Davigel, a major supplier of frozen foods to the French catering industry, has implemented the DLx Dispatcher warehouse management system (WMS) from RedPrairie. Davigel, part of the Nestlé group, stores approximately 150,000 tonnes of goods per year and has 80,000 customers in France. Since implementing DLx Dispatcher, inventory accuracy and picking efficiency has improved dramatically.
Europe’s General Food Law, which came into effect from January 2005, enforces strict traceability in the food sector. New barcoding is needed, such as the EAN128 symbology that defines many critical pieces of information. It identifies, among others, the site where a pallet was loaded, the means of transport, and the total number of items on a pallet. These elements are combined with others to create a comprehensive system that is able to trace food items to their source.
RedPrairie helped Davigel to be among the first companies to meet the new traceability regulations, equipping the company’s frozen food warehouse in Dieppe with DLx Dispatcher. This system already uses EAN128 barcoding for inventory logging purposes.
Davigel has been introducing DLx Dispatcher in several phases, the first of which increased the traceability and accuracy of stored food items. “DLx Dispatcher closely monitors the expiry dates and batch numbers of each of our pallets for tracing purposes,” says Bernard Blaizel, logistics director of Davigel. “The system tracks our entire inventory, keeps a full history of the movements of each product, and directs goods in the warehouse with respect to their expiry date and batch numbers.”
Paper-based picking was introduced in the second phase of the project and voice picking is currently being tested. The host system generates picking orders which are downloaded to DLx Dispatcher and picking assignments are created. “The accuracy of the picking process has increased. This means reduced numbers of returns, lower costs, and higher customer satisfaction. Through the calculation of the optimal pick route, DLx Dispatcher increases the productivity of our pickers. RF enables direct confirmation of orders and real-time adaptation of stock levels. We think the voice system will further boost picking efficiency.”
Davigel has now implemented the system at its frozen food warehouses in Dieppe and Lagny-Paris as well as expanded the technology to five more sites across France.
RedPrairie is one of several supply chain software specialists exhibiting at Logistics Link 2005, being held at Sandown Park, Esher, Surrey on February 1 and 2. For further information contact Richard Milbourn on 020 8661 1160 or visit www.logisticslink.co.uk
