News
Jun 2008
Dewilde introduces ‘Reflex3000’
Source: Food Industry june 2008 
Dewilde has been working with ReflexSystems's 'Reflex3000' since last summer. Although it took a while before this dairy wholesaler had made the new method of working its own, it could no longer do without the ERP application now. The improved supervision of both personnel as well as suppliers, the considerable reduction in errors and the tremendous saving of time by automation are just three reasons which prove that the investment is a lot more than a necessary evil to comply with the tracing legislation.
| Dewilde has been an established name in the Belgian dairy sector for over three generations. The company does not only make its name as a wholesaler of an extensive assortment of products but achieved its fame with its own brand of cheese 'Klaartjes Kaas'. This is a produce of Holland but is matured on wooden shelves at a temperature of 12 to 15°C in the headquarters of Dewilde in Sint-Niklaas over a period of four to ten months. "It is with special thanks to this product that we can distinguish ourselves in the highly competitive dairy distribution market," explains current manager Filip Dewilde. "However, that's not everything. The rest of our products also deviate from the traditional path. In addition to offering a wide range of Belgian cheeses, we also offer French, Swiss | and Dutch sorts. With regard to milk products we work on the one hand with Inex and on the other hand with numerous small, specialised manufacturers. Finally we sell our eggs under our own brand Berkenhof, which represents the highest quality." Whereas Grandfather Cyril and father Jos Dewilde aimed at mainly the retail trade, restaurant, catering and market vendors in Antwerp, son Filip sees the bigger picture." By extending his market to the triangle Ghent-Brussels-Antwerp, increasing his supply (more than a thousand references, 75% of which are continuously in stock) and take on personnel (he currently works with six people) he succeeded in expanding his customer base to more than four hundred. And this is also reflected in the considerable growth in the | business figures: in fifteen years the turnover has increased six fold to five million euro's. Tracing legislation as triggerWith such an extensive assortment and rapid growth it is only logical that Dewilde should switch to an ERP system. However, implementing such a programme is a time-consuming task which, in the case of small companies, usually falls on the shoulders of the manager. And given that he is usually dealing with hundreds of things at the same time, such a project is sometimes put on the back burner. This was also the case at Dewilde, at least until the tracing legislation |
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came into effect. "This legislation called for such a comprehensive administration that the situation became unbearable," explained co- manager Gudrun Verdonck. "Admittedly we had an application that allowed the orders based on the order pattern of each customer to be encoded to subsequently generate a picking list. However, that's as far as it went as regards automation. The picker not only had to checkmark on the receipt what he had set out and manually make a note of the weights but also make a list of any shortages. In the evenings we had to manually put all the orders in the correct order of delivery routes, as well as input all the weights and amounts in the computer in order to print out an invoice. In addition to this, there was no link between the invoicing and accounting programme which meant there was, for example, no pursuit of payment possible. We also had to constantly check which discounts we had given customers and literally check what needed to be reordered in the warehouse. However, the biggest problem of all was that we could not guarantee a direct tracing with this method of working as a mistake was easily made." ReflexSystems convincesThrough a business connection Filip Dewilde discovered that the search for | an ERP programme and its implementation need not be such an insurmountable task. He explains: "This business associate had introduced Reflex3000 from ReflexSystems in 2006 and was very eager to talk about the way this project went and the speed with which it progressed. In addition, he told me that he had never thought that he would recover the costs of the system so quickly. As a result of the fact that the ERP application minimalises the margin of errors, allows for better supervision and also ensures that the administration is dealt with much quicker means that there is a saving on manpower as well as all possible sorts of losses. When I went on-site to look at this application and its advantages with my own eyes I was completely sold. That ReflexSystems had developed the programme itself as well as being able to present the necessary references and broad experience were sufficient reasons for me to look no further and enter into partnership with this provider." Intensive preparationThe contract was signed at the beginning of last year whereupon ReflexSystems started the preparation. Manager Jan Ickx explains: "This was a fairly difficult job, especially due to the fact that we also had to start from scratch as regards hardware. After we had got a good idea of the customer's exact expectations, we began installing a server and new computers. Then, together with Gudrun Verdonck, we cleaned up the entire file of customers, | suppliers and articles which we then imported to the Reflex3000 central database. A third and fairly considerable phase consisted of completing the information such as price setting, contract information, delivery conditions, customer payment behaviour, article's best-before days, barcodes, label information, delivery routes etc. Once that was done we could start implementing the administrative modules such as order handling, invoicing, and analysis. At the same time we introduced the mobile module which allows sales representatives to input orders in their laptops which are then sent to the office via GPRS." Numerous benefitsOnce the administrative part was ready the production was tackled. In this phase the reception and order picking was automated. Filip Dewilde explained: "We chose to work with wrist scanners as the order picker then has both hands free so that the scanner does not have to be repeatedly put down. Unfortunately at the moment not all the picking receipts can be handled via scanning given that a lot of French products do not yet have EAN128 barcodes which incorporate the weight. In this case, the pickers should scan the EAN13 code to the Flex CT Terminal which is coupled to the weighing scale. Then they have to place the product on the |
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| weighing scale whereupon the weight is registered on order line. During the picking all the goods are placed in storage bins. When an order is processed the warehouse manager indicates via the Flex how many bins need to be transported per customer after which Reflex3000 prints a label. This lists the destination name/number of bins and is stuck to the uppermost bin so that the driver knows what he has to deliver and to which location. After the picking is completed the ERP programme creates a list of all the products which are missing. In this way I can work out whether they are actually out of stock or whether the warehouse manager has made a mistake. In this case I can easily enter the necessary corrections into the system. In addition, I can quickly reorder certain goods to ensure that the order is complete for when the lorry leaves. And of course, we can now be very flexible in responding to last-minute orders. The work that this requires is a piece of cake in comparison to what I previously had to do. Ever since we have implemented the ERP solution I can finally enjoy life a bit more | and I manage to gain a few hours a day which I can dedicate to my family and hobbies. Furthermore, processing orders is much quicker and in total I definitely gain 2/3 more manpower. In addition, I have a greater supervision over the picking and practically no mistakes are made any more. This also results indirectly in a huge financial gain because if an article is missing or the wrong product is delivered then we have to quickly make an additional delivery. The fact that Reflex 3000 automatically calculates the optimum route is a welcome bonus. Plus, the fact that we know immediately how much cash a driver should hand over after his route is definitely an asset. If something is missing we can immediately trace where it has gone wrong." And that is not yet everythingOn an administrative level, Dewilde has also made huge advancements thanks to Reflex 3000. Gudrun Verdonck explains: "As a result of all the fact that all the incoming products are scanned, the system can compare whether the goods correspond with what has been ordered. Another advantage | is that I have a much better control on payments. However, what we especially like is that is the fact that an update, for example in price, is automatically implemented where needed with just the push of a button. And finally, we fully comply with the requirements of the tracing legislation thanks to the ERP application. We know exactly where each product comes from and where it was delivered. In the case of a product recall simply entering the lot number in Reflex 3000 is sufficient to see who has received the product. In this way we can inform the customer concerned in less than no time. And that is, of course, what it's all about for us and the legislator. However, as is obvious from our story, the ERP programme offers a great many more advantages. This is why the investment, which works out fairly expensive for a small company as Dewilde, is no necessary evil. Quite the opposite in fact. It will allow us to expand without recruiting additional personnel. Evidence of this is how we sailed through the last year-end closing which is traditionally a very hectic period. Thanks to Reflex3000 everything went very smoothly, so much so that we thought that we had closed the year badly. It was only when we looked at the turnover that we saw how we had done a whole lot better than last year… and all this without any stress or lack of sleep!" |
