WITRON Transforms Boots’ Store Logistics into Omnichannel Logistics

In just three weeks, Boots, in collaboration with WITRON, transformed the processes in the automated central warehouse from pure store logistics to e-commerce operations. Thus, the Store Service Center (SSC) in Nottingham, where millions of retail units are picked daily from a range of over 37,000 items, not only demonstrates its high performance but also its ability to adapt to rapidly changing conditions.

(Parkstein; Nottingham/GB) Alan Penhale, Supply Chain Director at Boots, is responsible for supplying over 2,300 stores in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. However, since the COVID-19 pandemic, his colleagues have also been picking for the online business of the health and beauty retailer. COVID changed everything. As customers predominantly ordered online during the lockdown, Boots saw over 150 percent more orders in its e-commerce business during the pandemic months. While the British operate their own e-commerce logistics center alongside the SSC, the challenge was to quickly adapt to the rising order numbers. A solution was needed, not in a few years, but immediately.

Online Purchases Increased Rapidly

Part of the solution was the Store Service Center (SSC) in Nottingham, planned and implemented by WITRON. “Here we still had logistics capacities available. At the beginning of the pandemic, customers were still shopping in stores, but during the lockdown, e-commerce numbers rose while foot traffic in stores declined.” Penhale and his colleagues ship beauty products, cosmetics, fragrances, care items, and even Coca-Cola; there are now over 37,000 items.
“Boots needed a creative solution in spring 2020,” reports Jack Kuypers, Vice President North-West Europe at WITRON. Boots and WITRON have been successfully collaborating for over 10 years. The leading pharmaceutical and cosmetics wholesaler is one of the largest retail companies in the United Kingdom, and the teams have previously developed optimizations in processes for the stores. “But we have never experienced anything like this – transforming a logistics center originally designed solely for store deliveries into an omnichannel logistics center at record speed,” Kuypers admits.

Store or Online Customer?

Their answer: The SSC becomes a “store.” Many customers previously ordered their goods online but picked them up in-store, often with items being picked in the shop. The Click + Collect business was the solution during the pandemic. Boots has been using an order management system for several months, which is set up above the warehouse management system. The IT managers simply defined the SSC as a store – admittedly, a huge store with plenty of storage capacity. “Whether employees pick the goods manually in the store in London or with the Dynamic Picking System (DPS) is irrelevant to the software,” laughs Penhale.
The heart of the facility remains the DPS with 252 workstations. The DPS enables highly dynamic and automatic picking of small items supported by a pick-by-light system. The DPS operates on the principle of goods-to-person / person-to-goods. Depending on the order structure, items are permanently or need-based available in the picking front, ensuring it is always optimized. DPS supports various picking methods: from container to container, from pallet to container, from container to shipping carton, etc. Regardless of the type of picking, the picker is guided in all variants by a pick-by-light system. Large-volume items from the Boots range are picked in the SSC with data radio support and route optimization through the semi-automated Car Picking System (CPS) onto roll containers. In total, Boots colleagues in Nottingham pick nearly 3 million units on a peak day. “Our colleagues don’t even know whether they are picking for the e-commerce customer or for the store,” reports Penhale.

New Shipping Area for E-Commerce Orders

However, the teams from WITRON and Boots still had to make some physical changes in the SSC. The logistics team built a new shipping area for e-commerce orders. “At the moment, this area is still supplied manually. But we also want to establish automation here in the near future,” explains the Supply Chain Director.
Within three weeks, the store logistics center was transformed into an omnichannel warehouse. Was he surprised? “No, we have been working very well with WITRON for over ten years, constantly coming up with new, creative processes. I was surprised that we managed to ship over 6,000 online orders per day right from the start. What we achieved together in the crisis is top-notch,” says Penhale.

E-Commerce Will Continue to Grow

The pandemic is not over yet, but Penhale dares to look into the future. “Yes, people are shopping in stores again, but e-commerce will continue to grow. Economic and flexible omnichannel processes as well as the supply of different sales channels from a logistics center will become a ‘must-have.’ It is essential to align all logistics processes in the supply chain ‘end-to-end’ to a holistic omnichannel structure. We are working on this together with WITRON.”
Photo: © Witron / Image Caption: The SSC of Boots in Nottingham: transformed in just three weeks from a pure store logistics to an omnichannel logistics center.