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Cloud Technology has led to a quantum leap with regards to Warehousing – The Cloud allows Warehouse Management Systems to transcend the traditional physical borders of the actual warehouse, and to evolve both up-stream and down-stream into a holistic view of the entire supply chain. Logistics Reply supports Retailers, Manufacturers and Third Party Logistics through leveraging the full potential of The Cloud to improve product visibility and delivery agility along their entire supply chain – and quickly developing agile, innovative, market-leading service technologies that allow its Customers to deliver a best-in-class service.
Consumers today demand exceptional agility from Retailers, who now need constantly to adapt to elevated expectations by continuously changing and expanding their services – noticeable examples of which include:
In addition, all of those scenarios must provide for the handling of Returns (which the Customer may send back via any one of the above Sales Channels, and not necessarily via the same Channel on which the Product was originally sent out!)
From a logistical point of view, this kind of demand requires an In-Store Stock Management System setup that includes the real-time ability to reallocate items instantly to a variety of channels (eCommerce, Click & Collect, Transfer etc). Movement Of Stock used to be a logistical challenge that was managed only at the Warehouse level – but one of the consequences of Online is that Retail Stores now require solutions which offer Warehouse Management-type capabilities – that provide the product visibility and distribution agility required to deliver against modern Customer Demands.
Retailers who also sell Product online are facing further challenges – Customers increasingly expect to find everything in one place and have it delivered without delay, so Retailers need to be able to offer Product for sale on their Website, even though that Product may not currently be stocked in their own Warehouse. The solution is Dropship: via Dropship the Customer can order third-party goods via the Retailer’s own website – and whilst all Customer communication runs through the Retailer, the Product itself is shipped by a Third-Party Supplier directly. This requires an extension of the Retailer’s warehouse management system’s visibility – all the way through to the Supplier Warehouse to handle Dropship Delivery, and of course Returns.
The Manufacturing industry is confronted with the need to compress lead times to the Retailer, and a trend towards personalised products. Both require a strong integration of the Retailer’s warehouse management system with that of the Manufacturer, and the Raw Materials Suppliers, to ensure maximum efficiency. The goal is a Total Visibility of Stock, reaching from Raw Supplier, via Manufacturer, to Retailer and all the way down to the End Consumer at the Delivery Location.
Due to its immutable nature, Blockchain offers many opportunities for Supply Chain management and tracking. Blockchain has emerged as a promising technology offering a secure means to achieve Authentication, Proof Of Provenance, Proof Of Ownership and Documentation Of Transactions.
Logistics Reply supports Retailers in adapting to the changing market environment by designing systems for the Warehouse of the Future (which operate up-stream and down-stream from the Warehouse, all along the Supply Chain). A Warehouse Management Systems can no longer be a monolithic beast, but needs to be an agile engine of Business Services and Functionality – supporting as an open and flexible platform all activities along and around the supply chain.
In this context, Reply has developed the new LEA (Logistics Execution Architecture). The LEA platform, enabler of Reply’s solutions, is a technology cloud-based platform that facilitates the development of new applications and addresses the principles of Industrie 4.0.
The platform allows a standalone ‘App-isation’ of formerly monolithic systems, and translates the new Warehouse Service support requirements into Apps/Modules – such as Supplier Portals, Single Overview of Stock, Hub, Last-Mile Delivery and Store Logistics solutions.