Case Study Warehouse Management Software
Room for improvement
Hand-made furniture and accessories retailer Neptune has developed and enhanced customer services by implementing the Empirica warehouse management system from Chess to support complete control over inventory at its new consolidated facility in Swindon.
to improve the service performance that leads to an even better experience for our customers. By integrating our systems around Empirica we have exactly what we needed and have been able to introduce some unique innovations into our service.” Neptune has progressed rapidly in recent years to develop an “edited design” concept comprising a complete range for the home including kitchens, bathrooms, furniture and accessories. It sells direct to customers through its website, retail partners, interior designers and through design centres in the UK and overseas. The growth of the business since its first
N 62 March 2014
eptune’s head of operations Matthew Talbot says: “When we moved to the new site we looked at what we needed
designer kitchen range in 2007 has been dramatic. Turnover has increased from £8m to £23m, and the workforce has risen from 85 to 140 in the past two years alone. While the business was relatively small,
information to support processes could be managed manually using conventional office systems. But when growth and business development led the company to consolidate four sites into a single operation with offices, showroom and distribution centre in Swindon, it recognised something far more sophisticated would be required. “We were experiencing double-digit growth
and couldn’t run the business on spreadsheets any longer,” says Matthew Talbot. “We saw that a warehouse management system working with RF devices and barcodes would be useful in various parts of the business.”
www.shdlogistics.com CAPABILITIES TO COPE
Many processes relied on effective inventory management. Beyond stock control and order picking these included quality control inspections, product refinishing to remedy minor quality issues, rework to prepare bespoke items for customers, deliveries and returns, supporting e-commerce and the onsite retail outlet, and enabling stock visibility for partners. These processes were managed by various applications, including a dedicated ERP system developed by the company’s in-house programming team, but there was little integration and many relied on paper-based controls. “I had worked with Chess before and knew their Empirica system had the features we needed and the capabilities to cope with our volumes
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