Your challenge, our solution

Lightning fast. E-retail is war and so e-logistics or e-fulfilment is also war. A war that is taking place on the labor market (where do we house our migrant workers?), in the cloud (which systems do we link to each other and how?) and in the warehouse and delivery (how do you organize and support physical logistics at the workplace and on the road?).

In principle, logistics follows the wishes of the customer and these wishes are increasingly shifting to individual wishes. The consumer is no longer satisfied with longer delivery times or being in the dark when something is delivered at the door. Individuals want to be able to determine when, at what place and at what time (preferably as accurately as possible) the package will be presented. This now creates the need for same day delivery. While you also have to deal with an increasingly late cut-off.

In other words, supply chains are starting to pinch. e-Logistics or e-fulfilment is a young discipline that can no longer blindly follow the old laws of logistics. Many companies struggle with this. Jeroen van den Berg e-logistics consultant mentions three principles that can serve as a guideline: Think big, start small, scale fast.

Think big: set an ambitious goal. Where do you want to go with your company and your supply chain? This forces growth and the choices in the field of customer service and supply chain strategy that go with it.

Start small: pioneer with several small projects. Because it is unclear in advance what will and will not work, this is a sensible way forward. Make sure that the organization is agile and that the company mentality is change-oriented.

Scale fast: choose an IT architecture in which traditional systems can easily work together with new applications. Traditional are ERP, Webshop, Point of Sale, WMS and TMS. New are PIM (product information management), OMS (order management system), ESB (enterprise service bus), mobile apps and BI (business intelligence). And then choose the specific applications that can grow with you easily and quickly, without limits.

First of all, the difference between Small Data and Big Data. Small Data comes from your own company. You generate this data yourself. Big Data comes from outside, in other words from the entire chain. Is big in the sense of comprehensive and cross-company boundaries.

You must realize that you must first get your Small Data in order. You must be able to collect, transform, store, extract, analyze and interpret. This is also where your biggest profit lies. Your own data reveal their secrets much more easily in the context of your own company. Moreover, you can act on it, take measures that show an immediate effect.

Collecting Big Data and combining it with your own Small Data first requires a Data Science strategy: you need to know in advance what you want to know and why. There is no point in simply collecting, there is a danger that your organization will get bogged down in a huge mountain of data. You should also bear in mind that you can no longer interpret yourself, but that you need the computer that runs the algorithms to be able to analyze and interpret Big Data. Help is inevitable.

Remember that smart is interesting. Big Data is not yet Smart Data. The data becomes smart if you can, for example, answer questions such as: where is the best location to open a distribution center? Or how reliable are my suppliers? Or when should I have orders flown in, by train or in a container by ship?

A final point of attention is the GDPR. Keep in mind that the GDPR rules have been tightened up and you may no longer be allowed to collect the data you collect at all. Talk to a Grensloos Data Science advisor.

Several bottlenecks can arise in your logistics system. Below are a few applications that can lower your inventory costs and increase sales revenue:

You are not yet using forecasting and purchasing software.
If you are able to collect shop data, you as a logistics manager can ensure that the right quantities of products are in the right place at the right time. This requires links to an ERP with inventory management software or supply chain management software (SCMS). Supply chain management software (SCM) helps you manage goods flows and focuses on the planning and communication that is required. In particular, planning the future demand for goods and the required capacity in combination with communication between the parties involved is an important task of SCM software. In this way you can efficiently deal with your own purchasing, inventory management and possible outsourcing of goods. Supply chain management has to do with the flow of goods within a company, but can also be limited to a warehouse (WMS). An important functionality of SCM software is therefore the link with internal ERP, TMS and WMS systems.

Your organisation will perform cross-border e-commerce.
Join forces with an e-fulfilment partner who knows the tricks of the trade. There is a lot to consider, not only are the regulations often different in other countries, but also the mores surrounding the delivery of products to private individuals. . Think of the ways of payment, having a customer service point or a stock and returns location. In addition, data integration is important to be able to offer a smooth shipping system. Postal code data is often different than in the Netherlands, as are the requirements for packaging and the return of products. You can solve this logistical bottleneck with Pluriform software, because the webshops and the customer web portal are an integral part of the Pluriform information system. the most important principles for innovating your logistics and web shops is that all relevant data is centrally registered and managed in one information system. You save directly on the costs of maintaining additional compatible data files. In Pluriform, data is registered once and consistently. It’s that easy. Pluriform provides your webshop catalogs with the correct current information. Think of the online display of extensive product information, with or without current prices, displaying current stocks, in a certain variation, color or size can be put offline/online by means of a tick. Multiple webshops, per target group, are possible as standard. Web orders or quote requests are registered directly in your Pluriform system, with detailed customer data and payment method processed.