EMKE Group goes live with award winning WMS LFS 400

The EMKE Group – retail giant in the Middle East and operator of the LuLu Hypermarkets – sets the pace for a revolutionary change in the logistics concepts of the Middle East by using the award winning Warehouse Management System LFS 400 of the internationally leading warehouse expert group Ehrhardt + Partner (E+P). The project was realised by a company which is part of the E+P group, the Ehrhardt + Partner Solutions in Dubai. Next to a permanent transparency over all warehouse sites, the EMKE Group guarantees the future compliance with international logistic standards and significantly optimizes the warehouse process through the application of LFS 400. 

DUBAI. The EMKE Group had the pleasure to be the first company in the Middle East to experiment the award winning Warehouse Management System (WMS) LFS 400, which went live on the last 25th of April. 10 different warehouse locations in Abu Dhabi had started operation on the same day administered by LFS 400 from the warehouse expert group Ehrhardt + Partner. The introduction of LFS 400 in the Abu Dhabi warehouses was really challenging since a partial reorganization of existing warehouse operations was necessary, even though the acceptance of the WMS was very high. “We chose the LFS 400 as the preferable system due to its flexibility and easy to use customized solution which meets all the standards in our business. And with E + P’s global experience and German expertise we are confident of meeting and satisfying the requirements of our customers”, Mr. Ashraf, the Executive Director of EMKE commenting on their choice to use LFS 400.

Through the implementation of the warehouse management system LFS 400, the EMKE Group guarantees a high accuracy of inventory and picking. “The system optimizes the utilization of all warehouse resources, like for instance employees, storage technology and materials handling”, Hermann Ehrhardt, Managing Director of Ehrhardt + Partner Solutions, explains the most important advantages of the solution. 

 
The new upcoming warehouse in Dubai has a size of about 25,000 square meters. More than 50,000 items from the domains of food, non-food, electronics, garments and housekeeping are stored for the LuLu Hypermarket. Next to 16,250 pallet places, the warehouse also provides of 40,000 shelves for garments as well as 22,000 further bin locations on the shelf storage. The warehouse is connected to a central IBM computer i5, which is located in the data center in the headoffice of EMKE in Abu Dhabi.

Ramon Thoms, Regional Manager of Ehrhardt + Partner Solutions and head of the project for EMKE, points out that after the second week after Going Live he could see a lot of benefits for EMKE, like smooth operational sequence, and a very easy communication with SAP system. “Our project analysis, preparation and training led us to the successful introduction for EMKE´s warehouses. Besides there were no interruption of the current storage operation, with the installation of LFS 400 at EMKE`s warehouse, they opened a new chapter of the Logistics Era in the Middle East”, adds Ramon Thoms. Madhav Rao, Head of IT at EMKE, summaries the results of the software implementation as follows: “LFS 400 is the platform guaranteeing a perfect process in our warehouses. With this system, an expansive company development is possible.” 

Further sites of the EMKE Group in Bahrain (22.000 sqm) for example, will be connected to this central machine at the beginning of 2010 giving EMKE a total of 200.000 sqm storage with only one WMS. LFS 400 is designed in a way that different warehouse sites in different countries can be connected with only one software installation. Transforming EMKE into a pioneering position in the supermakets through innovation and transparency on the market, latest technologies including Pick-by-Voice is due to be installed in the second half of 2009.