Materis Paints Spain Increases Productivity by 25 Per Cent Using RedPrairie Solution

STOKENCHURCH, United Kingdom --(Business Wire)--

RedPrairie Corporation, a global supply chain and retail technology provider, announced today that Materis Paints Spain is increasing productivity by 25 per cent using RedPrairie's Warehouse Management System (WMS) to optimise production and distribution of paint products. The implementation was carried out by RedPrairie's Spanish partner Alfaland Sistemas, a division of the Alfaland Group, which is dedicated to providing automation solutions, management systems and improved control of the supply chain.

The Materis group has a turnover of €2 billion and employs 9,800 people in 33 countries. In Spain its brands include Duraval, Revetón, ALP and LCP, and the company is the third-largest supplier of decorative paints in its domestic market, despatching more than 150 orders a day to approximately 1,500 customers nationwide.

RedPrairie's WMS solution, supported by voice and RF technology, was deployed at Materis Paints' 6,000-square-meter warehouse near Barcelona. Results of the implementation include a 25 per cent improvement in productivity, a 68 per cent reduction in picking errors and a 36 per cent improvement in on-time deliveries. The site has a total of 13,000 product locations, with 5,000 allocated to picking.

"We needed to modernise our logistics management, as our existing ERP system had little flexibility and was completely manual with unfriendly screens," says David Torner, supply chain director, Materis Paints Spain.

This resulted in a quality of service that did not meet the requirements of an increasingly demanding market.

"We reviewed what WMS solutions were available and began a rigorous seven-month vendor selection process," explains Torner. "We set a list of more than 200 key criteria and established that RedPrairie's WMS was the most appropriate, with Alfaland Sistemas as a partner to implement it."

The new WMS is supplemented with RF data transmission technology from Honeywell (News - Alert)/LXE that includes a Spanish language voice pcking system.

"What we have achieved is a comprehensive system that has helped us to eliminate paperwork and includes tools that monitor peripheral and storage tasks, optimising our resources," comments Jose Maria Murcia, customer service director, Materis Paints Spain. "And with voice picking technology, the operators' tasks can now be addressed by the system, saving time and reducing cost. It also frees operators' hands and enables them to focus on the manual task of safely picking and transporting paint cans and packages in the warehouse."

Murcia adds, "The solution has greatly improved our customer service by sending an automatic email confirmation of order despatch, producing a packing list per pallet and providing fully secure batch traceability."

Ease of use during implementation was another important consideration. Torner says, "Rolling out the WMS solution went very smoothly as both experienced and new employees perfectly adapted to the latest technology and new way of working. Overall we achieved a qualitative leap for the entire company in terms of productivity, control and monitoring, and customer satisfaction. Previously, any problems that occurred during activity peaks and took many days to fix can now be resolved within 24-48 hours."

Andrew Kirkwood, senior vice president at RedPrairie, commented, "With more than 11 years' experience implementing our WMS solutions, Alfaland, our Spanish partner, has done a great job to ensure Materis can benefit from a robust and flexible system that delivers a significant improvement in the company's productivity."

About RedPrairie

For more than 35 years, RedPrairie's best-of-breed supply chain, workforce, and all-channel retail solutions have put commerce in motion for the world's leading companies. Installed in over 60,000 customer sites across more than 50 countries, RedPrairie solutions adapt to help ensure visibility and collaboration between manufacturers, distributors, retailers, and consumers. RedPrairie is prepared to meet its customers' current and future demands with multiple delivery options, flexible architecture, and 24/7 technical and customer support. For a world in motion, RedPrairie is commerce in motion.

To learn more about how RedPrairie solutions can optimise your inventory, improve employee productivity or increase sales, visit RedPrairie.com or email info@redprairie.com.

RedPrairie is a registered trademark of RedPrairie Corporation. © 2012 RedPrairie Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Other product and service names mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners.

About Alfaland Sistemas

Alfaland Sistemas is the systems division of the Alfaland Group and has over 20 years of experience in automating the supply chain.

Alfaland Sistemas's customers are active within 3PL, distribution, retail, food and pharmacy. Amongst others they can benefit from customised solutions using software tools such as RedPrairie's warehouse, transportation and workforce management solutions, Honeywell/LXE & Motorola (News - Alert) RF terminals, CISCO and Motorola wireless networks, voice driven solutions and SGF systems for truck fleet management.

Alfaland Group specialises in providing solutions for supply chains and is one of the most important corporations of its market in Iberia and now in Morocco. Created in 1983 as a distributor of materials handling equipment, Alfaland has evolved and grown to provide both equipment and complete solutions to companies in the world of logistics. Through its Equipment and Systems divisions it has clients such as the PSA Group, Grupo Leche Pascual, Telefónica (News - Alert), Repsol YPF, VW, Mercedes, DHL Logistics, CEVA, FCC Logistics, Michelin and UTi.

To learn more about how Alfaland Sistemas solutions visit www.alfaland.es or email info@alfaland.es.