Inventory Storage & Management: Chemicals (Empirica WMS)

WMS Solution for Managed Warehouse Service Operator

Inventory Storage, Management & Planning – Paints & Coatings Manufacturer

Delyn’s customers only pay for the storage and distribution services its business needs which presents a cost-effective alternative to owning or leasing, and managing costly warehouse space and staff.

When Delyn opened for business in 2021 it took over a contract with a large international industrial coatings manufacturer supplying sectors such as construction, shipbuilding, engineering and selected retail customers. The customer was using the Empirica WMS Warehouse Management System from Chess Logistics Technology (now part of WMS expert, Principal Logistics Technologies) and needed to make a decision whether to continue using Empirica WMS.
 

Inventory quality assurance & batch traceability

 
Although there are relatively few base products, the choice of tints means that many hundreds of different shades can be produced at any time. To track these for efficient stock control, and enable robust quality assurance and batch traceability, details of the transformation of each product must be logged onto the warehouse system.

Business applications are integrated with the manufacturer’s own systems and with Empirica WMS Warehouse Management Software to create a seamless and efficient environment supporting information exchange. In addition to supporting conventional warehouse operations, Empirica WMS provides the onsite mixing and preparation of industrial coatings.
 

“We were able to secure the contract because this system was in place. We could not have done it without Empirica and support from Chess. The Empirica system was recommended by our IT team.”

“Its a good system and does everything we wanted. For us it’s a time-saver and an efficiency system as well as a stock management system.” 
Lloyd Davies, Director, Delyn Warehousing.

Inventory Optimisation: Same day order processing

Base products arrive on pallets from the manufacturer’s production facilities throughout Europe. Empirica WMS manages incoming stock control processes and ensures items are allocated to suitable storage locations for optimum use of available space in the 41,000ft² (3,800m²) paint warehouse. Industrial customers place orders with the manufacturer with details of their requirements and specification. Once processed, information about an order is transferred to the warehouse and the preparation work is scheduled. In most cases orders are prepared the same day.
 

WMS Manages Inventory – stock movement & changes

Quality Control: New product creation, a critical process step

 
Information retained by Empirica WMS, in conjunction with Delyn Warehousing’s own business applications, can be used for batch tracing and quality assurance audits if required.
 

Stock – Inventory storage reduced or requirement removed

The new products are matched to the original order and released for return to the storage area or transfer to the warehouse’s order assembly area for preparation and for delivery to customers by third-party carriers. In most cases there is no need to send the items for storage as the processes in the warehouse are designed to despatch items as soon as they are ready.
 
 
 

Seamless systems integration across WMS & customer systems

“We have to change the stock information on Empirica to reflect the new product. The tinting system is quite specialised so we needed something that met our unique requirement.”

“The team at Chess ensured their system and ours can talk to the manufacturer’s applications and allow them to place orders. This makes sure that their customers get exactly what they want even though the stock doesn’t exist at the time.” Lloyd Davies, Director, Delyn Warehousing.
 
 

Warehouse Management Software eradicating service disruption

The manufacturer recently upgraded its own applications and this required its supply chain partners to ensure that their own systems would continue to provide a robust interface. Chess worked with Delyn Warehousing to ensure that everything was configured correctly and would work properly. In the event the transition was completed without any issues, which ensured continuity of service and avoided any potential disruptions to the operation.
 

Process Management: Lean & efficient, reduced to a single person!

Thanks to efficient organisation and supporting systems such as Empirica WMS, the service for the industrial coatings manufacturer is lean and efficient. The whole operation is run by a single person leading a team of seven with just two of those regularly using the warehouse management system. Although Delyn Warehousing is currently only using Empirica WMS for its industrial coatings contract the company recognises the potential for other business opportunities as these may arise.
 
 
“We are comfortable that we could expand with Chess Empirica in the future without looking around which is a comfort to us,” says Lloyd Davies. “When you know something works why change it?”

“The feedback from the manufacturer was that they had also done this in four or five other countries and our upgrade was by far the easiest, working first time” says Lloyd Davies. “This solidified our relationship with our customer.”  
Lloyd Davies, Director, Delyn Warehousing.