Supply chain management for trade

Eugen Trost GmbH & Co. KG, based in Fellbach near Stuttgart, deals with auto accessories and parts. Trost’s customers are primarily auto workshops in southern Germany. Trost guarantees an immediate delivery service through 7 branches and around 70 affiliates.

The requirements

viaLog was assigned with identifying a concept for the restructuring of the logistics.

The 7 branches, functioning as regional central depots, stocked virtually the complete assortment. At the same time the branches served as retail units. The sales-orientated affiliates dealt solely with the best selling products. The entire assortment had grown to over 100,000 products. This exhausted the storage capacities, even in the branches.

The solution

viaLog, working closely with the Trost project team, developed a brand new concept for the supply chain of the auto parts traders.

Important elements of this new distribution concept are:

• Intensifying the direct supply from the manufacturer to the affiliates
• The implementation of a central warehouse in an optimal location for transport, including appropriate logistics technology
• Standardising the affiliates to the "T-shirt pattern": L(arge) / M(edium) / S(mall)
• Defining a standard and a local assortment for each type of warehouse
• Introduction of standard software for the central warehouse

Highlights

A highlight of the SCM concept for Trost is a high level of availability for the substantial product assortment at the point of sale. The distinctly improved disposition, co-ordinated assortments in the outlets, and fast delivery of supplies from the complete assortment in the central warehouse ensure a far better supply service to all of the affiliates.

The concept of standardisation is the basis for cost saving effects throughout the Trost logistics chain.

Following the submission of a warehousing concept Trost decided upon the implementation this new and modern warehouse near Würzburg in 2001. The general partner here: viaLog.