Intralogistics at the service of performance

On October 17, the Intralogistics Commission organized, in partnership with Grand Paris Sud, a day of sharing best practices in intralogistics.

The morning was punctuated by lectures from various speakers:

• Isabelle HAUTANT, Director and Pierre VEYER, Manager at Argon Consulting
• Vincent RICCI, Business Development Director, Supply Chain France, XPO Logistics
• Justine BAIN-THOUVEREZ, lawyer specialized in energy law for LLC Avocats & Associés
• Franck LAMAS, R&D Director, Logistics Buildings, IDEC Group

The exchanges continued in the afternoon with two site visits: Sarenza and Private Showroom.

Automation,
at the service of e-commerce

Intralogistics is at the heart of the development of e-commerce. Picking activities for individual orders are much more complex than for traditional pallet orders. Automation has a particular influence on performance.

The capital increase that accompanies automation projects leads to automate with discernment, selecting high-stakes activities without trying to automate everything. In particular, robotisation is appropriate for picking and order preparation activities in e-commerce, whereas traditional technologies are often appropriate for traditional B2B logistics (i.e. per pallet).

Sponsorship, realism, involvement of the different actors are all essential factors in complex projects: company project, aligned actors, shared convictions.

A mini-survey proposed to the participants highlighted the concerns usually encountered in investment projects:

What's stopping you today from starting a mécanisation  project?

4 fundamentals
for a good implantation

During his presentation, Vincent Ricci shared 4 fundamental principles to automate his warehouse:

• Being obsessed with customer satisfaction
• Finding time and money to access new technologies
• Mastering data
• Operating innovations

Customer Satisfaction

Many constraints weigh on the Supply Chain to meet customer needs, whether B2B or B2C:

New technologies

For a logistics company like XPO, the investment in technology solutions is $550 million/year - far less than the IT investments made by pure players.

The combination of transport management tools (TMS) and warehouse management tools (WMS) is a must.

Using data

Data has a central role in automation and resource optimization, such as capturing data via IoTs or through integration with various upstream systems, combining data to better predict demand and saturate capacities, facilitating interactions with (mobile) employees or robots to benefit from automation.

Innovations

The main innovations relate to areas such as Plant 4.0, order management software, environmental optimisation of packaging, warehouse automation, etc. It is also wise to use 3PLs that have the capacity to make and return on the necessary investments in technology.

These solutions include, for example, the re-internalization of textile activities with low MO content, which will allow small production to be carried out as closely as possible to optimize environmental issues.

Integrate
energy performance

According to Franck Lamas, energy performance is becoming more and more important in companies, particularly with the RT 2012-2020 regulation.

On the other hand, buildings will be required to consume more, under the constraint of automation, recharging of electric vehicles, improvement of staff comfort with more lit, more heated buildings...

The sustainable reduction of consumption therefore requires a change in energy policy. Efficient and sustainable solutions exist, and it is up to companies to put energy performance at the heart of their concerns.

In terms of renewable energy, photovoltaics is very suitable for cold storage, with a ROI even in regions with little sunlight. This technology is supported by new regulations that lead companies to equip their buildings with photovoltaic devices or green roofs. The obligation is already in force for new buildings larger than 1,000m².

Heating accounts for a growing share of the consumption of buildings, with technologies that have not progressed for many years. Geothermal energy is a very efficient solution for heating warehouses with an average 60% reduction in consumption.