One virus, twelve weeks of the high season in food distribution, seven days of paints in line with the week, 3 shifts a day, 20% more load of paints in line with the day, up to 300% more load of paints on peak days, a technical failure, 4 in poor conditions. health employees, structure sites stagnant due to restrictions: this summarizes the pandemic from WITRON’s point of view.
Food stores and logistics service providers have faced enormous challenges, while other sectors have had to put up position locks, operating hours and require workers to take vacations.
Well-calculated decisions, flexible solutions and committed cooperation were needed from all actors in the source chain (suppliers, logistics centers, service providers, retail outlets) to stock up primarily at all times and avoid bottlenecks as much as possible.
Christian Dietl, CEO of WITRON Services, said: “Together with our customers, we have kept the warehouses running; we’ve never experienced such a hurry. And not only in one country, but also in the United States, Canada, France, Spain, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Norway and the Benelux countries. »
Retailers were struggling with enormous order volumes across the globe. At REMA in Norway, for example, volumes were four times higher than the previous year.
Peter Bayer of the Edeka Handelsgesellschaft Rhein-Ruhr added: “In March, April, May and until mid-June, the buying behaviour of panic-related customers posed primary logistical challenges.
“During this period, WITRON’s automation technology, with its availability and performance, has greatly contributed to satisfying the wishes of our customers.”
When European cities entered the lockout, the presence of department stores increased, resulting in the operation of logistics centres at full capacity.
Truck drivers were no longer allowed to enter distribution centers and the logistics center had to manage incoming goods.
During this period, WITRON technicians developed effective concepts to formulate functionality at all times.
Fabien Roy, chief logistics officer at Sobeys in Canada, added: “I said we have the most productive team because there is only one team in the Terrebonne distribution center, made up of colleagues from Sobeys and WITRON.
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