MHD WAREHOUSING
NO TWO WAREHOUSES ARE THE SAME MHD talks to Philip Artlett, Solutions Development Manager at Dematic, about the value of its consultative approach in working collaboratively with customers before, during, and after the implementation of specific warehouse solutions.
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olving warehouse problems involves assessing multiple strategies to compare and contrast how they would apply to a particular warehouse, according to Philip Artlett, Solutions Development Manager at Dematic. Dematic’s broad portfolio of products and technologies allows for this exploration, which is underpinned by a consultative and commercial approach. “The consulting process begins with working with the customer to establish the solution requirements, what we call the ‘design level’,” Phil says. “This helps to identify potential growth parameters for the future, and is backed by extensive data analysis.” “From there, the process works a little like a funnel, because we initially take three or four concepts that make the most sense. We then talk to the customer and provide them with a return on investment model for each of these concepts to determine how much money can be invested in different levels of automation inside the distribution centre.” By zooming in on different concepts, Dematic can further refine the design level. “We can analyse order line data from a company’s sales history to identify what system would be best suited for now, and for ten years down the track,” Phil says. “This information, paired with product characteristics from product master data, forms the basis of our next decision.” Before solutions are designed, manufactured and installed in the warehouse, Phil asks the customer, and himself, ‘What is the biggest pain point?’
“It’s amazing the varied answers we get – and sometimes the biggest problem is something really simple that can easily be missed,” he says. “We’ve seen businesses over the years spend huge amounts of money completely redesigning their supply chains, or at least their warehouses, and then they still have those pain points – because they weren’t addressed at the outset.” As every stone is unturned,
Dematic gets to know its customers’ operations meticulously. Consultative selling is part and parcel of the solution provider’s sales and go-to-market strategy, communicating with its customers’ senior management as well as with warehouse managers and operators on the ground to establish a rounded understanding of operations. “We don’t just want data and spreadsheets,” Phil says. “As well
Dematic’s batch pick and sort system processes both retail and online orders together.
MHD OCTOBER 2021 | 21
