Video transcription

In the Grégoire Besson logistics centre, a French multinational specialised in manufacturing farm equipment, everything is organised by a criterion of maximum throughput and increased productivity.

Gabin Guegan - SPARE PARTS MANAGER
This project had to fix a problem area, centralising spare parts dispatches from the six different manufacturing plants of the Grégoire Besson group. And, we also wanted to step-up outputs, which is the bottom-line for selling our equipment. So, we checked out different suppliers to try to get past both logistics, and IT issues. And, soon it was clear that Mecalux, with it solid grip on project management, was the way to go.

The outcome is a highly organised, 4,500 m2 warehouse with very streamlined order picking.

Gabin Guegan - SPARE PARTS MANAGER
A potential business partner would need to deliver a comprehensive technical solution that could take on everything from storing small parts, like a single bolt, up to 5 m high boxes. So, we chose a triple storage solution: pallet racks for heavy and large-sized parts set on Europallets; the miniload warehouse for storing high rotation spare parts, which represents 70% of our products; and, lastly, cantilever racks to store bulky products.

The storage zone features versatile pallet racks that adapt to a wide variety of SKUs of distinct rotations, sizes and volumes. These racks store both palletised goods and containers.

Upper levels hold reserve products. Meanwhile, locations on the bottom have pallets to pick off. Some of these racks include slide-out platforms to deposit containers on, facilitating picking for operators.

These 7.6 m high racks have a capacity to locate more than 4,400 pallets.

The miniload warehouse is composed of two aisles with double-deep racking on both sides that measure 47 m long, 9 m high and have 17 levels that house more than 10,000 boxes.

A stacker crane runs in each aisle, inserting and extracting goods from the locations automatically, according to the instructions of the Galileo control system. These machines work at speeds of 180 metres a minute and include an extraction system with telescopic forks that reach into second pallet positions.

The frontal warehouse area includes a roller conveyor circuit that shifts goods to the two picking stations, where waves of four orders are prepared at once.

Gabin Guegan - SPARE PARTS MANAGER
These days, our order prep is done in one fluid motion. That said, we still wanted to anticipate business growth at the Grégoire Besson group and deal with seasonal peaks in manufacturing. We can now accept orders an hour or more later than we use to with the miniload warehouse, meaning our throughput in higher since order picking takes less time.

The area with cantilever racking rounds out the solutions set up by Mecalux to offload over-sized products. These stand 5 m high and consist of columns and cantilever arms to rest the loads on.

A consolidation zone on the side of the warehouse is where orders are sent to be verified, then packaged and labelled.

The automatic management of the goods is done through the Easy WMS warehouse management system.

Gabin Guegan - SPARE PARTS MANAGER
Using the Easy WMS software, we have improved the quality of our in-warehouse logistics flows, both in receptions and dispatches. Our operators work autonomously, thanks to the task-by-task guidance of the system, from picking items up to loading the lorries. When we sat down with Mecalux to do a functional analysis, we planned out a certain number of functionalities suited to Grégoire Besson, like automatic printing of packing lists or management of supplier batch codes. This collaboration didn’t end there. We are still developing functionalities together to facilitate the day-to-day work of our personnel.

In front of the pallet racks is a reception and dispatch zone, where orders are closed before being loaded onto the lorries.

The multinational Grégoire Besson needed a long-term business partner to face its recent growth. Mecalux has answered the call by implementing effective, adaptable solutions, which means the company has topped out productivity thanks to efficient picking, a high storage capacity and a custom-fit warehouse management system.