How automation allows for competitive and scalable fulfilment operations
Sven Thiessen, Chief Supply Chain Officer at Boozt, explains the drivers for automation at the fulfilment centre and how it supports future ambitions.
Just in time for Black Friday and Christmas sales, Boozt finished a significant investment in automation at the warehouse with the fourth expansion of the AutoStore system. It is the largest AutoStore solution in the world with over 1,250 robots and 1.2 million bins. Equally impressive is the own-built warehouse management system that integrates with AutoStore and gives full control. These automation solutions improve efficiency, simplify work routines and ultimately provide customers with best-in-class service and convenience.
In 2017, Boozt installed the first AutoStore system at the warehouse and since then has continued to invest in expanding the solution. What is it that makes automation, and specifically AutoStore, a favourable investment?
Boozt has grown stronger than anticipated over the years and therefore we reached our storage capacity limits sooner than expected. While for some time you can expand within the existing facilities, at one point you need to take a decision on how to make a significant change, i.e. will we build up additional warehouses or improve efficiency in the existing buildings by implementing new technologies.
Implementing a new technology has the advantage of not only providing a solution to the storage capacity constraints but also allows to increase the efficiency of the processes. AutoStore, with the way that it is built, provides an amazing opportunity with regard to this. The original way of warehousing, say 10 years ago, was usually big racking solutions on 4–5 levels, either with pallet shelves or boxes with products. In comparison, AutoStore can hold the same amount of items but uses half the space. It also allows for simultaneously running inbound and outbound processes at the same time.
Expanding to meet business needs
Over the years Boozt has completed four system expansions of the AutoStore to keep up with growth and market demands. Before Black Friday 2022, the final expansion was finished with an additional 252 robots, 294,000 bins and 56 ports.
What has the expansion process been like?
We have three cubes as part of the AutStore solution that have been built in four different stages. Cube 3 is the last and final part of our expansion of the AutoStore and is now up and running. Thanks to our partner Element Logic and our warehouse team, it has been a very smooth process with no delays. We even managed to complete the expansion ahead of time.
We know the AutoStore system very well. Not only have we built the infrastructure but we have also developed the WMS (warehouse management system) that runs the automation together with our Platform team.
What are the advantages of developing your own warehouse management system?
Originally we were using a warehouse management system from our partner Element Logic. As our daily operations became more complex the system was struggling to meet business needs and Element Logic couldn’t provide us with the right technology to keep up with growth. This presented us with an opportunity to build our own system, tailor-made to our needs. Fortunately, we have the resources and competencies in-house to execute on opportunities such as this, with impressive speed. In close collaboration with the Platform team, we designed and built a custom-made WMS. It was rolled out a couple of weeks before Black Friday 2019 and provided us with the needed functionality for our operations.
With our own warehouse management system and its complexity, we have the flexibility and control to scale with short notice. This allows us to be opportunistic and gives us an important competitive advantage.
We have great teamwork with Platform which lets us develop tailored solutions. The teams, both warehouse and platform, are highly motivated and always eager to fix and improve. We are used to working under pressure and they are great at taking on challenges to get things done.
Future priorities
We have had an incredible growth journey in recent years. At the warehouse, we deliver a total of approx. 400 000 products a month to 24 European countries. In other words, a huge task which requires processing solutions that can keep up.
Now that Boozt has completed the final expansion of the AutoStore, what are the main priorities going forward?
Up until now, the biggest focus has been getting through Q4, delivering on time and making sure we provide great convenience to our customers.
We are also currently reviewing our logistics set-up to maximize utilization. That means reviewing everything that is not AutoStore to understand if a process is still needed or if there is potential to improve and make it more efficient. We are also looking into a possible new warehouse and how to set this up in a way that it is a perfect symbiosis of efficiency, sustainability, scalability and flexibility. We are running this project together with a consultancy agency that has experience from a wide range of industries and has done quite extensive work with automation projects.
In such an unpredictable market environment and with the growth journey Boozt has been on, what aspects are important to consider when reviewing and planning so that fulfilment operations meet our future ambitions?
With logistics, you need to have a very long-term view. We are asking questions like “where will we be in 10 years?”, and “what will the Nordic department store look like?”. Perhaps we will sell food or bikes, or couches. These things need to be taken into consideration when planning our future logistics set-up.
When you grow a lot like we have, you focus on expansion but because we grew at such a high pace we did not have the time to take a step back and evaluate if we have a fully integrated concept that can scale and work for the future. This evaluation is what we are focusing on now to make sure we optimize the utilization of Ängelhom as a warehouse, not only AutoStore but everything around it as well. And for that, we will also consider all available technologies and robotics.
