DCs in France and China live distribution management solutions while enterprise management system provides global inventory visibility
DCs in France and China live distribution management solutions while enterprise management system provides global inventory visibility
BUT International, a French retailer in the home furnishings and electrical goods space, has completed the final stage in a global roll out of multiple components from Manhattan Associates’ supply chain optimisation solutions portfolio.
The most recent go-live, which involved the successful deployment of Manhattan’s Warehouse Management and Slotting Optimisation solutions at one of BUT International’s national distribution centres (NDCs) in France, at Mer, Loir-et-Cher, follows further implementations of the software at two other NDCs in France and at a sourcing and shipping hub in Shenzhen, China. The Shenzen facility is operated by V-Grow, one of the leading logistics services providers in Asia-Pacific and the Middle East, and serves as a distribution centre (DC) for goods manufactured in Asia that are then routed through the Schenzen facility to feed into BUT International’s European distribution network.
BUT International and its suppliers are also benefitting from Manhattan’s Extended Enterprise Management (EEM) solution, which enables the retailer and its suppliers to view and track inventory and order status in real time.
The retailer has transformed its business and image over recent times having operated for many years as a traditional furniture distributor before modernising its entire business operation in the last few years to become a highly fashionable, service-focused, multichannel, home goods retailer.
Systems keep up with business change
David Le Bozec, supply chain director at BUT international, explained: “To enable this transformation, we needed to modernise our support processes and technologies and so undertook a complete supply chain re-engineering exercise. We recognised that we would not be able to achieve our strategic objectives with our incumbent supply chain systems. So we took the decision to select a new supply chain technology platform that would not only help us meet our distribution management and order fulfilment goals but would also allow us to see and track inventory as it moves across the globe. Our primary objective was to transform our supply chain into a competitive weapon by allowing us to improve service levels to stores at the same time as making our supply chain more efficient.”
Including the most recent go-live, BUT International has now deployed Manhattan’s Warehouse Management and Slotting Optimisation solutions at four facilities – two separate NDCs in Mer, a further NDC in Lyon in South-West France, and at the V-Grow run sourcing and shipping hub in Shenzhen, China. In total, the four DCs represent 1.7 million square feet of warehousing space.
The solution deployments in the first three DCs have delivered significant business benefits including a 30% increase in DC productivity, as well as improvements in the picking process, in stock and order fulfilment accuracy and in flow-through speed. BUT International expects to see similar benefits following the most recent go-live at the second Mer NDC.
“With Manhattan’s EEM solution, we have complete visibility of inventory travelling from China to France and, soon, of inventory in transit from our suppliers to the Shenzhen platform. In the context of this supply chain transformation, Manhattan Associates is a key partner for BUT International,” concluded Le Bozec.
