Kirill Vlasov
Chairman
STS Logistics
During the economic crisis, production and consumption of fast-moving consumer goods decreased significantly, while distributors became more suspicious and preferred to minimize commodity stocks, leading to reduced imports and reduced demand for warehouse storage. Some full truckload carriages were transferred to the less-than-truckload or less-than-containerload segments.
We have noticed a tendency among customers that their key priority in choosing a logistics operator has become the quality and comprehensiveness of the services provided. This has led to the idea of creating specific logistics solutions specially for key branches of the economy such as FMCG, heavy industry or automobiles. Operators have started to adjust their services to their customers’ business by providing services according to a classified solution, directly made for each branch or sector of the economy.
The FMCG sector is primarily associated with servicing retail networks such as Auchan, Metro, M-Video, Eldorado, X-5 Retail Group and others. In this segment of logistics, the most important component of relations with manufacturers and retail networks is quick and paperless document control.
Modern warehouse terminals are managed with Warehouse Management System software, which enables the maximum level of automation for all business processes, and thus minimizes the time period needed for operations. Meanwhile, FMCG clients plan their companies’ resources with Enterprise Resource Planning systems. In cases where companies refer all or part of their logistics processes to outsourcing, it can be a major task to ensure the compatibility of the logistics operator’s WMS system with the client’s ERP system, along with paperless document control, which has to be transparent for both parties.
For this purpose, there are special electronic data interchange integration modules, which form a single, standardized information space between the logistics operator and client, along the entire commodity distribution chain.
