El Florido is a supermarket chain located in Baja California Norte in Mexico, dedicated to the commercialization of meat and grocery products. The business, which started as a meat distributor, achieved great success, to the point of having the need to diversify its portfolio to include other product lines. This facilitated their expansion into cities such as Tijuana, Tecate, Rosarito, Ensenada and Mexicali; they currently have a total of 50 branches.
In order to meet the needs of all the branches, the company decided to create a logistics operator; this is how in 2016 DFL LOGISTICS was born with the purpose of administering and managing the inventory for all the logistics operations that supply the 50 branches, both in groceries and perishable products. Although its sole purpose is to manage the logistics of El Florido, they are currently establishing the BACKHAUL which involves picking up products from suppliers’ factories to speed up delivery times and attract potential customers interested in freight.
About DFL’s operation
DFL has a team of more than 210 people. The business group as a whole employs approximately 3,500 people. In addition, they have two distribution centers of 10,000 square meters each, where 80% of the space is dedicated to groceries and the remaining 20% to perishable products. The company handles a total of 2,500 SKUs in groceries and 120 SKUs in perishable products. In terms of its transportation fleet, the company has 27 vehicles, 42 boxes and 8 double-trailer units.
The challenges of in-house development, reprocessing and serious errors in CeDi
The company decided to look for a solution to overcome the challenges that arose due to the growth and limitations of its internal development. Although its system was user-friendly and functional, it could not efficiently handle the expanding operation. Several errors were detected such as: the existence of phantom inventory, codes that remained in transfer status, difficulties in filling orders, among others. The developers tried to find temporary solutions within the system, but in reality this resulted in a repetitive process that affected the timing and delivery of orders. As these problems became more frequent, the numbers shot up with inconsistencies that seriously impacted the operation.
In addition, measuring productivity in the distribution center was very complex, making it difficult to optimize processes in the operation. All tracking was done manually and relied on tools such as Excel to make estimates. This implied a considerable investment of time.
Considering all the above mentioned problems, the company made the decision to look for a robust tool that could generate reports and automations without difficulties.
How Infor WMS and Cerca Technology Benefit El Florido
After an exhaustive search and selection process, El Florido discovered Infor’s warehouse management system (WMS) tool and technology implementer Cerca Technology. Through referrals and online searches, they went through all the details to choose a WMS that fit the company’s needs.
“What impressed us most was the attention we received from the beginning from Cerca Technology. Their follow-up, interest and involvement were crucial in making the decision. Even when they visited our operations, they understood our needs up close, which translated into a proposal that was very close to reality. We always felt supported,”
said Misael Verduzco, DFL’s Logistics Manager.
“Once the team got to know the Infor WMS interface they mentioned that it was very intuitive and easy to use, making the adaptation process easier compared to other systems.”
Wilson Ortiz, Professional Services Manager, Mexico at Cerca
When talking about the future of the operation, Misael and his team are aware that the implementation of the Infor WMS was only the first step; to get to the performance and processes they want, they need to strengthen the strategies that manage the team’s indicators and the integration of a system that supports transportation management.
Misael, as Logistics Manager, is clear that his main objective is to improve operating times for store assortment. In addition to increasing the fill rate of orders, gaining complete visibility of inventory and supporting the branches with effective sourcing.
Infor’s WMS provides real-time information, which helps our customer measure their processes and productivity accurately. We are confident that this new implementation will be a success story, because as inventory accuracy improves, the entire supply chain will benefit.
