Transitic x GPE

GPE strengthens its shift towards e-commerce and omnichannel

Project

 

Modernisation and automation of warehouse equipment.

Client

 

Générale Pour l’Enfant

Location

 

St Vulbas, Ain, France

Created in 1987, the French group GPE (Générale pour l'Enfant) owns the children's clothing brands Sergent Major, DuPareil au Même and Natalys. Employing more than 3,000 people, Générale pour l'Enfant has 850 sales outlets in France and Europe and posted sales of 200 million euros in 2021.

Restructuring geared towards e-commerc

In June 2023, Générale pour l'Enfant announced a restructuring of its activities with the aim of achieving 25% e-commerce orders. To meet this challenge, the group has begun optimising its supply chain, in particular by modernising and automating its warehouse equipment.

GPE - Transitic Systems - e-commerce

A 30,000 square metre warehouse

Générale pour l'Enfant operates a 30,000 m2 warehouse in St Vulbas, on the outskirts of Lyon, under the name Mr Logistique, where over 1.4 million parcels are prepared each year for boutiques and end customers.

The warehouse is divided into 3 zones

Product storage area

The group’s three brands together account for thousands of items (clothing and childcare articles) that need to be stored. The current pallet racking can store up to 7,600 pallets at a height of 9 metres. The picking racking area is better suited to manual picking, with shelves no more than 2 metres high.

Order preparation area

Operators pick items from the shelving aisles and place them in cartons, which are temporarily stored in stations. A network of conveyors running through the entire stock then transports them to two separate preparation areas: the B-to-C area, equipped with Pick-to-Light units and intended for e-commerce orders. And the B to B area, where a sorting machine dispatches the items according to the supplies in the shops.

Shipping zone

Once the orders are complete, the cartons are automatically weighed, labelled and strapped before being sent to a dispatch area where they are picked up by a carrier.

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A practical solution geared towards growth

GPE called on TRANSITIC to automate its order preparation processes in order to increase productivity and optimise operating costs, while remaining flexible in the face of changes in the business, in particular the forecast increase in the volume of web orders.

For this project - deployed in a record time of 6 months - our teams designed a global solution that provides a rational response to the problems of the GPE :

Creation of a network of roller and belt conveyors

With a total length of 1 kilometre, the conveyor network serves almost the entire warehouse: empty boxes formed at the beginning of the network are automatically labelled and sent to the picking and order preparation areas to be filled before being sent to the sorter, the B to C area or directly to the dispatch area. The conveyors fit perfectly into the warehouse layout, with overhead sections freeing up space and making floor traffic flow more smoothly. Belt conveyors have been installed on certain sections of the network to ensure that boxes are safely raised and lowered.

Installation of a Pick-to-Light system for breaking down and packing web orders

TRANSITIC called on its long-standing partner Pick-to-Light Systems to equip the e-commerce preparation area with 5 Pick-to-Light units and 540 illuminated orders. Pick-to-Light Systems’ technology, used for both breaking down and packing B-to-C orders, features an intuitive visual system that guides operators through their actions, eliminating the need for an RF (Radio Frequency) terminal. As a result, they are more productive and work more comfortably. The Pick-to-Light system can handle up to 6,000 orders a day during peak periods. As a result, GPE has cut its operating costs by 50%.

Retrofit of a tray sorting machine for B-to-B items

Générale pour l’Enfant and TRANSITIC have jointly decided to retrofit a sorting machine in order to limit costs and adopt a more sustainable and responsible approach. Previously installed at our customer Décathlon, the sorting machine was recovered and fully modernised before being re-assembled in the GPE warehouse. Arranged in an oval shape over more than 80 metres in length, it is made up of tilting trays and can process up to 7,000 items per hour. The sorting machine is now used to process B-to-B flows for boutiques.

Installation of automatic machines

To increase fluidity and avoid the need for handling, TRANSITIC has equipped the entire preparation line with automatic machines: a carton erector, labelling machines, conformity control scanners, a dynamic weighing machine and a carton taping machine. Integrated into the conveyor network, these machines considerably increase the production rate and limit the number of preparation errors.

Process supervision using OpenWCS© and OpenSCP© software

The entire installation is automated and supervised by TRANSITIC’s two control software packages: OpenWCS© interconnects the various automated systems involved in managing logistics flows with Hardis’ Reflex WMS.

OpenSCP© provides global visibility of performance indicators and controls all activities in order to react quickly in the event of an operational need.

Discover the installation on video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXv_nj9-opo