ALKA Group

CROSSPOINT IMPLEMENTATION – CASE STUDY

About Company

Alka is one of the leaders of the Romanian market in most of the categories in which they are present, but they like to believe that it is not the sales figures that represent them but the things that stand behind them : the taste, the state of well-being and the many pleasant surprises it offers to consumers.
I place my soul and passion in everything I do and seek to inspire this state of well-being everywhere, offering for over two decades the highest quality products, along with the care for every detail.

Some of the project challenges

Reduced space (available at the central repository at the time of the initial go-live) compared to the large amount of items to manage;
Existence of goods in custody to third parties;
Diversity of sales channels served:

Platform
KA Magazine
Indirect Distribution
Direct Distribution
Regional Deposits
Export

Management of own and purchased items from suppliers;
The limitations imposed by the existing ERP solution;
The short time allocated to initial implementation;
Strong activity in warehouses (24/6), without the possibility of an interruption in WMS initialization.

Solution

Implementation of WMS Crosspoint within the Alka group began at the end of 2009 by analyzing the remodeling of logistics processes in the new WMS solution and in the already used ERP solution.

Go-live in the central warehouse in Bucharest took place on March 1, 2010. Over the next few months, the solution was extended to 9 other regional warehouses. The increased accuracy required in the traceability of raw materials required that Alka Co’s main warehouse be implemented in the same year.
The emphasis was on achieving complete traceability, while improving the speed of order preparation.

The migration to the new Logistics Center in Mogosoaia in 2016 forced the activation of new functionalities needed to adapt to new flows. Crosspoint’s flexibility allowed simultaneous parallel flow operations of the two deposits (old and new) during the move.

In the Inventory Optimization area (palette replenishment, article, product-specific put-away and destination-export client – temperature, volume and weight-dependent storage rules) advanced algorithms have been enabled, enabling the activity to be automated yet from the first transfer day.

Initially implemented features:



Individual order preparation

The main freight sampling strategy for managing volume orders, taking into account the palette preparation specificity. First Match First Out and First Expired First Out booking criteria.



Individual order preparation

The way to manage commands on the direct distribution channel that allows for planned transport-level centralization.



Kitting

The way to manage the composition of products with prescriptions defined in the system.



Integrate with factory production delivery mode

Integration needed to maintain the traceability of products originally received at the end of the production line. The WMS solution is integrated with the ERP to generate unique pallet codes.



SSCC integrated external suppliers

For reception optimization, the SSCC functionality has been implemented to allow information to be retrieved from the supplier’s label.



Stock optimization: Advanced putaway and replenishment criteria

In order to optimize the freight seating and efficiency of sampling, algorithms have been implemented to allow the grouping of products according to the operator’s criteria: weight, maximum storage height, stock speed.

Features later implemented:



KPI and Norming activities

Modulul de obținere a unui punctaj unitar pe angajat, indiferent de activitățile de logistică alocate;



Packaging management

Packaging management was implemented to track the flow of Euro and Non-Euro pallets at group level;
Once the pallet management service was outsourced, it was necessary to adapt the working mode to the supplier’s requirements. It was necessary to keep a strict record of the packaging accompanying documents.



Multi-holders

The Multi-holder Module has been deployed to allow for the management and storage of the goods of several companies.



Crosspoint integration - BI

Integrating Crosspoint with BI used in the company has enabled complete traceability from raw material to finished product delivered to the final customer.



Traceability of Raw Materials and Supply

The WMS solution first implemented on the finished products area was easily extended to the raw materials and materials area, taking into account its specificity. The Purchase Order area has allowed traceability of multiple suppliers’ traceability for the same purchase order. Transfer requests based on production orders have been implemented with the specificity requested by the Production Department (FEFO, single lot, etc.). The flow of packaging is naturally maintained in parallel with freight movements.

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Do you want to know more about the operations in your own warehouses to optimize them and reduce costs?

Stock accuracy 100% 100%
Serving in logistics 97% 97%
Employee efficiency 90% 90%
Quality control 98% 98%

Very good outcomes

We have always considered it a priority to maintain the quality of the delivered solutions and projects. We take this aspect of our work very seriously and devote important resources to fulfilling this goal.

See implementation

Our competitors are powerful companies, especially international, with easy access to top WMS technologies. We have also searched for a flexible company that proposes a competitive IT solution and the know-how necessary to integrate the new solution with the existing ones. After many rounds of negotiations, I chose Crosspoint Point Point solution offered by Point Logistix.
We are not an easy customer and it was not an easy implementation. The activity in our warehouses is carried out without interruption. Time for us is a crucial factor. We started implementing one day on Monday and Wednesday and we have already switched to the functional verification stage, with 98% of the project being completed. To make this tour of force, the ALKA and Point Logistix teams worked shoulder to shoulder, 24 hours a day. We did not stop here.
From March 2010 until today, there was no year in which we did not have an extension of capabilities. We extended Crosspoint with additional functionality to the 10 warehouses that ALKA currently holds in Romania.
At the first inventory we also recorded the first benefits. The differences between the scriptic and the physical stock tended to zero. However, the best signal came from our employees, who told us that “now it does not work anymore, we have to do everything right.”
The level of service in logistics, a Benchmark in our industry, has grown dramatically. We have become a benchmark in the market, with serving over 97%.
For 2017, we planned the implementation of two new functionalities: monitoring employee performance in the warehouse – in the deployment phase and 3PL – already implemented. ALKA now provides services to other FMCG companies that do not have our capabilities, much developed with our partner, Point Logistix.
ALKA has relied on Crosspoint in recent years, and expectations have never been deceived.
Thank you Crosspoint, thanks to Point Logistix.

Cristi Petcu

Director General Adjunct, ALKA Trading

CROSSPOINT IMPLEMENTATION – CASE STUDY

About Company

Some of the project challenges

Solution

Initially implemented features:

Individual order preparation

Individual order preparation

Kitting

Integrate with factory production delivery mode

SSCC integrated external suppliers

Stock optimization: Advanced putaway and replenishment criteria

Features later implemented:

KPI and Norming activities

Packaging management

Multi-holders

Crosspoint integration - BI

Traceability of Raw Materials and Supply

Request details!

Very good outcomes

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