Eva, the Ukraine’s largest chain of health and beauty stores, has seen a fourfold reduction in order-picking errors at its distribution centres since it implemented Infor’s WMS warehouse management system.

New York-based Infor has implemented its WMS in the distribution centres of Eva, which have a total area of more than 77,000 square metres, and by the end of 2020 will exceed 100,000 square metres.

Eva’s stores sell cosmetics, perfumes, hygiene products, body care products, household chemicals, accessories and household goods. At the end of 2019, the chain, founded in 2002 in Dnipro, consisted of slightly fewer than 1000 stores and offered customers more than 30,000 items, including 40 own-brand lines. The company has more than 11,000 employees. More than eight million people are regular customers of Eva stores and members of the Eva Mosaic loyalty programme.

According to Eva’s development plan, in 2020, 150 new stores are set to open, and the number of warehouses should increase from four to six with a simultaneous increase in the available space by almost a quarter. The company is prioritising the fast expansion of ecommerce and, by the end of the year, the estimated number of stock-keeping units (SKUs) for the online segment is set to reach 150,000, and for the offline segment reach 40,000 units. According to calculations, during this period, 350,000 orders will be picked per day at the distribution centres.

To support this growth, the Eva chain needed to replace the old warehouse system that did not provide sufficient backup speed for the corresponding volume of orders, and there were also certain restrictions for owners of business processes. In addition, plans were in the pipeline to create processes that could not be implemented by the existing system. And without the incorporation of modern data collection terminals, it would be difficult to increase the efficiency of business process management.

Therefore, based on the results of a long selection process among the world’s leading warehouse management systems, Infor was chosen. The implementation and its integration with the corporate ERP system – the Qlever Intralogistics conveyor and equipment management system and control module – was performed by LT-Management, a partner of Infor. Currently, 430 employees can simultaneously work in the system and, by the end of the year, the number of users will increase to 680.

“Thanks to the capabilities of Infor WMS and the experience of LT-Management, we were able to implement all the best business practices used in modern distribution centres,” said Denis Zakora, Eva’s warehouse logistics manager. “We transitioned seamlessly to modern working methods and technologies, and now we can maintain high-growth rates that are not limited by the capabilities of the warehouse system. Despite the industrial status of Infor WMS, this system allows our company to introduce new processes and independently open new warehouses.”

The implementation of Infor WMS has led to a four-fold reduction in the number of errors in order picking and a several-fold reduction in the number of complaints from 0.14% to 0.04% of the total volume of orders. Over the year since it was implemented, the enhancement of several business processes has led to a 20% productivity increase in order picking. In addition, the implementation of the WMS means paper technologies, which inevitably reduced the efficiency of the distribution centre conveyor system, are no longer used.

“The architecture of Infor’s warehouse management helps companies seamlessly grow and scale their capacity,” said Dmitry Martynov, Infor’s official representative in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). “In any situation (increasing order volume, product range expansion, increasing number of stores and so on), the solutions will work stably and reliably, meeting all the requirements of the business.”

Oleg Landyshev, project manager of LT-Management, added: “During the implementation of Infor WMS in the distribution centres of the Eva chain, the LT-Management team addressed all the needs of the customer. The company expertly performed the implementation process and integration with corporate systems. As a result, the Infor WMS has provided the distribution centres with the all new technical capabilities necessary for their growth.”

Infor has 17,300 employees and over 68,000 customers in more than 170 countries.