A robust yet flexible warehouse management
FoodService Danmark is one of Denmark's largest food service wholesalers. With a portfolio consisting of wholesale and specialist divisions, their value chain ranges from Sales and Customer Service to Logistics and Distribution. Their competitive edge lies in the wide product range, short lead times and a high level of customer service. This allows the company to serve a broad sweep of professional customers, while adding complexity to operations.
The project – warehouse efficiency
In order to meet customer demands in a more cost-effective manner, FoodService Danmark’s aim was to increase flexibility, robustness and efficiency within its warehouse management. This demanded a complete rethink of the existing warehouse concept, including design and solution implementation. The project, entitled “New Eyes”, focused on eliminating rework and waste in processes and placed a stronger emphasis on first-time-right.
Prior to the launch of the “New Eyes” project, Implement analysed FoodService Danmark’s value chain. The result of this analysis identified significant potential for further efficiency gains at the Catering Engros warehouses in Middelfart. This site was then chosen as the venue for a Half Double pilot project as the terminal had already been working with Lean and wanted to make further improvements.
- The project was divided into three phases with iterations: analysis, impact solution design and pilot. The first part of the analysis included data collection through Gemba, IT systems, reports and interviews. In other words, getting closer to users. From this, it was assessed that the full potential could only be realised by matching capacity to the actual workload, implying a reorganisation of the warehouse organisation.
- In addition to identifying the “right” match between workload and capacity throughout the workday, the impact solution design phase co-created a new warehouse concept, focusing on eliminating rework and process waste. Moreover, a major restructuring of the management organisation had taken place, reducing the number of roles in the warehouse by 50%. The remaining roles were clearly redefined together with the employees in scope in order to reduce the time to impact.
- As part of the pilot phase, the new warehouse concept, including operational management tools, was rolled out throughout the entire warehouse, impacting the routines of approximately 100 employees and managers.
Explore the local translation of the project here: https://implementconsultinggroup.com/case/foodservice-danmark/
