Fleggaard optimizes their inventory with automation

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About Fleggaard.

What started as a small tobacco, coffee, and grocery store in Padborg in Southern Jutland, has today grown into one of Denmark’s largest family-owned conglomerates.

Fleggaard has an ambition to always be able offer their customers everything they need, which they provide through a wide range of products, ranging from candy and soft drinks to wine and groceries. Their diverse range can be purchased in one of their nine border shops or through their online Click-and-Collect solution. Their 28,000 m2 central warehouse is therefore divided into a B2B and a B2C department, serving 16 stores. On average, 500 customer orders are received every day. In addition, about 1000 pallets move in and out, so Fleggaard’s need for professional inventory management was clear from the start.

INDUSTRY

Retail

Integration

ERP 360

EmplOyees

200-300

Warehouse

28.000 kvm.

Number of Orders

500 pr. day.

Efficiency

Changes at Fleggaard.

As the demand for Click-and-Collect increased and the orders multiplied, Fleggaard decided to optimize their inventory.

Previously, their pallet building and picking processes were very manual. They relied on their experienced employees’ knowledge of the size and weight of the goods to pick the orders.

Now their pallet building has been automated, and information about the dimensions of the goods has been entered into the system. Instead of relying on the knowledge of individual key personnel, Apport WMS can now display the weight and dimensions of the goods. “This means that we have put a safety net under our deliveries to the stores,” says Lars Beeck.

This has resulted in a more efficient picking process, where Fleggaard’s logistics are no longer dependent on the skills of individual employees.

"Before, we spent a lot of time manually preparing these orders. And where automation has meant that from the moment all the orders come in until we can actually start picking, a much shorter time passes - much faster, much more efficiently".

Lars Beeck, Senior Facilities Manager hos Fleggaard

Automation

Automation with Autostore.

In addition to this reimplementation of Apport WMS, Fleggaard has chosen to implement an Autostore solution.

An average B2C order at Fleggaard is large in both volume and weight, typically consisting of a mix of large and smaller items. While the heavy part of the order is picked in the warehouse, Fleggaard’s new Autostore solution can handle the smaller items of the order.

For this reason, it was also a given for the conglomerate to add our Autostore Framework, so the two systems can seamlessly communicate with each other. The choice of Apport ultimately came down to our experience with the combination of Autostore and our WMS.

Want to see how our other customers use the Autostore Framework? You can read about how Imerco streamlines with automation here.

The Future

Fleggaard focuses on convenience.

Fleggaard predicts that the demand for convenience will only increase in the future. They expect a doubling of Click-and-Collect orders within the next couple of years. To meet this development, they are already looking into further automating processes in the warehouse.

“The experience we have gained now has shown us that there are still areas where we can do much more in terms of automation and become even more efficient,” says Lars Beeck, Senior Facility Manager at Fleggaard.

Automation has many advantages for companies like Fleggaard – including a reduction in labor requirements. Fleggaard explains that in certain periods, they have had difficulty finding sufficient labor. After the reimplementation of Apport WMS, new employees can be trained in record time, allowing for the hiring of seasonal workers as needed. At the same time, Autostore takes care of most of the small picking, which also reduces the need for labor.