As the first company in Norway, Fjellsport implements an integrated EWM solution on S/4HANA for handling the warehouse in Sandefjord.
About Fjellsport:
Fjellsport has experienced a significant growth in recent years and offers Norway's largest selection of quality products to anyone who enjoys hiking and the outdoors. They are part of the Outnordic group, they have the largest outdoor stores in the Nordic region, with operations in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Germany.
In 2018, Fjellsport had a turnover of 340 million.
In December 2018, it was announced that Fjellsport and the Swedish company Outnorth would merge into a joint parent company with Egmont as the majority owner. The e-Commerce companies have a combined turnover of more than 1 billion SEK and become a leader in the Nordic region.
“This project was important to us because logistics is a key to satisfied customers. Both with very fast deliveries (we already offer same-day delivery in Oslo), control of what we have in stock, faster procurement of new products and the fewest possible delivery errors. At the same time, it gives us opportunities to develop the systems faster than before. The world is sure to change in the future as well ... »
- Eric Sandtrø, CEO of Fjellsport AS
Embedded Warehouse Management
SAP has had various warehouse management solutions, and when SAP S/4HANA came on the market in 2016, Embedded Extended Warehouse Management (EWM) was introduced. By having an integrated EWM solution as a built-in application component in S/4HANA, you have a far more cost-effective way for a company to manage and optimize its storage operations. This provides a number of advantages due to a more integrated and efficient inventory management model.
The choice for integrated EWM was made because Fjellsport already uses SAP S/4HANA as its ERP solution. EWM can be implemented a fully integrated solution, using the SAP Switch Framework.
Fjellsport uses AutoStore in its warehouse, and EWM communicates very well with this solution. Pearl has collaborated with AutoStore in several other projects, where EWM has also been used, and has had a very good experience with this.
AutoStore is a Norwegian company that has its roots in the distribution of electronic components. They got the idea that it might be possible to switch to storing items likw in a rubrics cube instead of on traditional shelves. This way you don't have to have space between the shelves, and the storage has more capacity.
"Fjellsport works actively to streamline processes and the system, and the employees have been involved in adapting the solution and testing the system with us. We at Pearl depend on such customers who take the initiative in the development and implementation process, and they have done a very good job", says Geir Thoresen from Pearl.
It is currently not possible to fully automate the entire Fjellsport warehouse. The main reason for this is, for example, products that are long and difficult to handle with today's robotic technology.
Therefore, there are some products that need to be handled manually such as skis, sleds and the like. The EWM solution supports this, and the goal for Fjellsport is that everything that can be automated in the future.
Pearl has previously had good experience with decentralized EWM, so this integrated EWM implementation on S/4HANA is the first project Pearl has done using this technology. Pearl has learned a lot from the process, which will benefit both Fjellsport and other customers. Pearl has invested in the project to build expertise and experience with the use of EWM, and now sees the benefits associated with how the entire Fjellsport organization gains more control over all the processes involving the warehouse in the value chain.
Pearl has built apps that solve specific tasks for the various roles in Fjellsport and sees that the Fiori interface of SAP works well to develop these. There are still some adjustments that are needed for the solution to be optimal, and Pearl will work with Fjellsport on this in the future.
"We at Fjellsport depend on consultants who have a good system and process control. Pearl has an operational logistics understanding in the field, and this understanding makes it easier to extract synergies in the system. So far, Pearl has managed to live this in a very good way", concludes Eric Sandtrø.
It is crucial for organizations to evaluate the best options for their own individual purposes, but with the flexibility to deploy EWM in multiple ways, SAP has further enhanced the value of one of the most popular inventory management solutions available today. Should you need help choosing the right alternative for your needs, we are here to help you through the process and ensure the best fit for your business.
Pearl has several projects to be realized with other clients for implementing EWM, and we look forward to using the knowledge gained through this project to automate and optimize multiple inventories.
If you are to meet the increased competition in the market and the requirements for efficiency in logistics and warehousing, this is the solution of the future.
Feel free to contact us to talk more about Extended Warehouse Management, both integrated and decentralized, as we are the consultancy firm in Norway with the most expertise in this area.
Sources: