The Norwegian food retailer Coop is significantly expanding its central goods distribution centre in association with WITRON.
Since 2014, its 52,000-square-metre logistics centre, located near Oslo Airport, has been successfully supplying to more than 1,200 stores throughout Norway, with over 17,000 different dry, fresh and frozen goods.
The automated WITRON warehouse technology has proven to be a distinct competitive advantage for Coop.
From May 2022, Coop’s order-picking volume (a total of 600,000 cases), using WITRON’s OPM, DPS and CPS solutions on a total area of 84,000 square meters, will increase by one third.
Better Services
The expansion will not only result in an increase in capacity, but also a targeted improvement in store and customer service.
Eleven (11) COM machines, extra automated pallet aisles, tray AS/RS aisles, stacker cranes, and conveyor system components will be installed in all temperature zones.
The capacity of the fully automated shipping buffer has almost doubled.
“The existing space will be used for integration, and a new building part will be erected,” explained Halvor Nassvik, senior project manager at Coop.
“The simple scalability and expandability of the WITRON systems was already an important decision point when we started to design the logistics centre,” Nassvik added.
WITRON's Supply Chain Intelligence Allows Real-Time Decision-Making
Many benefits were already integrated into the existing solution, which includes error-free order-picking, densely packed order pallets, order consolidation, maximum use of trailer space, and ergonomic work processes.
Soon, leading-edge functionalities in the WITRON Warehouse Management System will provide additional benefits along the supply chain.
Roger Nyeng, logistics director at Coop, said, “Our distribution centre supplies all Coop stores throughout Norway, from large, heavily frequented supermarkets in the city regions down to very small stores in the far north, 2,000 kilometres away from the logistics centre. Therefore, the supply chain is subject to numerous fluctuations, like purchasing behaviour, order quantities, climatic conditions, and routes that our trailers have to cover.”
Coop, therefore, requires completely networked processes that respond quickly, in real time, to changing conditions, to the agility of the market, and to the supply chain.
Nyeng explained, “If a trailer is stuck in traffic, it must be possible to flexibly change the pick sequence at short notice. If extreme weather conditions are forecast in the winter and customers tend to stock up, it must be possible to guarantee unplanned order peaks through flexible machine occupation.
“When the business in the stores calms down during the summer months, the system provides support by means of flexible personnel planning or defines proactive maintenance cycles,” he added.
‘Optimised Warehouse Intelligence’
Nyeng continued, “Based on a large amount of data, the WITRON system provides our logistics staff suggestions for actions as to how we can optimally operate the plant in terms of optimised warehouse intelligence.
“IT, physics and processes are, therefore, consolidated in the best-possible manner. The seamless integration of other supply chain partners not ‘only’ creates warehouse intelligence, but also a holistic ‘supply chain intelligence’. Consequently, for COOP, this means: in addition to high cost-efficiency, being able to fulfil our customers’ demands even better and in a more sustainable way,” he concluded.
WITRON CEO Helmut Prieschenk and Coop CEO Geir Inge Stokke signed the contract for the expansion of the retailer’s logistics centre in Oslo.
© 2019 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Sponsored content. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
