Supply Chain Excellence Awards 2020: Supply Chain Technology Award Shortlist

The 2020 Supply Chain Excellence Awards take place tomorrow in a virtual ceremony, during which the winner of the Supply Chain Technology Award will be revealed.

• Register here for the 3.30pm broadcast.
• Or register here for the 7.00pm broadcast.

Decathlon with Geek+
Technology from Geek+ delivered impressive results for Decathlon, including a tripling of the average productivity of warehouse teammates, as well as increasing inventory capacity by 40%. The ‘goods-to-person’ solution, using P800 robots from Geek+, introduced a flexibility that was simply not available to Decathlon from other, more traditional, automation set-ups. According to Bruno Thellier, transformation leader at Decathlon: “It’s not so much that Geek+ solved a specific existing problem, but more that they gave us totally new capabilities, offering us efficiencies and improvements that were simply not on the table before we worked with them.”

The judges said that this was a successful project, delivered in rapid time with many client benefits.

Infineon Technologies.
During the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic Infineon Technologies sought to safeguard its the supply chain. The semi-conductor manufacturer addressed the Covid-19 outbreak not as a threat but as an opportunity to boost digital transformation and improve its supply chain management.

The pandemic taskforce, created in the early stages of the pandemic, carefully monitored the situation and help Infineon act accordingly. Its main scope was to forecast the next governmental decisions at Infineon’s relevant countries, in order to estimate the impact on the supply, demand and transit time via estimating  infection and death rates..

The judges praised a well-managed project.

Superdry with Invar Systems and Hikrobot.
To support future growth, global fashion brand, Superdry, is leveraging the flexibility of intelligent mini-robot carriers from Hikrobot to transform order picking and put-away – just part of a phased roll-out of goods-to-person robotics that is set to boost productivity and capacity across its international network of multi-channel fulfilment centres. A successful pilot project for handling e-commerce returns was conducted in 2018, involving six autonomous Hikrobot carriers at the company’s UK distribution centre in Burton-upon-Trent. Following the success of the project, Superdry went on in January 2020 to deploy a further fleet of 20 Hikrobot carriers to handle continental e-commerce returns at its European DC in Belgium.

This spring, the Burton-upon-Trent site saw the installation of 40 more Hikrobot robots in an expansion of the existing goods-to-person system. The enlarged operation handles the entire picking and put-away of womenswear for retail, e-commerce and wholesale. Over 80,000 sq ft of the warehouse has been set out with 1000 transportable pick-wall modules and the area is equipped with a total of twelve pick-to-light stations. Menswear will follow later with an estimated requirement for 60 more robots and expectations are for the further deployment of Hikrobot carriers in Belgium and the USA.

The judges said the entry was a “showcase the adoption of innovation”.

Telefonica (O2).
On the 11th January China reported its first death from Covid-19, just 12 days later, Wuhan, a city of more than 11 million people was on lock down impacting supply chains globally. Telefonica UK supply chain had to react quickly, business continuity was a new business reality. Telefonica said its technology had never been more relevant in bringing together colleagues through collaborative working tools and through their devices.

Discover the full shortlist for the Supply Chain Excellence Awards 2020.

The Supply Chain Excellence Awards 2020 are sponsored by Clipper Logistics; DP World; Geek + and Unipart Logistics.