ECONOFOODS, a highly successful provider of frozen and chilled foods plus a wide variety of grocery products, has selected leading warehouse management software (WMS) specialist, CQuential Solutions, to fulfil its warehouse management needs as it expands its distribution network.
ECONOFOODS currently has seven distribution centres and 27 retail outlets that span six provinces in South Africa plus a cross-border operation in Lesotho. “The company employs 1 500 people and services approximately 1 000 foodservice customers monthly from the distribution centres,” says Jan Hendrik Buchner Operational Financial Manager – ECONOFOODS Gauteng & Northwest.
He notes the company was founded in 1996 with the goal of supplying top quality products at wholesale prices and all accompanied by a superior service experience. “We required a state-of-the-art system that could optimise our warehouse operations, drive greater efficiencies and support our growth plans as we expand our distribution network. CQential’s warehouse management system (WMS) fulfilled all of our requirements and was deployed in our Johannesburg warehouse,” says Buchner.
He confirms the deployment of CQuential WMS will serve as a pilot implementation that will eventually see roll-out to all of ECONOFOODS warehouses over the coming 18 months.
CQuential CEO Shaun O’Brien notes the implementation has moved swiftly and successfully and they are now past the initial set-up stage. “We have now moved into a space where the WMS functionality is being tailored to meet ECONOFOODS’ specific requirements.”
O’Brien says the implementation was not without challenges, including:
The CQuential team proposed the following strategic approach to overcoming these hurdles:
Buchner confirms the relationship is ongoing. “CQuential is an integral part of our operation in Johannesburg and thus we view them as a business partner. Moreover, we are looking to build on it with further system developments. This requires frequent interaction between both companies as we continue to roll-out CQuential’s WMS to our warehouses throughout the country,” he concludes.
Fact sheet
Source: IT Web
By Shaun O’Brien, CEO of CQuential
The world has been severely impacted by COVID-19 and foreseeably changed the way we will do business forever. The worldwide lockdowns have essentially brought the global economy to a standstill forcing businesses to work out how they will survive and operate post-lockdown.
Supply chains are under tremendous pressure to deliver essential services and key medical supplies, in order to ensure that the market gets the right product needed during these difficult times. This has resulted in businesses needing to review their business models and structure themselves in a way that will safeguard their survival within the new economy.
Key points of reference for building a resilient supply chain can be broken down into:
For supply chains to continue to operate and remain competitive, these points have transformed from being good ideas/nice to haves – to essential. If businesses do not transform and make key decisions around these innovations within their supply chain, their survival will be questionable and their ability to compete in the new economy will be compromised.
Warehousing is one of the key nodes within a supply chain operating across the globe. The warehouse ensures inventory is available for when the customer demands a product. Companies build / design warehouses not only based on today’s requirement, but take into consideration the future growth of the business and what will be required within the next 5 years’ to remain competitive. The reality is that very few businesses have built a warehouse to deal with a serious pandemic like COVID-19 in mind, resulting in the lack of ability to handle the needs of business due to the pressures from the pandemic.
In spite of best efforts, in the short term it’s not easy to change a warehouse configuration to cater for the changes in the business requirements. The only option businesses have today, is to make better use of their current warehousing capacity and become more efficient to deal with the pandemic. To add to the complexity, the new regulations around COVID-19 regarding social distancing and safe environment, increases the business challenges in the future.
A good place to start in terms of assessing your current warehouse capabilities, would be to ask what tools are currently in place to enable the warehouse to perform optimally?
Key objectives would be:
A WMS (Warehouse Management System) is one of many tools that can assist in terms of achieving these objectives.
CQuential Solutions forms part of the Argility Technology Group and is well positioned to assist with achieving the above objectives. Our tools have been implemented across many different verticals and size of warehouse. The CQuential team is made up of supply chain professionals and a strong development team to help you to transform your warehouse.
We believe that the supply chain is dynamic and ever changing, requiring in depth knowledge of your business to add value. We work closely with our customers to build and validate our roadmap to ensure our customers’ warehouses remain relevant and up to date with the latest technology to maintain a world class operation.
For more information contact CQuential on 011 712 1300; email info@cquential.com or visit our website www.cquential.com
If you have been on the fence regarding whether to transform your business and implement a digitisation strategy, now is the time to pull the trigger to survive. The past 60 days have been an eye opener as to how quickly what was regarded as fringe technology is being embraced. Someone even said to me that it is a case of 4 years of digitisation being crammed into 2 months.
There are some steps every Supply Chain can make right now to prepare for the “New Normal”.
At CQuential, part of the Argility Technology Group (ATG), we have been pioneering the way forward for Warehouse Management Systems (WMS) since our start in 2007/2008, taking what was an operational system and making it accessible, affordable and fast in the cloud. These challenges are an opportunity for us to assist businesses to transform and adapt their current way of working and digitising them.
Some crucial steps that will assist your supply chain to navigate this storm:
Visibility and access to Real time data
Many businesses today run reactive Supply Chains still making use of paper-based solutions. Through implementation of the right business solutions in your Supply Chain, you can make use of technologies to capture and execute tasks such as receiving, picking, dispatching and supplying goods.
Through integrated solutions and business processes, Supply Chains can shrink and the number of touches on your product can be reduced.
Digitising all records and transactions
Paperless societies have been a long time in the making. This crisis has just highlighted the inefficient paper-based methodologies in the digital age. Sign on glass has had a very short-lived life cycle given the new era of social distancing and hygiene.
Using the correct solution providers to digitise your supply chain is crucial to solving this problem. At ATG, we are ahead of the curve with our delivery application being driven by something as simple as an OTP or One-time pin. A further step would be to incorporate block chain into your supply chain for a complete touch free and secure Supply Chain.
Automation and Machine Learning
If COVID-19 has shown us anything, a large inefficient work force during normal times can still perform miracles using the old ways of Supply Chain, however with the new restrictions on business and number of people allowed at your offices, this will no longer be the case. Through a simple implementation of scanning and a WMS you would achieve great gains in efficiency. At CQuential, we are now gearing up our solution to include features of Warehouse controls and execution, so that with our software you can automate your warehouse environment.
With Machine Learning, you will be able to gain insights to optimise your work force, your stock locations, your work and instruction execution. All this is achievable through the analysis of your Supply Chain data.
So, with the fence changing, climb on down and talk to us at CQuential and ATG to help find the perfect solution for your Business Problems. For more information contact CQuential on 011 712 1300; email info@cquential.com or visit our website www.cquential.com
