Casintra manages its warehouses in Asturias and Barcelona with Easy WMS by Mecalux

Strength in unity

Casintra was founded in 1971 in Asturias (Spain) as an association of small transport businesses that set out to compete with the sector’s large corporations (both national and foreign). It has now become a renowned 3PL company offering regional, national and international transport for all types of firms.

A 3PL (third-party logistics) operator offers service adapted to the requirements of the businesses that contract it. These types of providers aim to optimise their customers’ supply chains and do away with the need for clients to have their own fleet of vehicles or warehouses. In accomplishing this, 3PL providers have to be flexible to adapt to customer requests and new market trends.

Casintra boasts four installations in Asturias (three in Siero and one in Gijón) and a fifth in Barcelona that contain all of its customers’ goods. “To serve more companies, in the next few months, we are going to expand the storage capacity of our Barcelona warehouse and build new logistics centres in other areas of Spain,” affirms Javier García, Operations Manager at Casintra.

All the installations are multi-client environments: the goods of various companies from different sectors (mainly food and beverage) are stored in a single space, which requires “precise, error-free traceability,” emphasises Javier García. One of its biggest customers is a well-known Spanish dairy firm.

In the past, Casintra used a WMS that worked without radio-frequency technology. Management was carried out through a computer, “but we were aiming for more,” notes Javier García. The company sought to optimise its flows, multiply the profitability of its operations and carry out rigorous stock control. In addition, one of the priorities of this 3PL provider was connectivity. According to its Operations Manager, “we wanted to be able to inform customers about the availability of their products at all times.”

Casintra came to the conclusion that it needed a much more modern WMS with additional functionalities. In the end, it chose Mecalux “because of its expertise in developing warehouse management systems and the quality of its software products,” stresses García.

Warehouse management software for a 3PL operator

With the expansion of e-commerce and the increasing complexity of supply chain processes, more and more companies are deciding to outsource their logistics activities. A logistics operator is a company that provides storage and transport services to other businesses, regardless of sector. In fact, it acts as an intermediary between companies and their customers.

The operations of 3PL providers are remarkably complex. They manage many different SKUs, processing each one of them in a specific way; they also prepare and dispatch multiple orders in the shortest possible time.

Cooperation between manufacturers and logistics providers has become a crucial factor in driving companies’ competitiveness. The installation of a warehouse management system enables logistics operators to have more comprehensive control over their customer’s logistics, as they know what processes each client requires cand when. The WMS shows how much stock is available and where it is located, in addition to organising dispatches through the various transport agencies.

A WMS such as Mecalux’s Easy WMS equips logistics operators with the following:

• Item master with management by owners.
• Multi-warehouse management.
• Stock traceability.
• Process visibility based on product ownership.
• Dispatch organisation by transport agency.

A multi-warehouse

Mecalux has installed the Saas (Software as a Service) cloud-based version of Easy WMS. It is equipped with high performance servers in the cloud that ensure the excellent performance of the WMS, adapted to the volume of business activity.

The firm can access Easy WMS from any internet-connected browser or device. With this solution — involving a minimal investment in software infrastructure — Casintra has improved its logistics.

One of the advantages of the cloud-based Easy WMS is its multi-warehouse structure, that is, Casintra can control the operations of all its installations in Asturias and Barcelona simultaneously. In the near future, the company will be able to manage the new warehouses to be opened by using the same WMS.

For practical purposes, Casintra’s warehouses are run as if they were installations belonging to the customers themselves. To do this, communication is key. The dairy firm, for example, communicates with Easy WMS through SAP ERP to indicate the most appropriate storage criteria when depositing each item and establish which orders need to be prepared.

The SaaS version of Easy WMS allows Casintra to work online with all its customers at a very low cost via a completely secure private network. “To know the status of their inventory, customers access Easy WMS with a password,” explains Javier García.

Casintra has also implemented radio-frequency technology in all its warehouses. Through the use of RF terminals, the WMS tells operators what to do with each of the products (where to pick and deposit them, etc.), minimising the risk of making mistakes. With this system, communication with the WMS is extremely fluid: operators receive the orders and merely confirm that they have been fulfilled to receive more. “The terminals are very intuitive and require little training,” highlights Javier García.

Control of operations

According to Casintra’s Operations Manager, “Easy WMS has provided us with multiple advantages, among which I would emphasise strict control of all processes, such as goods receipt, internal movements and order prep.”

Casintra’s warehouses receive an average of 1,000 pallets a day (600 in the four installations in Asturias and 400 in the one in Barcelona), which the operators identify one by one. They simply scan the barcode with the RF terminal, and the WMS assigns each pallet a location.

“We store a total of 2,000 SKUs,” notes Javier García. Order and traceability are essential to the management of such a high number of SKUs, especially when dealing with various customers.

Every day at each of the warehouses, operators prepare 70 orders, all containing about 15 lines. To do so, they move up and down the aisles, picking products directly off the pallets on the lower levels of the racks. Easy WMS shows the workers which locations to go to, which products to extract, and in what quantity. Lastly, companies notify Easy WMS of the orders to be sent to customers. The WMS then tells the operators which orders to move to the dispatch area. Every day, a total of 600 pallets are distributed from Asturias, while 170 are shipped from Barcelona.

A connected supply chain

With Easy WMS by Mecalux, Casintra can provide the service its customers expect. The WMS executes precise control of the 2,000 available SKUs and oversees in real time the storage and picking tasks carried out at the five warehouses.

One of the benefits of the cloud version of Easy WMS is connectivity. Using a single system, Casintra can manage all the operations of its five installations, as well as work online with customers and inform them about the status of their stock at any time.

The WMS by Mecalux also stands out for its versatility and scalability, as it adapts to changes and business growth. With Easy WMS, Casintra can open its door to new opportunities.

Javier García - Operations Manager at Casintra
“Easy WMS carries out extremely strict monitoring of our warehouse operations and can be integrated with our customers’ systems. This adds value to our portfolio of services.”

Advantages for Casintra

• Multi-warehouse management: with its high-performance servers in the cloud, Easy WMS manages all the firm’s installations in Asturias and Barcelona without error.
• Multi-client warehouses: Easy WMS precisely controls the 2,000 items of all the 3PL operator’s customers and assigns them a location based on their SKU, demand level and characteristics.
• Connection with customers: Casintra can work online with its customers so that they can know the status of their products whenever they wish.
• Rigorous process control: the RF terminals enable good communication between workers and Easy WMS. The WMS tells the operators what to do with the 1,000 pallets received daily and how to prepare all the orders in the fastest way possible.