ASKO's System Solution Meets Rapid Growth and High Demands with Integrated and Automated Processes

Multi-channel distribution process

ASKO’s organization is made up of regional companies, each with responsibility for their own results and regional logistics. This has been a successful model that ASKO wanted to preserve. The challenge was to build an IT solution that could handle the entire business, with all its business flows and complexity, and to create Norway’s most powerful and customer-oriented logistics company. In order to succeed with this mission, purchasing had to be consolidated, enabling sales through multiple channels with all orders and invoices visible in all subsidiaries. There was also a need for all goods flowing from suppliers to stores and customers to be managed, with a high degree of control over lead times from central warehouses to regional warehouses, order stop times, and coordination of different flows. From a logistical perspective, it was necessary to implement a multi-level distribution process that could support efficient merge-in-transit and cross-docking during a narrow time window and without bottlenecks occurring.

“To succeed, we needed an intelligent system solution that could coordinate and synchronize supply and demand, and give us the necessary capacity to manage and automate all the different transactions in real-time. At the same time, the solution also had to be built to meet the demands of constant changes and updates”, explains Tom Puntervoll-Pedersen.

Just works without disturbances or interruptions

ASKO´s software selection was a careful process in which several different comprehensive solutions for resource planning were evaluated. The conclusion was, however, that none of the investigated solutions met the company’s high requirements for capacity, functionality, and flexibility. It was against this background that NorgesGruppen instead decided to invest in IMI Supply Chain’s software suite, with order and inventory management at the very core of the solution.

“The capacity of the solution to handle our high volume of transactions in a comprehensive manner was the basis for our choice. The solution is like a highway that goes straight ahead and just works without disturbances or interruptions”, says Are Bakken, adding that the transaction volumes have doubled since the solution was first implemented.

The IMI solution was introduced in phases in 2002 and was fully upgraded across the business in 2007. Since the implementation of the solution, it has been the flexible engine that drives ASKO’s supply process and manages the large flow of goods that are being moved around the clock, every day of the week.

IMI’s solution forms the hub of ASKO’s supply chain, and it is integrated with various subsystems, such as transport systems, basic data systems, and planning systems.

Tom underlines that the solution’s flexibility is a prerequisite for being able to handle ASKO’s complex and dynamic logistics.

“The solution is flexible enough to support our logistics network with sales, procurement, and distribution through multiple channels, and support our service-oriented business model. We are pleased with our systems solution and the great collaboration we have with IMI”, he says.