Cémoi uses Reflex WMS to manage its five logistics warehouses in real time

Cémoi, a Reflex WMS client since 1999, migrated five of its warehouses—in France and Spain—to Reflex Web in 2018. The real-time activity management dashboards give site managers relevant indicators to measure logistics performance, as well as alerts if targets are missed or problems arise so they can immediately trigger corrective or preventive measures.

Context and objectives

Cémoi, an independent family-owned business for three generations, is France’s number-one chocolate manufacturer. The company has 23 sites in Europe, the United States, Africa, and Asia and it employs 3,400 people worldwide. Cémoi is the only major French chocolate manufacturer that still controls the entire supply chain, from cacao plantation to finished product. It manufactured 260,000 tonnes of chocolate in 2017 and has revenues in excess of €800 million.

Logistics is a vital part of Cémoi’s operations. The firm procures, takes delivery of and stores all its own raw materials, semi-finished and finished products, and packaging. It ships its products to large retailers (B2C) and industrial processors (B2B) from nine sites. Four of these sites (three in France and one in the United States) are outsourced, and the firm owns the other five (four in France and one in Spain) outright. In 1999, the company opted for Reflex WMS (running on AS/400 servers) to manage its owned sites, measuring a combined 55,000 m² and with total storage capacity of 70,000 pallet rack locations.

The solution

Cémoi’s management team began exploring the idea of migrating to Reflex Web in late 2016, so the firm could harness the solution’s new features—not least real-time logistics activity management—and benefit from the more intuitive interface. The company embarked on the migration process in Q1 2017, setting up a dedicated team—consisting of a project manager, logistics site managers, the Group Logistics Director and the Chief Information Officer (CIO)—to conduct a functional requirements assessment. The CIO underwent Reflex Web training then configured the solution, working closely with the group’s logistics teams. In April 2018, Cémoi switched four of its warehouses (Châteauneuf-sur-Loire, Arras and Mâcon in France, plus Palleja in Spain) over to the new solution. It also migrated its factory in Troyes, France, with a special configuration for production and warehousing of 20,000 pallet rack locations of raw materials, semi-finished and finished products, and packaging.