Medium-sized retailers have earned success in Spain by setting themselves apart from the competition with their proximity to the customer, special services, and regional products.
The name Condis does not stand for large supermarkets, but, rather, for many smaller neighbourhood stores.
The 60-year-old company, which is mainly located in Catalonia, uses innovative and advanced logistics and order-picking technology.
Condis has been active in the online business since 2000, and COVID-19 has given momentum to the channel.
Víctor Escanciano, director of logistics and IT at Condis, said, “This topic is gaining importance in urban areas. Meanwhile, we have more than 500 orders per day in Barcelona – and we are making money, too.”
There is no way around an omnichannel strategy for retailers. Escanciano would know because Condis merged the responsibilities of logistics and IT.
Its automated omnichannel logistics centre in Montcada i Reixac, near Barcelona, plays a special role for the company.
More than 670 supermarkets in the Catalonian region – operated independently or by franchisees – are currently supplied with over 3,100 different dry products.
Innovative and advanced logistics and order-picking technology ensures maximum service quality for Condis’s stores and online customers, as well as maximum cost efficiency.
In 2017, Condis decided to expand the fully automated OPM system, originally implemented by WITRON in 2013, from six to eight COM machines during its ongoing operations.
The existing automated small-parts warehouse was also expanded, to 172,000 tray storage locations with 17 stacker cranes.
An additional depalletiser and a second automated stretch-wrapper were added as well.
Now the system can pick more than 90,000 cases on a peak day, in a store-friendly and error-free manner.
Small-volume items are picked in the DPS tote-picking system according to the goods-to-person and person-to-goods principles.
The DPS system used at Condis consists of a one-aisle AS/RS with 5,100 tote locations.
Employees working at three pick workstations are guided by a pick-by-light system, which picks the items directly from the storage tote into the customer order tote.
“DPS is the ideal system for us to pick small-volume items in a semi-automatic manner on a minimum floor space with high throughput,” Escanciano said.
As a general contractor, WITRON was responsible for the design and implementation of all material flow, IT systems (WMS and MFC), control systems (PLC), and mechanical components.
All conveyor system elements and stacker cranes were designed and produced by WITRON.
A WITRON on-site team with 12 employees ensures 24/7 availability of the logistics system and takes care of all service and maintenance tasks.
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