Case History

Viale Europa, 175, 00144 - Roma

+39 06 665921
+39 06 66411595

www.sda.it

SDA Express Courier

Logistics & Transportation

SDA Express Courier (formerly Italia Logistica) is born from the union between SDA Logistica (SDA Express Courier - Gruppo Poste Italiane) and Omnia Logistica (FS Logistica - Gruppo Ferrovie dello Stato), which put their experience together to create this great enterprise. It's a company that wants to bring significant change in the fields of integrated logistics, multimodal transport and document management.

Thanks to the combined experience and reliability of the two original groups, SDA offers a wide range of services with high added value, and through the help of evolved information systems they are able to satisfy any need: from integrated logistics to overseas transport, from staging to retail/large distribution delivery, not to mention e-procurement, binding, technical courier.

SDA Express Courier can count on a widespread network that covers the entire national territory, composed of 22 logistic platforms (200,000 sqm) and a daily road network.

Products:

WMS

StockSystem

WAREHOUSE LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT

Software for the management of logistics processes.

SDA Express Courier

The numbers of SDA Express Courier

SDA Express Courier – part of the Poste Italiane Group – was born in 1984 and stands as a leading Italian company for logistics and BtoB distribution management, offering a wide range of services to cater to any shipment request: from standard express services, to integrated logistics ones, from technical couriers to technological solutions for e-commerce.

SUBSIDIARIES IN ITALY

LOGISTIC PLATFORMS

MILLIONS PACKAGES/YEAR

AND MORE EMPLOYEES/COLLABORATORS

Facilities

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NUMBERS OF THE GORGONZOLA LOGISTICS PLANT

8,000 squared meters of covered surface
10,500 available pallet spots
around 1,600,000 packages sent per year
over 2,000,000 orders executed per year

NUMBERS AND STRUCTURES DEDICATED TO THE CLIENT XEROX AT THE GORGONZOLA PLANT

2,000 squared meters of dedicated surface
770,000 packages sent per year
292,000 orders executed per year
600,000 order lines executed per year

NEEDS

In 2009 Italia Logistica's management (later acquired by SDA Express Courier) implemented Replica sistemi's Stocksystem WMS to improve the management of their deposits. Later they upgraded to the new version and implemented the add-on StockVoice too.

In 2015 they decided to integrate the Pick2LightAIR (picking light) technology to speed up sorting, stocking and pick&pack activities.

ISSUES

La gamma di prodotto trattata è estremamente varia sia in termini di valore unitario sia di volumetria: con articoli catalogabili in consumabili e voluminosi.

Esistono articoli che possono avere una scadenza e quindi vanno gestiti con metodo FIFO.

The product range is extremely varied, both in terms of unitary value and of volumes: items are catalogued in consumables and bulky.

WMS: StockSystem
Add-on: SMA.I.L:) Voice
Add-on: SMA.I.L:) Pick2LightAIR

Hand-held Hardware: 12 terminals Honeywell and 2 Terminals Motorola
Voice Hardware: 4 terminals Vocollect T5
Light Hardware: 132 Displays Pick2Light

MANAGEMENT OF BULKY ITEMS

On entry, the goods are loaded into the system by reading the bar code, which immediately identifies the most available pallet-holder storage area.

For the picking of bulky products, the system generates pick lists by type of destination (e.g., orders to Sicily or firm storage) and-as these products are "self-dispatchable" (i.e., do not require additional packaging)-allows the waybill (i.e., the label containing item and consignee details) to be printed directly when the mission is picked up.

The picking logic in this area is batch picking, i.e., the operator assembles multiple orders and for each mission picks, of a given reference, the total quota of all orders.

The operators, equipped with voice terminals with headsets and microphone, work quickly and safely with hands and eyes free, receive a voice command from the system of the task they are to perform and relay confirmation of the mission.

Concurrently with the picking operation, the operator directly applies the waybill label to the package, thus ready for shipment.

This procedure, i.e., the integration of picking and waybill (effectively eliminating the picking list), has enabled SDA Express Courier to achieve significant advantages in terms of streamlining procedures.

Once picked, self-shipment parcels are taken to the shipping area, where reading the barcode associated with the waybill generates the relevant transport document. From there, the parcels will then be forwarded to SDA Express Courier's relay platforms throughout Italy.

MANAGEMENT OF CONSUMABLES AND SMALL-SIZED ITEMS

The management of small parts and consumables - receiving, stocking, and picking-is done through the support of the new wireless pick&put-to-light system.

In receiving, the operator sets up Pick2LightAIR light displays on a trolley intended for stocking shelves or mouths.

As each item is read, the system tells the operator, through the light display, which container to place the product in and the quantity to insert. Once the sorting operation is completed, the operator begins the stock replenishment mission in the storage area, guided to the locations by radio frequency terminals or voice according to an optimized route along the aisles.

Arriving at the indicated location, the operator immediately identifies-again thanks to the light display-the quantity and container in which to store the products.

For picking of small parts and consumables - similar to bulky goods - the system generates picking waves by destination type, called "mini-batches" (multiple orders are assembled at the same time), supported by Voice and Pick2LightAIR technology.

The picking logic is of the "pick&pack - put to light" type: the operator sets up light displays on a cart intended for "mini-batch" picking on which boxes or envelopes are arranged to form the final packaging.

The system, through the voice terminal, guides the operator to mass picking of items, optimizing the route according to the items to be picked.

Multiple envelopes or boxes already allocated to each order-customer are placed on the cart, beneath which is a light display.

Thanks to StockSystem WMS and the perfectly integrated technologies, the following benefits have been achieved:

Precise control of all activities performed by each operator, which has resulted in improved workload distribution;
increased speed and productivity;
greater accuracy in the performance of each activity since through the statistics dashboard it is always possible to identify any efficiencies and refine the logistics process;

error reduction;
better control of goods positions and inventories and space optimization;
an improvement in results and margins as working time has been reduced and the reliability of the system enables efficient work.