Locus WMS enriches its functionality for Simon Loos – benefiting the entire 3PL sector

As a leading logistics provider in the highly dynamic world of food retail, Simon Loos needed an advanced Warehouse Management System (WMS). “Our customers typically supply large supermarket chains and have high demands in terms of visibility and delivery performance,” says CFO Martin Knol. “They want to understand how we manage stock for them in view of BBE restrictions and how we control costs tightly. With our old WMS, we often had to do things manually, which made it more difficult to respond to changes in the market, such as the more intricate procedure of supplying supermarket DCs.”

The ultimate WMS

Simon Loos launched an extensive selection process, investigating all the WMS packages around, but no standard system fit the company’s requirements 100%. “We were looking for a user-friendly, data-driven system with smart planning features that would allow us to make the most of our warehouse capacity and reduce costs for our customers. We also wanted to issue invoices from the WMS easily, so we didn’t need an ERP system. It turned out that whatever WMS package we chose, we would need to have it expanded specially for the features we wanted. We opted for Centric because they had a great deal of experience in our industry and had the ambition to work with us to develop the ultimate WMS for the 3PL sector.”

Experience with food retail

The basis for the new software system was Locus WMS, Centric’s renowned warehouse management system, used by an array of well-known retail and trade companies to optimise their primary processes. Centric’s WMS boasts an impressive list of references: Jumbo, Blokker, Rensa, Spar and Wasco, to name just a few. “Our customers are the same companies that Simon Loos works for, so we all speak the same language,” says Ferry Kalfsvel, Managing Director at Centric Supply Chain Solutions. “We already offered solutions such as transport planning package Plan & Go TMS for logistics service providers, but there was no advanced WMS of the same calibre as Locus WMS available for the sector. The partnership with Simon Loos was the perfect opportunity for us to catch up and set up a high-end WMS for the 3PL sector.”

Productivity gains

The new WMS is now completely finished and is already up and running in Tiel, where Simon Loos has its largest warehouse operations. Martijn Scholtes, who works as a business consultant for Simon Loos, has seen how productivity has been boosted at the firm. “Locus WMS gives us the control we need to ensure warehouse workers always perform their tasks on time and as efficiently as possible, taking into account peak volumes and shipping times. We also work with scanners and voice terminals, so all data is exchanged in real time and paper-free. Locus WMS contains a tactical planning layer that allows us to input specific requirements and processes for each customer. The system ensures that these requirements are met and employees are given the right instructions at the right time.”

Insight into costs

Another major benefit of the new WMS is that Simon Loos now has complete insight into service levels, costs and productivity. Scholtes continues, “Everything is recorded and KPIs can be viewed immediately. You can also generate some very useful analyses of processes and filter by customer or product, for example. If we have to perform specific actions for a customer, we can now see exactly what additional costs this will entail. This allows us to invoice more accurately, but we can also work with the customer to see how we can reduce the extra costs. Because Locus gives us more of an understanding, we know exactly which buttons to press, such as fine-tuning order quantities or adjusting delivery frequencies. This has already helped us to reduce costs for several customers.”

The new standard for the 3PL sector

Martin Knol of Simon Loos looks back on a highly successful collaboration. “It took a little longer than we thought, but we’ve got the results we wanted. We sat down at the drawing board to create a new WMS package that contains exactly the features we need and enables us to continuously improve our performance. So with hindsight, choosing Centric was definitely the right decision.” Ferry Kalfsvel from Centric is also delighted. “It was a wonderful and challenging project, which has really set a new standard for the 3PL sector. This is a state-of-the-art WMS that not only Simon Loos, but the entire 3PL sector can benefit from.”