of outsourcing, they sought a warehouse management solution that would optimise operations, support its service ethos and position the company to launch new and improved service offerings.
Cquential’s feature-rich, cloud-based solution and the company’s strategic partnership approach delivered phase 1 of the solution at SA Tyre’s Jet Park warehouse in less than 8 weeks, and immediately started delivering business benefits.
About the client
SA Tyre Distributors is a provider of leading brands such as, passenger, 4×4, sports utility, commercial, truck and high performance tyres, and is the only importer of Maxtrek, Federal, Hercules and Pace tyres.
- Areas of operation: South Africa, Angola (Imperio), Zimbabwe, Namibia (Namtyre) and Zambia
- Size of company: Largest tyre wholesale business in South Africa with presence in all neighbouring countries - as listed above.
- Location: Headquartered in Cape Town, SA Tyre Distributors have warehouses in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban, and supplies up to 1500 dealerships across South Africa, as well as in Botswana, Lesotho and Namibia.
Client business goals & challenges:
SA Tyre Distributors, with warehouses supplying dealerships across Southern Africa, is aggressively expanding its operations and moving to innovate in terms of customer service delivery. With new warehouses planned around the country, facilitating the incorporation of existing outsourced warehouses and bringing them in-house, SA Tyre Distributors needed a next generation warehouse management solution that was scalable, feature-rich and flexible enough to support future innovations. Crucially, it had to support SA Tyre’s focus on customer service.
The solution
- What was chosen: Cquential cloud-based Warehouse Management solution.
- Why it was chosen: Cquential met all the client’s needs, and equally importantly, the Cquential team understood warehousing and supply chain operations, and took a strategic partnership approach to the implementation.
- Deployment time: Phase 1 deployed in 6 – 8 weeks.
- Result: Immediate efficiencies, optimised inventory management, faster automated picking, improved visibility and accuracy of stock.
- Operational benefit: Cost savings, increased productivity and the ability to offer deliveries, faster.
- Cost of ownership: Reduced CapEx due to Cquential’s software as a service pricing model.
The business benefits
When South African tyre distributors, SA Tyre opted to move from an outsourced warehousing model, they knew they needed a warehouse management solution that would position them to deliver optimal customer service and to launch new and competitive service offerings. With between 20,000 and 30,000 tyres in stock in its Johannesburg warehouse at any given time and up to 100,000 tyres in stock nationwide, SA Tyre had to be able to manage inventory, track stock expiry dates, reduce shrinkage, and quickly pick and dispatch orders.
After assessing available solutions, SA Tyre Distributors selected Cquential’s advanced, cloud-based solution due to its feature-rich scalability, and the fact that Cquential viewed the implementation as the beginning of a strategic partnership that could deliver broad long-term benefits to the distributor.
The first phase of the Cquential cloud-based Warehousing Management solution was implemented at SA Tyre’s warehouse in Jet Park, Johannesburg, within a remarkably short time span of only 6 – 8 weeks, and is already delivering business benefits.
Offering significantly more than traditional functionality, the system is highly flexible and did not require significant customisation to meet all of the client’s requirements. The system is integrated with SA Tyre’s accounting system, delivery system and call centre that allows SA Tyre to easily rotate stock, track expiry dates, manage stock levels and reduce shrinkage.
With automated picker functionality embedded in the software, all staff on the warehouse floor use mobile handheld scanning devices, eliminating the need for manual and paper-based traditional systems.
Delivering efficiency, speed and accuracy, the system is supporting a massive increase in productivity. Importantly, this increased efficiency supports SA Tyre’s competitive speedy delivery model. The company is building its competitive edge on its ability to deliver any tyre order to a fitment centre within a remarkably short time frame (as little as 40 minutes from for fitment centres within an 80km radius of the Johannesburg warehouse, and under 2 hours for fitment centres within 100km of its Cape Town and Durban warehouses). The Cquential system has cut the average picking times from 20 – 40 minutes down to 7 – 13 minutes, which allows the company to make its fast deliveries even faster.
For SA Tyre Distributors, service is about supplying the right tyre at a competitive price with a quick turnaround time. The company dispatches orders on a fleet of specially customised scooters, on trucks and will even fly orders to customers to ensure they always get the service levels they have come to expect, and eliminate the need for dealers and fitment centres to carry extensive stock.
For SA Tyre Distributors, service is about supplying the right tyre at a competitive price with a quick turnaround time. The company dispatches orders on a fleet of specially customised scooters, on trucks and will even fly orders to customers to ensure they always get the service levels they have come to expect, and eliminate the need for dealers and fitment centres to carry extensive stock.
Conclusion
The ability to efficiently track, pick and dispatch inventory faster, managing stock across multiple locations, heralds the dawn of a new era for SA Tyre Distributors, allowing the company to offer unprecedented levels of speed and efficiency, and to launch new competitive services. The first implementation will be followed by several more as SA Tyre Distributors establishes a chain of warehouses around South Africa.
“The warehouse management system delivers increased accuracy and massively increased productivity. What we find particularly exciting is that SA Tyre is now positioned as a next generation innovator, poised to enabling the supply chain with innovative new services. Thanks to their cloud-based digital platform, they can build on the solution in future to integrate features such as mobile ordering, CRM and customer alerts.”
– Steve Mallaby, CEO of Cquential “We can leave stock management to Cquential and focus on service.”
– Arthur Ledgerwood, Head Finance and Business Operations at SA Tyre Distributors
SA Tyre Distributors Case Study
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