SC optimization: Wincanton standardizes pan-European operations on Manhattan Associates

European supply chain services provider Wincanton will standardize its European logistics infrastructure on the Manhattan Associates supply chain solutions platform. The project plan will focus initially on deploying Manhattan's Warehouse Management for Open Systems solution across 15 sites in the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, and the U.K.

By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff August 20, 2008

Wincanton , a European supply chain services leader, will standardize its European logistics infrastructure on the Manhattan Associates supply chain solutions platform. The project plan will focus initially on deploying Manhattan’s Warehouse Management for Open Systems solution across 15 sites in the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, and the U.K. Future rollouts include Labor Management, Slotting Optimization, and Extended Enterprise Management, Manhattan’s collaborative commerce solution.
Wincanton has 30,000 people operating across Europe. It produces an annual turnover of more than 1.9bn (pounds) / 2.8bn (euros), and offer a broad spectrum of services that enable clients to optimize their logistics requirements. It chose Manhattan Associates after a review of 22 vendors, including a look at support capabilities in the areas of technical back-up and implementation team strength.
Says Conor Whelan, group IT director at Wincanton, “Customers are operating in more countries and communicating in a growing number of languages, and seeking consistency in the way they interact with us. Like most large third-party logistics [providers], we have grown both organically and through acquisition. The diverse assets we have inherited can not only make systems cumbersome to manage but can also present challenges in providing a consistent service experience to our customers across geographical regions.
“Manhattan was the only company that demonstrated it had the range of integrated and functionally rich supply chain solutions that could meet our needs both now and in the future,” Whelan continues. “It also was alone in demonstrating that it had the network in place to support our vision of a standardized pan-European supply chain systems infrastructure.”