February 25th, 2019
From its eight warehouses, Febelco supplies over 3,200 independent pharmacies up to three times a day. In terms of inventory management, this way of working presents the Belgian wholesale distributor of health products with a number of major challenges. In order to overcome these supply chain hurdles, Febelco took the strategic decision to implement Slimstock’s inventory optimisation solution, Slim4.
“One of the most important improvements that we have achieved so far is the improved transparency over our inventory position. Ultimately, Slim4 now offers a solid base for further optimisation,” explains Marianne Donche, deputy purchasing director at Febelco.
Customer orders can be made directly via the customer service team, via the internet or via the purchase platform, Profficina. Given that pharmacists expect their orders to be delivered within just a few hours coupled with the fact that the business typically makes up to 3 deliveries per day, Febelco’s service division if under huge pressure.
In order to guarantee fast deliveries, Febelco have built a network of eight warehouses located across Belgium. While these warehouses vary greatly in terms of size and the degree of automation, all of them satisfy the business’ ‘Exceptional Distribution Practice’ guidelines. In total, a fleet of 250 delivery vans operate around the clock to make over 22,000 deliveries to pharmacies every day.
