Panalpina has reached a new milestone in the roll-out of its single JDA warehouse management system (WMS) across all of its logistics facilities around the world. Two weeks ago, the 50th site went live with JDA WMS in Lyon, France. Shortly before that, JDA WMS was implemented at two facilities in the USA and Belgium. These sites in Newtown (Connecticut) and Brussels are part of a global distribution network for the healthcare customer IBA. The company announced that implementation at more sites including Singapore will follow soon.
Mike Wilson, global head of Logistics and Manufacturing at Panalpina, commented: “We’ve come a long way since 2012 when we decided to implement one standard warehouse management system for our roughly 90 facilities globally. Lyon in France marked the 50th site to go live with JDA WMS, so we are more than half way there.”
He added: “The speed at which we can implement JDA WMS at an existing or new site, combined with the increasing interconnection of those sites and the powerful functionalities of the system, allow us to efficiently grow our business. IBA is a perfect example of this.”
Panalpina offers value-added warehousing and global transportation services to the medical device company IBA from its new hub at Brussels Airport. Additional Panalpina facilities in Newtown (Connecticut) and Singapore act as regional distribution centres for IBA. Newtown has been running on JDA WMS since last November, Brussels followed suit in December and Singapore will join by March. Panalpina developed its own deployment model for JDA WMS in order to offer customers like IBA a standardized approach and consistent implementation process across the globe. Additional distribution centres for IBA that would also run on JDA WMS are now being considered for Japan, China, Russia and Argentina.
IBA relies on Panalpina for the installation and maintenance of a growing number of proton therapy cancer centres across the world. The company has very diverse transportation needs where quality service and short lead-times are crucial. According to Panalpina, its 24/7 emergency set-up and the use of JDA WMS ensure that spare parts are picked, packed and shipped in the fastest and most effective way possible. Panalpina also uses the system to track and compare the performance of its four-wall operations globally and then works towards benchmarks, for example in terms of very high inventory accuracy.
Oliver Conzelmann, corporate head of contract logistics at Panalpina, said: “JDA WMS allows us to streamline global operations, optimize service levels as well as inventories for our customers and grow with them”.
Source: Panalpina Group