Jewellery maker PANDORA is achieving 90% picking productivity improvements at its pan-European distribution centre (DC) since implementing Accellos warehouse management software from BalloonOne.
The supply chain IT company implemented the warehouse management system (WMS) at PANDORA’s Distribution Centre in Hamburg, Germany, in just three months – an undertaking that would normally take several years.
BalloonOne integrated the WMS with PANDORA’s Microsoft Dynamics AX enterprise resource planning software, which by itself could not keep up with the fast pace and scale of the warehouse operation.
“We are now into peak season as we fulfil orders for Christmas. We are also launching new products so we need to be as productive as possible. Our primary key performance indicator for productivity is the number of pieces picked an hour. We can see that by comparing year-on-year performance we are seeing picking improvements as high as 90%,” commented Kristian Willumsen, vice president, Supply Chain Development, PANDORA.
“I really appreciate the attitude the BalloonOne team displayed in helping us despite the very short timeline. The quality of design, specification and documentation was excellent. We received the benefits of their experience in helping our DC people develop their ideas about how they could achieve our goals of establishing a world class leading operation.”
Together with the new WMS, PANDORA has implemented new picking strategies to suit the different types of order, which enable productivity improvement. For example, 80% of orders are fulfilled using pick-and-pass, a technique used when there are a high volume of product lines in each pick. While for orders of five product lines and less the company uses a batch picking method.
PANDORA has also taken the opportunity to use the Accellos implementation to automate its invoicing process, which has released several full time staff to work elsewhere in the DC.
PANDORA designs, manufactures and markets hand finished, modern jewellery made from genuine materials at affordable prices. PANDORA jewellery is sold in more than 70 countries on six continents through approximately 10,300 points of sale, including approximately 950 concept stores. Founded in 1982 and headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark, the company employs over 6,900 people worldwide – 4,900 of employees are located in Gemopolis, Thailand, where the company manufactures its jewellery.
