The transport and distribution company Dehertogh is a real family business. Founded over thirty years ago by mum and dad Dehertogh, the company has now been in the hands and hearts of their three sons for several years, including Dieter as Managing Director. Thanks to the passion of the three brothers, the company has continued growing in all senses. Not only the turnover and numbers of staff and lorries have grown, but also the types of transport. After previously transporting mainly bulk goods from the building sector, the company now also takes care of general cargo and other sectors.
It was therefore only logical for Dehertogh to take the next step in logistics services, towards warehouse management. “This was limited to start with, as we could only offer limited storage space at our last location,” explains Dieter Dehertogh, “but, since having access to an adequate warehouse in Bornem, – now around 3,000 m2 – we can make a proper job of it.”
Wanted: reliable real-time overview in a convenient interface
The logistic ball only really started to roll when a large customer knocked on their door for a large assignment, involving up to 40,000 pickings a year. “We were naturally very keen,” explains Dieter, “but we would never have managed such a task with our existing capacity and infrastructure. We needed a digital solution, which gave us a real-time and reliable overview of the stock in a convenient interface. And, given the customer’s launch deadline, everything had to be ready within a matter of just a few months.”
While searching for the most suitable solution, Dehertogh came into contact with PHI DATA.
“We felt an immediate click with PHI DATA, both with the commercial manager and the software manager Luc Snellings, from the very moment we contacted them for more information. They stopped at nothing to provide plenty of proper information and it turned out that their solution matched our requirements better than those of competitors. To give just one example: other solutions only synchronised the scanned-in goods with the management system as you passed the exit, but at PHI DATA this is done at the very moment of scanning.” Their transparency about what the solution would cost – no hidden costs in hardware or other extras – was something else that swung the balance towards PHI DATA.
Kurt Nauwelaerts, Business Development Manager at PHI DATA IDwms, is keen to add: “We immediately understood Dehertogh’s request and the need for a flexible and convenient system that could easily be extended to new customers among their top priorities. With our IDwms solution, Dehertogh is ready to continue its growth into the future and optimise its use of every m² of storage capacity.”
Having been given the green light in May 2019, the PHI DATA project team set to work on the project to get the entire infrastructure and warehouse management system up and running by the agreed date: on a Monday in mid July 2019, at the same time as the transfer of goods from the customer to the warehouse. The entire environment needed to be ready in the space of two months. The complete migration and launch were to take place the weekend before. “It seemed like a great idea, right in the middle of the building industry’s summer shutdown, but looking back it might have been better to do the two moves separately,” laughs Dieter.
Tremendous time saving and less risk of error
Even so, the deadline was achieved and the solution went live in time to handle the new customer’s big move, and that was partly thanks to the dedication of the PHI DATA team and their rapid reaction to every possible focus point.
The system immediately proved its worth compared to the previous environment: “The connection between the registration of goods going in and out using the WMS system means that we can handle the large quantity of new products with our existing team and are even equipped to cope with more. All incoming and outgoing goods are scanned with our Zebra scanning devices and the transactions are immediately processed in the warehouse management system.
“The customer can log into our WMS system in order to track its stock in real time. Our WMS system can even be connected to their accounting system. Furthermore, this drastically reduces the risk of errors in data entry. Thanks to this PHI DATA solution, we have taken a major step in professionalising our warehouse,” confirms Dieter proudly.
Dieter has much praise for the customer service follow-up provided by PHI DATA too: “A few little errors popped up here and there in the system, partly due to the time pressure. Or we discovered functions that we wanted to add. Then, just one quick call to Kurt Nauwelaerts, and the problem was rapidly resolved or the extension added. That is also one of the many reasons why PHI DATA has won our confidence and continues to earn it.”
