Logistics geared to rapidly growing eCommerce market

In 2012, Datwyler acquired Dutch enterprise, Nedis, a market-leader for branded wholesale in consumer electronics and accessories, headquartered in s-Hertogenbosch. Distrelec and Nedis are now bundling their joint logistics competence to offer their customers in Europe a "best-in-class delivery service".

True to the motto "ordered today, delivered tomorrow", business clients and consumers in most European countries will be supplied out of an extensive assortment of more than 250,000 articles in the product fields electronics, automation, measurement engineering, IT and accessories. The declared objective is that every customer can have his/her ordered goods the following day.

Nedis has been storing and picking its products in a state-of-the-art logistics centre for many years. The existing system inside that logistics centre was designed and realised by the general contractor WITRON. It consists of 36 picking workstations, 66,000 tote locations, and 28,000 pallet locations. Based on the above mentioned bundling and the successful system operation in recent years, Nedis decided to centralise and optimise logistics in their existing logistics centre for all European customers, expand their existing resources, and adapt them perfectly to the requirements of their constantly growing E-Commerce business. Due to the various and modular expansion possibilities of the existing Nedis system, the current DPS system will be expanded by WITRON's an OPS (Order Picking System) system. Once expansion is complete, the extensive Distrelec article assortment will be transferred to the Dutch distribution centre. By doing so, Distrelec will establish an effective distribution centre that modernises the former investment and optimally integrates the future logistics structure for the two companies.

A step-wise ramp-up is planned for autumn 2014. The expansion includes an innovative 12-aisle AS/RS solution that will be able to store more than 85,000 totes of different sizes in a space-saving manner using only 57,000 storage locations. The used storage totes are divided up to 12-fold, the picking totes up to 4-fold. Twenty ergonomic, leading-edge picking workstations with corresponding packing locations will be added as well. The order consolidation between the existing DPS modules and the new OPS modules at the packing locations will be carried out by means of a conveyor system network. In total, the logistics centre will be able to process more than 1,600 orders per hour and to ship those within "next day delivery" throughout Europe. Moreover, it will be possible to combine more than 90 pallets with bulky orders and bulky goods per hour. A proven volume calculation will ensure that every customer receives a shipping package according to the optimal size of his/her order. Thus, the electronics specialists Distrelec and Nedis will consequently contribute to sustainability and CO2 reduction with their renovated and expanded DC.

The entire system will be controlled by a WITRON Warehouse Management System that contains various functionalities for cost-effective, efficient, and transparent E-Commerce logistics. In addition, the highly dynamic conveyor system will be developed and produced by WITRON.

The Distrelec/Nedis project is another reference in a long list of E-Commerce projects implemented by WITRON. Many different systems with a focus on e-trade and Multi-Channel logistics have already been realised nationally and internationally. Numerous customers distributing electronics, spare parts, General Merchandise, books / media, and food rely on the innovative and integrated solutions from this logistics specialist.