Throughout the last 10 years, Ripley Department Stores and their brands have grown dramatically throughout Chile and Peru to become one of the top retailers in the Latin America region. With their massive growth in the last 10 years, consumers were demanding a wider variety of goods in a more timely manner.The 3 existing distribution centers could not handle this demand. They relied on excessive manpower without a warehouse management system to process and track inventory. This caused problems throughout the supply chain with lost inventory and lost efficiencies, and ultimately lost profits. To keep up with the pace of growth and demand, Ripley designed “Redex”, a 660,000 sq foot, fully automated distribution center outside of Santiago, Chile. Redex was considered the most automated distribution center in Latin America. Ripley also chose the Manhattan warehouse management system for their WMS software package. Manhattan was chosen based on its breadth of functionality.

To successfully manage and implement this complex of a project, Ripley required a strong and experienced implementation team. That is why Ripley chose LogFire to lead and support the software implementation.

LogFire was the implementation team on site in Santiago throughout the project. LogFire was integral in modification design and testing, training end users, operations improvements, go-live and post go-live support. The LogFire team worked side by side with the MHE vendor to create a seamless communication between WMS, the conveyor system, and the sorter.

LogFire also provided Ripley with a state-of-the-art user tracking system called “Productivity Tracking System” or “PTS”. This system filled a void in Ripley’s current user tracking system by giving managers visibility to associates’ hours per functional areas.

Due to the combined efforts between Ripley, LogFire, and Manhattan Associates, “Redex” has improved Ripley’s productivity levels from 62% to 98% and improved accuracy to 99%.

In total, Ripley has achieved a cost reduction of 40%. LogFire and Ripley continue their relationship with post go-live support of the Redex distribution center, as well as implementing and supporting LogFire’s Productivity Tracking System (PTS). LogFire also supports Ripley Distribution Centers in Lima, Peru.

See www.manh.com for the Manhattan Associates’ case study of Ripley Department Stores.