SAP Supply Chain Transformation for Global Optical Retailer - GrandVision

SAP Extended Warehouse Management (EWM) integrated with the SAP S/4HANA ERP system to create a standardised digital supply chain solution optimised for omni-channel retail fulfilment.

GrandVision has grown to a large global leader in optical retailing through numerous acquisitions in more than 40 countries, resulting in over 7000 stores worldwide to achieve its commitment to deliver superior, high quality and affordable eye care to people around the world.

The Challenge

Their growth by acquisition strategy resulted in a very mixed system and process landscape with entities running their businesses on local software platforms.

To support further growth and achieve better control and insight across the entire business, GrandVision undertook a transformation program to achieve common operating processes by using SAP S/4HANA and digital supply chain software across the entire business.

Working as part of the broader program, Rocket were engaged by senior c-level stakeholders in GrandVision to work as their trusted digital supply chain partner to assist in the transformation; from the legacy Point of Sale (POS) retail fulfilment into an omni-channel environment driven by business-supporting tools and digital supply chain software.

While the goal and many of the benefits were to be realised from standardisation, the program needed to recognise and handle the various geographical localisations such as local supply, production, staffing and distribution differences.

The Solution & Approach

SAP Extended Warehouse Management was used, integrated with the SAP Business Suite ERP system in a decentralised architecture, providing a scalable platform for all sites in the roll-out.

Key features of the solution include key industry specific fulfilment processes for both retail stores and ECommerce demand, such as:

• Store picking was optimised with a mobile trolley (pick carts) picking process allowing multiple store orders to be processed concurrently.
• Article store price labelling integrated as part of the mobile picking process.
• Store shipping carrier integration optimising the shipping process to the stores.
• Store push replenishment & flow-through bulk picking and recipient driven flow-through and cross-docking, supplying stores from collective purchase orders generated from the push replenishment process.
• Production integration processes are fully integrated with production in SAP or local production software where that is used.

Operational Technology

Mobile technology with handheld and vehicle mounted devices were used to execute the warehouse tasks efficiently.

Pick-to-light & put-to-light system serving optimal picking bundles for high productivity.

Central to the approach was Rocket’s SAP template and roll-out methodology, proven to reduce overall implementation time and budget. This approach created a central SAP Extended Warehouse Management template and basis of the first country go-live, with any required localisations being managed as part of the rapid-roll out process.

Typical localisations included local carriers labelling and integration requirements, specifics of local supplier agreements and differing production facilities and systems.

Business Outcomes

• Creation of a single operational platform enabling group transparency, consolidated business process and simplified inter-company flows.
• Global template for SAP EWM software platform and processes.
• Demand driven supply chain with tight production integration.
• Significantly improved store order fulfilment efficiency.
• Increased pick rates.