With approximately 500 sales outlets, LeClerc is one of the largest retail chains in France. The 500 shops are supplied from LeClerc’s 16 Distribution Centres which are strategically located throughout the whole country. Four of the DC’s have fully automated cross docking systems installed by Vanderlande Industries.
Scachap in Ruffec was installed in 2000. The system handles fresh products such as fruit, vegetables, dairy products and meat. Every day approximately 40,000 crates, boxes, cases and trays containing fresh products are delivered to the DC – a total of about 2,000 SKUs from more than 100 suppliers. Because the DC handles fresh products they are temperature controlled.
The following processes take place in the DC:
- Goods Receiving
- Receiving Marshalling
- Inducting
- Sortation
- Delivery Unit Filling
- Shipping Marshalling
- Shipping
Key of the cross docking system of Scachap is that products are not put on stock, but are transshipped directly to the stores. Therefore it is the ideal strategy for fresh products.
Compared with a manual system an automatic cross docking system gives greater efficiency per square meter DC and a considerably higher productivity.