Versteijnen Case Study

How digital integration can create a competitive edge – handling pallets to parcels with Socius24 and Blue Yonder Dispatcher WMS

Website:https://versteijnen.nl/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/versteijnen-logistics/

“I would recommend Socius24 – they keep agreements, they know what they are talking about, think along with the customer and find a solution. They have knowledge and experience of Dispatcher WMS software and logistics processes. They’re easy to contact, openminded and can offer User Services Portal, which is an additional tool to the WMS.”

Stephan Wasser ICT Specialist Warehousing

About Versteijnen Logistics

Versteijnen is a leading transport and warehousing logistics company and European Third-Party Logistics provider. They pride themselves on the value they add to their clients across their end-to-end logistics process.

Founded in 1947, the company is now headquartered out of a large-scale distribution campus in the Netherlands and has other warehouses in Hungary.

Versteijnen provide their clients with warehousing, order management, picking, packing and distribution through their own fleet of trucks which spans Europe, and through the world’s leading parcel carriers.

Customers

Their client list is impressive, and they are logistics partners for many customers in a broad range of industries including Automotive, Chemical, Clothing, B2B, B2C, eCommerce, Electronics, Medical and Solar Panels.

Hazardous Goods

They also have a dedicated warehouse specifically designed and licensed to hold dangerous goods, where they store hazardous products and materials on behalf of their customers.

Production Suppliers

And while prompt delivery is important for everyone in the supply chain, it’s essential for some customers, because Versteijnen stores the raw materials they use to produce finished goods, and any delivery delays would stop production.

Background

Versteijnen’s business has grown significantly from its origins as primarily a pallet-based distributor to one of Europe’s leading Third-Party Logistics providers. They now provide a broad range of value-add services for clients across a wide set of industries, each with their own specific requirements and service level agreements (SLAs).

Having the best possible Warehouse Management System (WMS) in place is mission critical for Versteijnen in order to drive efficiencies across their operations and to meticulously manage their performance against client contracts. The extensive flexibility of the Blue Yonder Dispatcher WMS is key to enabling their support of the broad range of requirements from their clients – as well as avoiding situations where they’re prevented from taking on new business due to limitations of the system they use.

Versteijnen use various solutions to achieve this outcome – Dispatcher WMS, Autostore, Integrator and Socius24’s own User Services Portal (USP).

“We are very happy with Dispatcher WMS, because it’s easy to implement the procedures and flows that our customers ask for to satisfy their needs.”

Stephan Wasser ICT Specialist Warehousing

Versteijnen had been using Blue Yonder Dispatcher WMS (formerly JDA and previously RedPrairie) since 2005, but the scale and complexity of their operation had outgrown the original version they deployed.

Key Challenges

And while they still believed Dispatcher WMS was the right solution for their business, they recognised that they needed to upgrade to the latest version of the software to gain the functionality they needed.

Versteijnen started working with Socius24 in 2018, when they upgraded to the latest version of Dispatcher WMS. The company was looking to improve management of their operation against key client KPIs and to optimise picking routines to meet a vast range of SLAs – such as order cut-off times and next day dispatch. They were also looking to improve the way they dealt with special handling and storage requirements including hazardous materials and the support of Quality Assurance operations.

Another key goal of Versteijnen was to streamline operations through closer digital integration, pushing data captured in Dispatcher WMS to financial systems, smoothly flowing tasks into their automated picking solution Autostore and triggering carrier bookings through their online tool.

Solutions Delivered

Versteijnen selected Socius24 to assist them with their upgrade, configuration, and integration of the Blue Yonder Dispatcher WMS.

“Partnering with Socius24 allowed us to work with a company that had deep experience with Dispatcher WMS, plus the ability to implement with a short lead-time. Even today, post implementation, if we come across a new situation, we know we can ask Socius24 for help, and they’ll come up with a solution quickly, sometimes even on the same day.”

Stephan Wasser ICT Specialist Warehousing

Versteijnen started working with Socius24 in 2018, when they upgraded to the latest version of Dispatcher WMS.

Having looked at other Blue Yonder partners, Versteijnen found Socius24 to be very knowledgeable and clearly demonstrated an understanding of their business, leveraging a wealth of experience of working with other Third-Party Logistics providers. Socius24 took the time to understand what Versteijnen were trying to achieve and guided them through the upgrade process and the introduction of new functionality as well as the integration into their other systems.

Outcome

With the support of Socius24, Versteijnen were able to leverage the extended capabilities of Dispatcher WMS gained through the upgrade. They have also been able to closely integrate Dispatcher WMS with their other systems to streamline processes and drive greater operational efficiencies. Today, they use AutoStore, an automated picking system which speeds up the picking process and contributes to the visibility and traceability of their activities. Socius24 helped them to connect AutoStore to Dispatcher via Integrator. And the WMS is also integrated with their Transport Management System (TMS) so that they can unload and load their own trucks for transport customers.

The company also uses Socius24’s own User Services Portal to enhance data visibility and traceability.

Key outcomes achieved include:

SPEEDING UP OPERATIONS

Through the ability to define the unique requirements and SLAs for each client within Dispatcher WMS and to efficiently direct operations to meet even the most challenging KPIs.

STREAMLING PROCESSES

Through the smooth integration of Dispatcher WMS with other systems including the tight coupling of overall picking control within dispatch processes with automated picking and packaging and leveraging web services to trigger requests to carriers.

ACCURATE CHARGING

By tracking the time spent on each value-added task for clients and passing this detailed third-party billing information through to financial systems to enable accurate charging and achievement of required margins.

WINNING MORE BUSINESS

By utilising the reputation of Dispatcher WMS as a benchmark for a quality operation and ensuring that no opportunity is lost due to restrictions in the capabilities of the WMS solution being used.

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“USP gives our customers real-time visibility about their orders and inventory which means that our customer service and logistics team get fewer calls and emails. What we like with USP is the visibility that it provides for some customers. It's always real-time information and it's easy to use because it's HTML, so you can use it from anywhere. You also have the option to add custom-made reports in it, which help, especially when it comes to special requirements for customers who want their own reports.”

Stephan Wasser ICT Specialist Warehousing

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