Groenewout has participated in several important logistics and supply chain conferences

On November 6th, Groenewout has successfully organized a workshop at the “Dag van het Magazijn” in Diemen, the Netherlands. The “Dag van het Magazijn” is a conference with interactive workshops regarding safety practices in warehouses and distribution centers. Groenewout’s workshop provided insight into “Fire safety – the consequences of new regulations for warehouses”.

On November 15th and 16th, Groenewout exhibited at the Conference & Exhibition of the Transported Asset Protection Association (TAPA) in Malta.
The Technology Asset Protection Association Europe (TAPA-EMEA) is an association of security professionals and related business partners from technology companies who have come together for the purpose of addressing the emerging security threats that are common to the high-tech industry.
Groenewout shared its broad experiences of defining security concepts, executing pre-audits and providing implementation assistance of these security concepts in logistic centers and warehouses.

Following the aforementioned event, we are proud to announce that we have conducted our first ever Round Table on November 21st. The subject was “How to select your project developer for your logistics real estate?”. Which criteria are critical in order to arrive at the right conclusion?
Our Managing Director, Mari van Kuijk, chaired this round table discussion in the beautiful Grand Castle in Woerden, the Netherlands.

Subsequent to the Round Table event, Groenewout has participated in the trade fair “Groothandel & Logistiek on November 28th and 29th in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. The aim of this trade fair is to update the wholesale industry with current developments regarding internal logistics and inventory management. In close proximity to Groenewout’s booth, our consultant, Marleen van Brandenburg, has given a presentation on the topic “Cost saving through smart order collection.”

At the Supply Chain Modeling Forum on December 5th in Coventry, UK, our consultant, Rob Wijnen, has given a presentation on “Inventory Modeling in Supply Chains – How to calculate the impact of changes?”. This highly focused event provides the unique opportunity for supply chain modelers to get together to enhance their knowledge through a series of presentations and discussions.

If you would like to receive more information about the presentations or exhibitions please send a request for information to: mail

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Last year, Corporate Express Germany – a subsidiary of the world’s leading single-source supplier of office articles - decided to build a new central distribution centre in Langenlonsheim to replace the various distribution centres they currently have in Germany. They asked Groenewout to manage the construction and equipment of the new distribution hub.

“Turning to Groenewout was a logical decision”, says Walraven. Groenewout has provided consultancy services to Corporate Express over a period stretching back ten years. A few years ago, Groenewout handled a similar project for us. This was the construction of a central distribution hub for the Benelux in Almere in the Netherlands.” In Germany, Corporate Express currently has 1000 employees in 29 locations. The products include a wide assortment of office supplies, computer accessories, office furniture and equipment, IT hardware and accessories. One of the key benefits Corporate Express offers its customers is a single, central point of purchase for all business products and services - and the guarantee of rapid and punctual deliveries. This allows companies to save time and increase their own productivity.

“This is what we are good at,” says Walraven. “And we do everything possible to make it happen. This is why we needed a new building in Germany as a replacement for the different types of locations existing at the moment. We decided to bring everything together in a single location that had to be built in Waldlaubersheim. This should serve as a central distribution hub for Germany and is crucial for ensuring that we can continue to realize our key business objectives in a cost-efficient way.”

The new Corporate Express distribution centre in Germany will be approximately 45,000 m2, with office space of approximately 1,700 m2. Construction started in July 2007 and the building should be ready by February 2008 and operational by July 2008.

“We were looking for someone to supervise and manage the construction process. Logistics is critical to our success and it is important that we do it well at the lowest possible cost”, says Walraven.

The reason for outsourcing this process? “We do not have the expertise. Nor do we have our own architects.” Walraven explains that the decision to employ the services of Groenewout was quickly taken. “We have been doing business with Groenewout for 10 years. They did something similar for us before in the Netherlands. For a distribution centre in Zwolle and later in Almere. In both instances, Groenewout was responsible for managing the construction process up to the final delivery. We know from experience that they can guarantee a good delivery and an optimal ‘pick and pack’ process.”

“We have been doing business with Groenewout for 10 years”

“They have the knowledge and expertise. They have a very broad experience in working with project developers and can speak their language. And they have even more experience with logistics. This is their added value. They are able to ensure the type of specification that allows us to work in an optimal way. And they have the experience to realize a good price-quality relationship. The only question we had was whether they could also do this elsewhere in Europe?” Corporate Express contracted Groenewout to assist with negotiating the contracts with the various project developers.Groenewout assessed the various tenders presented by project developers, the construction plan presented by the project developer in relationship to the logistics operation and the sketches presented by the different sub-contractors employed by the project developer.

“Groenewout delivers rapidly. Their work is accurate and of good quality.”

With the planning phase completed, construction is now in full swing. Groenewout monitors the progress and the quality of both the building and the technical installations. These include security and additional installations - such as shelves and sorting systems - that are essential because of the logistics needs.

Groenewout also provides assistance with regard to elements that are not included in the contract with the project developer, but which are essential for guaranteeing the primary process. For example, the installation of electrical and sprinkler installations.When asked how Corporate Express experienced the cooperation with Groenewout, Walraven is emphatic: “Groenewout delivers rapidly. Their work is accurate and of good quality. And since we have been working together for a longer period, it meant there was less need for supervision. There is a sound basis for trusting them with the job. This allows us to focus on other important issues without being distracted by the building process.”

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Eighteen months ago, Jabil Poland, a contract manufacturer in the electronics sector, decided to expand their services to customers, resulting in increasing complexity of their logistics operations. Combined with the plans for a new facility that would double the size of its operations, Jabil Poland wanted to improve efficiency of its materials and goods flow in the new facility. They turned to Groenewout for an analysis of the situation and to propose an effective and cost-efficient solution.

In recent years, increasing demand for electronics manufacturing capacity close to European markets has created new business opportunities for Jabil in Poland. Early 2006, Jabil decided to expand their operations and extend their services to deliver more specific to (end)customer’s demand. As an electronics manufacturer also offering design and assembly - for example, of electronic boards – Jabil is now able to offer
complete solutions to their customers.

To realize this growth plan, Jabil Poland needed to construct a new plant in addition to their two existing ones. “The decision to grow meant we were faced with a supply chain problem”, says Krzysztof Mioduszewski. “Due to an accumulation of factors, our operations were becoming increasingly complex.”

One of Jabil Poland’s main activities is the production of LCD television sets for several world-leading brand names. Each television set contains 50 - 100 components and the plant operates up to 10 assembly lines.

“We handle quite a large volume – approximately 3 million units per year”, says Mioduszewski. “These are huge
volumes to push through the plants. It means we need to move hundreds of pallets per 8-hour shift, partly from
stock and partly direct supply from local producers. The flows are very intensive. To complicate matters, LCD screen are constantly increasing in size. All in all we have huge volumes, a large number of parties involved and a variety of logistics flows. In our current facilities we have limited storage capacity. So we need to ensure efficient flows through the raw material and finished goods warehouses and the plant.”

Jabil was looking to solve the key challenges regarding the design of these logistics flows and storage capacity.
They turned to Groenewout with the specific question to help design the supply streams for maximum efficiency.
Especially in view of the planned move to new premises. Jabil needed answers to questions such as how much capacity they would need, how they could arrange the storage area from the perspective of equipment and flow and how they could improve the issuing of goods to production?

Defining the project “The project definition consisted of three steps”, says Mioduszewski : “We first wanted an analysis of the current situation and the expected evolution over the next 2 years. It was crucial to fully understand the goods flow. Many of our local suppliers - who supply plastic and metal parts and packaging materials - deliver just in time. This is a volume intensive process.”

The analysis of the existing situation started in November 2006. Jabil had asked Groenewout to visit the plant at that time as Jabil was entering the peak production season. Mioduszewski explains: “There is a high degree of seasonality in our production cycle. During the final quarter of the year we produce twice as much as in the other quarters. This is one of the major challenges we face. It was crucial to understand the environment during this peak season.”

The second phase involved formulating a viable solution for the materials and goods flow. Mioduszewski: “With the new building underway, we knew how much space we would have. The key questions were if the space would be sufficient and how we could use it in the most efficient way? We provided Groenewout with more details on our products, sizes, components and packaging so they could analyse the flows involved and tell us how big volume needs to be pushed through production to realize our production figures. In this respect, the increasing size of the LCD screens was a key element.”

At the end of the project, Jabil wanted a joint assessment to determine the success of the project. “The entire project was quite complex”, Mioduszewski evaluated. “It took quite some time to optimise the solutions and we were faced with unexpected challenges, such as the fact that we use a variety of non-regular sized pallets.

Happy with the outcome
“The cooperation with Groenewout brought us real benefits,” says Mioduszewski.
“They helped us to gain insight into the relevant flows. Their professional approach allowed us to identify the space and equipment needed to support the flows that we deal with. They also workedout an optimal solution for storage which will be implemented in 2008, after the new building has been finalized.”

“I am also very satisfied with regard to the quality of our cooperation. We were able to reach an understanding very quickly,” continues Mioduszewski. “Groenewout delivered the project description, set-up, timing and cost in a professional way.And on very short notice. The regular reviews and visits went well. They provided quite good estimates in various real-life scenarios based on our input. Overall, everything was well–managed. They produced a good final document, which contained a very professional analysis and a convincing solution

.” His conclusion? “Given the scope of our operations I found that the investment is justified. We received what we expected and we are satisfied with the result.”

“The cooperation with Groenewout brought us real benefits.”

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MRP PLANNING WITHOUT ERP OR APS?

Do you recognize this? In general the planning process is simple, there are a limited number of components, the (composed) article file is not big, there is a forecast and each department has its own clearly defined responsibilities, but the planning process does not function at all. There is stock, however not the correct parts to assemble the correct final products. Above all, actual demand fluctuates significantly compared to the forecasted demand.

With the implementation of an ERP or APS these illustrated problems can be history, but on the other hand such an implementation could be overkill because:

• The limited number of articles in the article master file make a full ERP or APS roll-out unnecessary and/or unprofitable, moreover
• There are specific operational and organizational tasks when solved and running smoothly, make a full ERP or APS roll-out unnecessary.

This case describes how within just a few weeks with the help of an on Access based MRP tool:

• There was clear and fresh insight into stock levels
• Forecast changes could be calculated immediately on realization or not
• Departmental responsibilities within the planning process were made clear and incorporated into the tool
• Lost sales were minimized.

Considerations for building the MRP tool
The company in question can be characterized as a large marketing driven organization. With the frequent launch of new products (Bills of Material, BOMs), with components that sometimes are also part of other finished products, it became a tough job to maintain the current planning process. The forecast was very dynamic, meaning that often more than once per week a revision of the planning was a prerequisite.

A relative long planning horizon makes it even more complicated. Some components have long leadtimes, up to three months! An increase in the number of different BOMs in combination with long lead-times makes an insight into ultimate ordering dates essential.

In essence products are made to stock. The most often used technique for stock-items is backward scheduling, this means that the component planning is based on the last possible finish date of the order. If components have long lead-times, both immediate forecast availability and the freezing of this forecast are of major importance.

Unsteady forecast patterns and relative short product life cycles are the reasons that this MRP tool does not use history to predict future component needs as other systems usually do.

The composition of the MRP tool Techniques and calculation methods in this MRP tool are comparable to those used in ERP modules. Of course the MRP functionality within ERP is extensive, however often only a small part is actually being used. With a basic configuration in Access, combined with client specific functionality, it is possible to realize a working MRP tool in a short time. The advantage is that it is easy to use and the tool is not license-driven.

Implementation
The final step is a successful implementation into the organization. At least one key-user is required to learn the functionality and use of the MRP tool. Next to understanding the functionality and the possible reports it can generate, data accuracy is also of great importance (garbage in = garbage out).

On a weekly basis the input data is refreshed, meaning the latest stock levels per item number, the most recent forecast on BOM level and an update on the outstanding component purchase orders to be received in stock in the near future.

Along with a weekly MRP run, a weekly meeting between Marketing and Logistics has been established, expanding insight into each others processes.

One of the graphical reporting options in the MRP tool is the capability to check in an uncomplicated way the availability situation for each component. An example is illustrated in figure 1.

Assuming that the represented component in figure 1 has a standard lead-time of 7 weeks, then week 46 is the ultimate ordering week in order to assure receipt in week 1. The added value of these kinds of graphics has been proven. Comparing this situation with one that incorporates a forecast increase proposal, immediately provides insight into its feasibility.

Follow up in the weekly Marketing- Logistics meeting increases the mutual commitment of both disciplines. Joint efforts for better planning performance results in higher customer service (a key business goal).

Conclusion
The development and implementation of the MRP tool as described, have given the company in question many benefits. Both the clear planning overview and the knowledge of what to purchase when, are of great added value in this organization, moreover because new products and product revisions are implemented rather frequently. By making use of the MRP tool it becomes easier to plan and organize a BOM change, given the component stock levels. Without question, the last thing you would like is to end up with lots of obsolete components.
The fact that the MRP tool is composed of a basic configuration and a client specific part makes it possible to get to a workable plan in a limited timeframe. Moreover, most companies make use of Access, so this means that there are no high hurdles to jump for an IT department.

In short, advantages for Logistics, Marketing, Finance and also IT!