Innovative Warehouse Management
P&O Ferrymasters has recently implemented CORAX Warehouse Management System (WMS) in two of its warehouses. P&O Ferrymasters has formulated a strategic five-year plan, called Port Centric strategy, in which warehousing has once again become its own core activity. These are the first two warehouses in this new strategy.
CORAX is an innovative WMS developed by Davanti Warehousing. The WMS enables control over internal warehousing and CORAX is SaaS (Software as a Service) which means that it’s an online, scalable product requiring no server or IT infrastructure.
When the operation grows, CORAX keeps the same pace. It’s updated every 2 weeks, developed in Microsoft Azure and the data are safely stored in the cloud. It has a Web and an App version for easy control over inbound, storage, outbound, returns, BDD, etc. in food, 3PL, retail and ecommerce.
Port Centric Strategy
P&O Ferrymasters is a leading pan-European specialist that offers numerous customised solutions in the field of transport, logistics and the supply chain. The company is part of P&O Ferries Holdings Divisions Ltd – owned by DP World – and operates from more than 20 strategic locations in 13 countries on the continent. The company offers total solutions from 3PL and 4PL activities, warehouse activities to interim management support and strategic advice for large clients. The concept is based on sustainable relationships where P&O Ferrymasters is an integral part of the client’s team. The 3PL and 4PL experts monitor existing processes and lead continuous improvement processes to optimise efficiency.
In-House Warehousing
Until recently, storage was rented from partners. P&O Ferrymasters is now broadening its base and will create more value for the company in this way. The first warehouse to have recently come on board is in Rotterdam Europoort and the second is in the United Kingdom, close to London. Both are already largely filled with goods from various customers.
P&O Ferrymasters stores around 600,000 units on an annual basis, at this moment. The objective of the Port Centric strategy is to achieve a growth of 5 to 10% per year by widening the activities. So far P&O Ferrymasters is on course.
To gain real-time insight into the warehouses, P&O Ferrymasters started looking for a Warehouse Management System. They were looking for an accessible WMS that can be implemented quickly and that can keep pace with their own growth. Since CORAX is a SaaS product, it can easily be scaled up and down. As the company grows, CORAX grows with it.
Fast implementation
The implementation period in the Dutch warehouse took two months, from blueprint to go-live. The CORAX consultants have made a blueprint of the warehouse, comprising an inventory of how to organise the logistics flows in CORAX. Then a proposal for implementation was made and the consultants started working in close collaboration with the client.
The second customer was configured on site, during the ‘go-live’ outbound of the warehouse in the Netherlands. In the UK, P&O Ferrymasters’ own team has handled most of the preparations; in the meantime, they were so well integrated that they largely implemented CORAX themselves, in consultation with the Davanti consultant. CORAX is characterised by a high degree of user-friendliness and is easily operated with both the web version and the App.
“The CORAX App is very user-friendly; you can work with both your smart phone and a logistics scanner. This makes starting up very easy.” Says Niels van der Putten, General Manager Operations, Contract Logistics, P&O Ferrymasters.
Multiple Locations and Multiple Owners
CORAX WMS supports the management and storage of goods from multiple stock owners in a warehouse. This can be different entities within one company or multiple customers of a logistics service provider. At an administrative level, the stocks remain separate, but the administrative users and RF users can work for one or more inventory owner at the same time, if authorised.
The WMS also supports inventory management and goods flows across multiple separate storage locations within one and the same installation. Depending on the authorisation, a user has access to one or more warehouses or work areas. The stock levels per warehouse and across all warehouses are always accessible in real time.
Every user of the WMS can choose his own language, which is essential in an international environment like P&O Ferrymasters.
Future
After this phase, a number of warehouses are still planned for P&O Ferrymasters. In addition to the first location in Rotterdam, the United Kingdom is second, after which it is Germany’s turn. Davanti is very enthusiastic about the collaboration with P&O Ferrymasters – a solid business partner with experienced professionals.
