Blog

Industry 4.0: is the WMS a new quality tool ?

An expert opinion from experienced Manufacturing Consultant Joseph Dhuicq. Quality management tools (QMTs) such as PDCA, Pareto chart, 8D, 5S, Poka Yoke, Ishikawa, Six Sigma, Kaizen, 5P, FMECA and Kanban have played a fundamental role for industrial companies since the 60s. But another lesser-known one may soon be joining their ranks: the Warehouse Management System (WMS).

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Deploying a WMS: A major project requiring detailed preparation and management

By Luca Proietto, consultant, and Bertrand Vanlanden, project director, Hardis Group. The success of a WMS deployment project depends on a wide range of factors that go beyond the technical aspects. The company’s organizational and operational characteristics must be taken into account. Change management is required to secure the buy-in of logistics teams. And KPIs are needed to support moni...

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Omnichannel: the essential management of all stocks, wherever they are located

The digitalization of commerce, and the resulting omnichannel nature of business, is leading many companies, in both BtoC and BtoC, to initiate projects to reorganize their supply chains and transform their logistics information systems on a global scale. How to accelerate the deployment of new logistics management tools in several countries? Ronald Schepers, Sales Director of Reflex Logistics ...

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KPIs in logistics warehouses: How customized real-time management helps firms deliver on their customer promise

By Guillaume Dorée, Reflex Solution Consultant, Hardis Group Indicators and dashboards are a way to manage warehouse operations, helping to monitor the progress of operations, continuously improve quality, boost productivity, and gain a detailed understanding of activity more generally. While historical quantitative indicators still have their uses, firms now need customized, shared, real-ti...

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Pharmaceutical logistics: digital technology for improved traceability and patient care

By Luca Proietto, Consultant at Hardis Group. The fight against counterfeiting, quality control and drug identification and authentication are long-standing concerns of the pharmaceutical industry. Although traceability has long been operational in this sector, digital technology now makes it possible to go even further with efforts to secure the supply chain and even to provide patients wit...

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Lockdown 2.0: Crisis, Governance, and Management

By Nicolas Odet, President of Hardis Group This year’s successive lockdowns, and the associated switch to remote working, have provided revealing insights into organizations’ governance and management styles, and into industrial relations more generally. Alongside remote collaboration tools, transparency and trust remain by far the most important predictors of organizational agility and resi...

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Operational excellence in times of global crisis

By Nicolas Odet, President of Hardis Group This year’s lockdowns have placed immense strain on information systems, posing new challenges for operational excellence without seeking to build innovation on shifting sands. In just a few short months, circumstances have prompted organizations—and IT departments—to completely rethink their priorities.

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Logistics and stores: a two-way learning process?

Florian Sauvage Solutions Consultant, Hardis Group During the COVID-19 lockdown, retailers had no option but to make organizational changes—as best they could—to continue serving consumers while complying with government guidance. These changes had substantial knock-on effects across logistics, transport and store operations. Nowhere else was this shift felt more keenly than in stores. What ...

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Clarity of vision and cooperation: the keys to supply chain resilience

By Nicolas Gallée, Business Consulting Director and Florent Boizard, Supply Chain Solutions BU Manager, Hardis Group. In today’s globalized world, supply chains are increasingly vulnerable to disruptions. Building resilience to outside shocks requires businesses to gain clarity of vision all along the supply chain—from end to end—and to cultivate relationships of deep trust with their partne...

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Managing e-commerce returns: six tips for more efficient logistics

By Romain Louis, Product Manager, Hardis Group. Almost all retailers offer a return service for items purchased online, and many use the option as a selling point. Although the service is popular with consumers, it can be a real headache for retailers, with significant logistics costs. Return management is also a vital part of the customer experience. This article explores six tips for effic...

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Managing e-commerce returns: six tips for more efficient logistics

By Romain Louis, Product Manager, Hardis Group. Almost all retailers offer a return service for items purchased online, and many use the option as a selling point. Although the service is popular with consumers, it can be a real headache for retailers, with significant logistics costs. Return management is also a vital part of the customer experience. This article explores six tips for effic...

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Drive-through collection points and dark stores: The time has come to industrialize (logistics) processes

By Pauline Poissonnier, Reflex Solutions Manager, Hardis Group. The Covid-19 pandemic has seen online demand for fast-moving consumer goods go through the roof, with customers picking up their purchases from drive-through collection points or opting for home delivery. Once the crisis abates, maintaining this level of demand will require organizational changes, by food and non-food retailers ...

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Omnichannel supply chain : where do factories fit?

By Jérôme Pedreno, Business Developer, Logistics Solutions, Hardis Group. The growth of marketplaces means that manufacturers are now selling directly to their end clients. Today’s connected, automated factories are no longer merely places where things are made: they are becoming fully fledged logistics hubs where firms process B2B and B2C flows—and pick and ship e-commerce orders. Orchestra...

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What will the logistics warehouse look like a few years from now?

Which technologies will be heavily integrated into warehouses in the future? Some trends are already taking shape such as robotization, automation, artificial intelligence and connected warehouses. It is, however, difficult to imagine that all warehouses will look alike in the future due to the diverse range and ever-changing specific requirements in each sector, types of logistics flows and cu...

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Logistics: anticipating an increase in omnichannel flows

Expert opinion from Nicolas Lucas, Pre-Sales, Reflex Logistics Solutions, Hardis Group. Web-to-store, mobile-to-store, web-in-store, store-to-web… omnichannel retail is in full swing, promising consumers the ability to order from any channel and have items delivered and/or return them however they choose. To deliver this promise, the supply chain needs to reinvent itself to become omnichanne...

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e-commerce: warehouse mechanization in questions

By Florent Boizard, Logistics Solutions Product Manager, Hardis Group 2013 has once again confirmed the trend: e-commerce is doing well. Providing customers' demands in terms of quality of service, delivery times and charges are properly met. For logistics professionals, the organizational challenges are numerous. Can warehouse mechanization respond to these challenges?

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