Bünting taps RELEX tech for supply chain initiative

Germany's Bünting's Group is implementing RELEX forecasting and replenishment tech as part of a move to centralise its supply chain planning. After a pilot, it has also decided to implement RELEX’s planogramming solution in a bid to reduce inventory, increase availability and optimise assortments at category and store levels.

“Products are dynamic. When it comes to demand, or the role they play in the assortment, they are constantly changing. We weren’t able to capture this dynamism before as we couldn’t process the necessary data. RELEX made that possible for us,” says Helge-Christian Eilers, Managing Director at Bünting Einkauf und Logistik Dienstleistungs (Bünting’s purchase management and logistics service).

The pilot started in April 2017 and involved 25 stores and 24,000 SKUs. Bünting says that it was able to reduce out of stocks by 7.3%, while reducing inventory by 17.1 % and cutting waste by 23.9% in all pilot stores during the Christmas season. “The effects are more than impressive. Without space planning we always depended on standardised presentation plans for the stores,” Eilers adds. “RELEX solutions give us the data and analysis we need to react quickly in any circumstance, fine tune planning for each of our stores, and adjust the flow of goods wherever necessary. The pilot projects completely won us over and we are very happy with the positive way things are developing.”

Bünting is now in the process of rolling out the supply chain and space planning solutions to its Combi, Jibi and Famila chains.