Migros Online, the online supermarket of Switzerland’s largest retail company Migros, has achieved significant improvements by augmenting its RELEX Solutions’ forecasting and replenishment solution with an advanced capacity management capability. The RELEX solution now automatically levels the incoming flow of goods to its warehouses, which enables the company to better balance and plan labor schedules according to their needs.
Migros Online is an online-only supermarket offering over 37’500 product-locations through its web and mobile platforms. Every day, the company ships approximately 400,000 items to its customers’ homes.
Migros Online first started working with RELEX Solutions in 2017. By implementing the RELEX forecasting and replenishment solution for all its assortments, including ultra-fresh products, the e-grocer was able to improve availability, increase automation, reduce spoilage, and cut the out-of-stock rate for promotional products by 50%. These strong initial results showed Migros Online that more extensive use of the RELEX platform’s capabilities would also help tackle issues around capacity planning.
By leveraging the advanced capacity management solution in RELEX, which automatically balances incoming deliveries of ambient and frozen products, the e-grocer has achieved up to:
- 20% reduction of deliveries on weekdays on peak days compared to average
- Up to 37% reduction in fluctuation between weekdays relative to the average
The retailer’s main suppliers typically deliver large shipments of goods just before the weekends. Because of this practice, the company experienced strong workload peaks in its warehouses.
With the new solution in place, Migros Online is now able to achieve a much more level flow of incoming goods, reducing the fluctuation between weekdays by up to 37% on average and reducing deliveries on weekdays by 20%. This is not only good news for the Migros Online employees, who experience fewer stressful peaks in their daily work, but has also paved the way to optimize agreements with the retailer’s suppliers.
With improved capacity management and optimized delivery flows, Migros Online was able to drive significant operational improvements, including:
- balanced workloads at its 3 warehouses
- fewer staff availability issues on Fridays, when most deliveries occur
- optimized delivery plan agreements with suppliers.
“Delivery flow smoothing by RELEX has made a striking difference in increasing the visibility of our capacity planning,” says Régis Hamon, Chief Operating Officer at Migros Online. “Now, we can plan our resourcing for receiving goods at the warehouses well in advance. Not only does this solve capacity issues and bottlenecks that were hindering us as an employer, but it also adds to the well-being of our employees, as peak times are less stressful now. Our notoriously busy Fridays have become much more manageable, which has added to the job satisfaction of our teams.”
“Smoothing the delivery peaks makes the work related to handling goods easier to plan proactively. RELEX does this automatically using AI while making sure availability targets are met,” says Stefano Scandelli, SVP EMEA & APAC at RELEX Solutions. “We are thrilled to provide additional value for our long-standing customer and Switzerland’s leading online supermarket, Migros Online.”