Urgo

As one of the leading companies in France and Europe in the plaster, healing, and cold treatment market, Urgo chose the a-SIS' LM7^® software to equip its new warehouse in Chevigny Saint Sauveur (Burgundy).

A new site for production and logistic activities

A new growth lever
In 2005, Urgo invested in a new industrial and logistic site in Chevigny Saint Sauveur (21) to maintain its position in France and to continue its international development in healing and wound treatment, from everyday sores to serious wounds.
The factory in Chevigny was designed to correspond to the current and future requirements of Urgo and of its customers. So the necessary changes were made in particular the creation of a state-of-the-art logistic centre ensuring the direct distribution to 24000 customers including 20 000 pharmacies.

Constraints and aims of the new logistic site

The flows processed in Chevigny St Sauveur concern pallets of finished products which leave the factory on the same site or which come from external sites. The boxes and pallets are dispatched to hospitals, wholesale dealers, distributors (B to B), pharmacies in France and abroad as well as to our subsidiaries.
The main challenge for the WMS : controlling the optimization of the picking orders to increase the service rate for the customers while maintaining delivery and picking times. It was also necessary to ensure the reliability and the control at the output of the boxes before dispatch. Urgo wanted to maximise productivity using the available capacities day after day while smoothing the work load: no workshop should be under-used.

Choosing LM7®
After an invitation to tender, LM7^® was chosen as it represented “the best compromise between a wide range of functions and the ability to adapt to URGO's specific needs”. It suited the performance requirement: to manage the daily fluctuations of 35%, to ensure response times of less than 10 seconds for split case prints managed in peel-off, a calculation time for replenishment which is shorter than the box transport time, communication time with box handling of less than 2 seconds, and data exchange with the Level3 (SAP) of less than 5 minutes.

Implementation of the new solution

Interfaces and checking
LM7^® manages the whole order preparation circuit including: the control of a mechanised conveyor for split case and full case boxes with the management of several picking stations, a picking area for voluminous products and complete pallets (replenishment of picking areas managed by LM7^®or not), and finally palletisation before box dispatch.
The LM_WCS, module integrated into the LM7^® package, was especially used to control the mechanised conveyor (box flow), the stacker cranes (location selector) and the pick to light displays.

Complete control of warehouse processes
LM7^® optimizes the stock positions considering all the product constraints : rotation class, risk class, distribution to different aisles …. LM7^® manages all stock operations: entries, exits, internal flows, replenishment, picking, inventory, as well as the data exchange with SAP.

Total traceability
Goods flow management and batch traceability were required by Urgo and are completely integrated into the standard LM7^® functions and for every logistic process. So the recording of the batch numbers in the picking area is monitored at each pick, which ensures real time product traceability.

Extremely positive results
The main challenge for Urgo was to obtain an efficient solution from the first day of implementation respecting the deadlines established during the project carrying out all the tests required for pharmaceutical validation of a high performance solution.
LM7^® ensured that Urgo could handle on its own its highest annual activity peak just two months after going live.
The upgradeability the activity monitoring tools was an important feature thanks to an interesting transfer of skills.
For Urgo there is no doubt: the a-SIS' expertise is outstanding especially as far as the availability and the high level of skills of the project team are concerned.