Bata is the largest and one of the most popular footwear retailers in India with more than 1,300 retail locations throughout the country. The Bata network in India consists of multiple affordable and high-end brands. The retail distribution center (RDC) located in Hosur, Tamil Nadu, India covers more than 100,000 square feet and distributes products to more than 600 stores. This warehouse, along with three other warehouses, work together to supply all the retail locations in India.

The Challenges

Bata was facing two challenges. The first was that the Bata RDC handles six different concepts with a constant flow of inbound and outbound inventory movement every day. Bata needed a new warehouse management system (WMS) to be implemented without affecting these operations. The in-house legacy systems were built specifically to work with other Bata legacy systems and were unable to be easily changed. All of those system adjustments, particularly for Bata’s interfaces and labeling system, had to be performed outside of those systems.

The second challenge was that the new WMS needed to be implemented in a few months and work immediately without any major hitches. End users needed to be comfortable with the new system and processes to operate with minimal supervision.

The Solution

To reduce business disruptions, Gaea planned a multiple-phase implementation of Oracle WMS Cloud. This case study focuses on the first phase. Phase one included two of the larger Bata concepts running on WMS Cloud within three months. During phase one, different teams performed UAT and received training simultaneously. In order to overcome legacy system limitations, Gaea created custom reports and leveraged handheld software scripting to enable Bata to continue using their existing multifield barcodes. Gaea also helped optimize (but did not reinvent) Bata operations by identifying areas for receiving and picking improvement. The new WMS provides real-time, end-to-end inventory visibility for the Bata RDC.

Since Bata could not change barcodes at their factories, any data modifications had to be made after scanning. Gaea utilized WaveLink TelnetCE (Windows) and Velocity (Android) scripting capabilities to address this challenge. Prefixes and identifiers were added to scanned data, and Gaea provided scan validation, visual feedback, and automated keystroke entries via these scripts. Examples of these capabilities include validating that the same pair of shoes was not scanned twice, showing the number of boxes received/picked, and auto-inputting CTRL commands. By using their existing multifield barcodes, Bata increased operational efficiency by capturing multiple data points like batch, expiry, and serial number, in one scan.

Because the legacy systems in use at Bata were outdated, automated integration was not feasible until proper middleware was implemented. To allow the WMS to make updates to Bata’s legacy ERP system, Gaea built custom reports in the WMS using its web-report tool. In addition to the interface reports, operations (ops) reports were created to assist the ops team in all warehouse areas. The ops reports were customized to show information pertinent to managers and in a format specifically requested by the managers.

Return On Investment

The new WMS provides real-time inventory visibility and increases inventory accuracy. Since the legacy system was reconciled only once at the end of every day, Bata did not have real-time inventory visibility. The new real-time updates allow Bata to track inventory from receiving to shipping. Bata supervisors and managers can now trace inventory movement at any stage in the warehouse.

Gaea replaced legacy-system manual processes with new system-driven processes. The new system-driven picking process directs pickers to pick locations following the pick-path sequence. System-driven picking reduces human error by ensuring the picker is at the right bin location and is picking the correct items. Following the pick-path sequence also helped reduce operational inefficiencies where pickers previously zig-zagged back and forth between the same bins multiple times throughout the day.

Full-box picking from heavy-duty reserve racks was reduced to one step by allowing pickers to pick the box from the pick location without having to go through a two-step process of performing letdown and then picking.

On the first day of picking with the new system, Bata picked more than 35,000 pairs of shoes. On average, across the two Bata concepts, more than 40,000 pairs of shoes are picked, packed, and shipped every day. After a month of picking with the new system, Bata doubled their daily pick rate, picking more than 70,000 pairs of shoes per day.

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Supply & Demand Chain Executive announced the 2021 Top Supply Chain Projects Award winners today. The list spotlights successful and innovative transformation projects that deliver value across a range of supply chain functions. Gaea earned this award as a supply chain firm whose services helped a large shoe manufacturer and retailer achieve supply chain excellence by digitalizing its warehouse management processes.

“The supply chain industry was burdened with a host of supply chain disruptions over the last year, yet the winners on this list continued to retool and innovate,” says Marina Mayer, editor for Supply & Demand Chain Executive and Food Logistics. “Whether moving a customer to a cloud-based solution or implementing a more sustainable shipping option, these top supply chain projects reflect the supply chain industry’s strength and resilience to overcome disruptions and work better, smarter, and more efficiently in the years ahead.”

“This recognition reflects Gaea’s commitment to our clients and to the supply chain industry at large in a very trying and dynamic time,” said Amin Sikander, Gaea president and co-founder. “We are delighted that our project in India was included on the Top Supply Chain Projects list and even more grateful for the growth our client experienced with digitalization. For example, they were able to double the daily pick rate and gain real-time, end-to-end inventory visibility across the entire supply chain.”

Learn More

More details on the project can be found here. The 2021 Top Supply Chain Project winners can be found at https://sdcexec.com.

About Gaea

Gaea has provided world-class inventory and warehouse-management solutions to Fortune-100 organizations since 2007, resulting in the successful management of billions of dollars in inventory for our clients. Gaea’s team has successfully advised on, implemented, and rolled out supply chain, labeling, and inventory solutions in numerous industries. Our business-process and information-technology experts provide innovative and cost-effective solutions that improve operations at some of the largest, most complex firms in the world. Headquartered in Santa Clara, California, Gaea has offices in Canada, Mexico, Great Britain, Ireland, UAE, Saudi Arabia, and India to support its global clientele. Learn more about Gaea at gaeaglobal.com.

Media Relations

Marta Call
Gaea Global Technologies, Inc.
marta.call@gaeaglobal.com
1 415 530 7747

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