How Albert Heijn handles over one million order lines daily

Albert Heijn is the leading food retailer in the Netherlands with more than 1 000 stores, and is also part of the world-leading global food retail group Ahold Delhaize.

Warehouse management

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With IMI’s Warehouse Management System, Albert Heijn operates one of the fastest-moving supply chains on the market, leveraging cross-docking and differentiated picking strategies to turn the inventory extremely fast, thereby ensuring fresh products and high availability in the stores.

The distribution centers operate fully integrated with voice-picking and automation equipment, and the warehouses process and deliver well over a million store order lines per day. A long-running strategic cooperation with IMI product development has resulted in a solution that is almost entirely free from customized software code.

We are focusing on vested partnerships in our vendor eco system that is built on trust. IMI is one of these partners.

Ralf Erbacher

Manager Global IT Sourcing & Vendor Management, Albert Heijn

The challenge

Albert Heijn needed to manage a complex warehouse operation where picking strategies, warehouse layouts and throughput times varied depending on market and store format. At the same time they were looking to replace their own, functionally rich system while ensuring support for a high-speed warehouse management operation.

Solution

With IMI’s WMS, Albert Heijn implemented a solution which integrated voice picking and support for warehouse automation. The setup includes two central warehouses and four regional distribution centres, enabling them to handle more than one million order lines per day.

The result

The result was an improved logistics performance. Albert Heijn can today process over one million order lines per day, reduce stock levels for fresh goods to less than two days, and shorten the lead time from order to delivery to under 18 hours. The faster turnover has also increased available store selling space. Overall, this has created a more efficient and scalable supply chain that supports continued growth.

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