06/19/2024 – 7:30
It has been a year and a half since Lojas Americanas faced the challenge of continuing its operations in the midst of a financial crisis that marks one of the largest requests for judicial recovery in the country’s history.
In January 2023, the retailer reported a billion-dollar hole in its accounts, which ended up revealing debts in excess of R$42 billion and hundreds of creditors, news followed by announcements of layoffs and closure of physical stores. Since then, the publicly traded company has been releasing its balance sheets with delays and without auditing.
According to the company, audited results will only be released after the end of the investigation by an “independent” committee formed to investigate the billion-dollar accounting scandal.
Cages provide greater agility in supplying stores
Among its strategies to keep its momentum going, the retailer announced a project for its logistics area, in which the star is a cart – officially a rolltainer- which resembles a small cage, where products are accommodated, and which is helping the company to reduce its unloading time at the point of sale from two hours to 40 minutes; in some cases, for 15 minutes. And time, as we know, is money.
“It seems simple, but it has a huge impact on the entire physical chain. Where is the engine today. The solution is beautiful precisely because of its simplicity. The biggest investment was more in planning and management, added to the engagement of the entire company, which entered into a climate of competition between stores over which one could execute the unloading and supply process more quickly and efficiently”, says Luiz Bentes, Logistics director at Americans.
There are 14,000 custom-made carts in China with a capacity of 400 kilos, which, in terms of space, is equivalent to 35,000 KitKats accommodated in a stump truck. Once emptied, the carts can be folded to facilitate transport back to the distribution center.
When the truck pulls up to the store to unload, says Bentes, a series of applications developed for the project come into operation, ranging from unlocking the vehicle, through security, and remote monitoring from a “control tower”. which monitors the supply action carried out with the help of the carts.
“We say it is a new logistics to serve a new Americanas. We focus on physical stores. With the new project, we serve faster, resulting in less disruption [falta de produto], uses time better, serves more stores within the same route. It has an impact on the entire logistics chain, as the store has to be focused on selling”, says Bentes.
Project was called Pit Stop
The project was inspired precisely at this crucial moment in the supply and maintenance of Formula 1 cars, when the team needs to be operating in an integrated, fast and efficient way.
“We challenge the team on how to do it in a more productive, more effective way, so the idea is this parallel to Formula 1, doing it the same way, where everyone has their role, knowing what to do and when to do it. We serve 500 stores a day, and it is a critical moment in logistics. One of the important things to turn around store operations is unloading. Every minute of discharge time has a giant multiplicative factor.”
The project pilot took place at the end of 2003 between distribution centers and stores in the states of Rio Grande do Sul, Paraná, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Bahia and Pará. “It was very important in the seasonality of the Christmas period and, especially, Easter, one of the main dates for the company”, reports Bentes. And, at the beginning of June, it started operating in all stores across the country.
The company anticipated, without elaborating, that the Pit Stop project is part of a larger process of changes in its logistics operations that will be announced soon.
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