The story in a nutshell
- Vandemoortele needed to optimize and digitalize warehouse operations to handle high order volumes and reduce errors.
- Implemented TeamViewer’s pick-by-vision solution in five distribution centers.
- Hands-free, 100% cloud-based operation with smart glasses, and improved workflow efficiency.
- Achieved faster warehouse processes, picking around 200,000 boxes per month.
- Benefits include near-zero picking error rate, faster onboarding, improved ergonomics, and seamless SAP integration.
- Expanded the solution to more warehouses, even in deep-freeze conditions, with enhanced voice control and visual aids for different SKUs.
Challenges
Vandemoortele, a leading European producer of bakery products and margarines, culinary oils, and fats, serves customers from food service and retail to industry and artisan bakery across the continent. Due to rising demands from customers and strains on supply chains, the company faced challenges in optimizing and digitalizing its warehouse operations.
- With a high volume of bulk orders, ensuring efficiency and accuracy in the picking process became ever more crucial — any error can easily result in significant costs.
- Manual, partly paper-based processes led to inefficiencies, potential picking errors, and ergonomic concerns for warehouse operators.
- Onboarding was costly and time-consuming.
- Deep-frozen warehouse environment required a flexible, ergonomic, customizable yet scalable solution.
The company sought a digital solution to streamline operations while maintaining the highest standards of customer satisfaction.
Koen Paeye Logistics Manager at Vandemoortele
“At Vandemoortele, we constantly strive to improve our operations to better serve our customers’ needs. Introducing TeamViewer’s pick-by-vision solution was the key to digitalizing our operations and taking efficiency, accuracy, and sustainability of our warehouse logistics to a new level.”
Solution and results
To address these challenges, Vandemoortele implemented TeamViewer’s pick-by-vision solution Frontline Pick in five of its distribution centers in Belgium and France, fully replacing legacy paper-based and pick-by-voice processes. Operators are equipped with head-mounted smart glasses that now display clear, real-time instructions on which items to pick next. The solution guides workers through every step, from picking to pallet packing, ensuring stability and efficiency.
The key features of Frontline Pick include:
- Hands-free operation: Workers use voice commands, keeping both hands free for tasks such as picking and pallet truck operation.
- Cloud-based implementation: 100% SaaS solution required no local installation, allowing seamless integration with Vandemoortele’s SAP warehouse management system.
- Improved guidance and workflow efficiency: Operators receive clear visual instructions, reducing the risk of errors and improving overall accuracy, covering even the most complex customer requirements like splitting or layering pallet orders.
Outcome and benefits
Since implementing pick-by-vision, Vandemoortele has achieved remarkable improvements in its warehouse operations:
- Faster execution of warehouse processes, enabling quicker order fulfillment and a quick ROI. Today, Vandemoortele picks around 200,000 boxes per month with Frontline Pick.
- Near-zero picking error rate, leading to an up to 70% drop in the number of customer complaints since the introduction and ultimately enhanced customer satisfaction.
- Faster onboarding: Use of monitoring function enables employee shadowing and support on the fly, reducing onboarding from up to 10 days to half a shift. User-friendly and intuitive software also helps to quickly get new staff up to full productivity.
- Flexible regional scalability: Language support for French and Flemish, among many other languages. Customizable voice commands to even adapt to specific local accents.
- Improved ergonomics for operators, reducing strain and increasing workplace efficiency.
- Seamless integration with existing SAP systems, ensuring smooth workflow adoption and advancing the digital transformation strategy.
- Stock check pop-ups within the picking flow improve inventory count.
- Scalability: Vandemoortele has expanded the solution from one to four more warehouses, all of which operate in deep-freeze conditions at temperatures as low as -20°C. Roll out took place during the 24/5 shifts within 3-5 days.
- Enhanced voice control: The solution's voice control functionality has been particularly beneficial in these extreme environments, enabling operators to work efficiently without needing to remove gloves or manually interact with devices.
- Many different SKUs: Adding visual elements such as product pictures make work more intuitive and less error prone, providing an advantage over previously used methods.
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