Warehouse on Wheels at Geevers Auto Parts

With its fleet of 45 delivery vans, Geevers Auto Parts supplies parts from all brands to auto body repair shops across the Benelux countries. The total range consists of 6.5 million different car parts, of which 130,000 are kept in stock. Distribution is carried out from the distribution centre in Veldhoven. About four years ago, the company hit the limits of its warehouse capacity. “We were faced with a choice: expand the warehouse, or make maximum use of the space by automating the warehouse,” René explains. “We opted for the latter, and from the selection process that followed, Centric's warehouse management system Locus WMS emerged as the best fit.”

Cross-docking

Locus WMS was installed at Geevers three-and-a-half years ago. According to René, the system has delivered what his company expected in terms of process and efficiency improvement. “It has many possibilities, and we get the most out of the features that are relevant to us. For example, with Locus WMS we can check the stock levels every single day. This has improved the reliability of our stock information enormously. The system also supports us in our cross-docking process, a very important aspect for us. Auto body repair shops have short turnaround times, meaning they need to have the parts fast. Of our total revenues, 45% comes from cross-docking, and with the WMS we’ve been able to further optimise that process.

Digitalising the vehicle fleet

At the time when Geevers chose Locus WMS, LISA was still under development at Centric. René: “We were already interested in it then, because it would allow us to digitalise our delivery process.” The company finally started using the application for paperless journey records at the start of this year. Thanks to the connectivity features that allow LISA to link to Locus WMS, Geevers can now work based on the “warehouse-on-wheels” principle. “Our vehicle fleet has now been integrated into the warehouse. In our industry it often happens that goods are refused. If that happens right at point of delivery, the driver can use LISA to adjust the invoice on the spot. The customer receives a correct digital invoice right then and there, and the parts that were not accepted are immediately available to other customers in the system. Since we started using LISA, the return percentage has decreased from 5 to 3.6%. This saves on extra journeys and issuing credit notes and the related costs. But the most important advantage is that with LISA we can offer our customers more service. And that’s the main point on which we can set ourselves apart from our competitors. For us, customer service is key.