RAJA

RAJA is a mail-order company specializing in packaging materials, targeting the B2B market. “The Tongeren branch,” explains director Wido Bourel, “belongs to the French RAJA group, with its head office in Paris. The RAJA group is present in 11 countries: Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, Germany, Great Britain, Spain, Austria, Italy, the Czech Republic, and Switzerland.”

“The RAJA branch in Tongeren, Limburg, fulfills two functions within the RAJA group. On the one hand, it serves as the headquarters for the Benelux region, handling sales for Belgium and Luxembourg. The sales team for the Netherlands is based in Breda. On the other hand, Tongeren is the distribution center for Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, and Switzerland. Whatever a customer in one of these countries orders from RAJA’s local sales team is shipped from Tongeren, even if it’s not stated on the label. Customers in the Benelux and Germany receive their orders within 24 hours. For other countries, RAJA guarantees delivery within 48 hours. RAJA targets all types of businesses, large and small. Beyond traditional sectors such as industry and wholesale, the packaging material supplier also focuses on the growing e-commerce and service sectors.”

Extensive range

RAJA, which started as Binpac in 1989 and later became Rajapack, has been located in Tongeren since 2000. At that time, the distribution center was 8,000 m² in size. An additional 5,000 m² was added in 2003, and another 4,750 m² in 2006. Still, the distribution center was not large enough, so much more area was added in several phases. Wido Bourel: “The 2008 expansion provided an additional capacity of 10,000 pallet spaces, bringing the total to over 28,000 pallets. At the same time, we also added 500 m² of office space.”

In total, after the latest expansion, there are about 28 loading and unloading docks in the distribution center. However, more than the number of docks, the workflow determines the flow from supplier to storage rack. Martin Moermans, logistics manager at the Tongeren distribution center, explains: “We do not buffer. More important than the number of docks is that everything that comes in is quickly and smoothly put away. The same applies to shipping: if a shipment is ready, it goes onto the truck immediately. Most orders arrive in the afternoon, just before the final order cut-off time. Incoming pallets are therefore mainly processed in the morning. Some employees will work in receiving in the morning and join shipping in the afternoon.”

All sizes and weights

At RAJA, all warehouse racks are equipped with decking. This is necessary because only 60 percent of the pallets are standard size, and thus do not automatically fit the iron structure. The reason lies in the wide variety of materials that Rajapack has in stock. Indeed, many types of products fall under the category of ‘packaging materials’. The more than 300-page RAJA catalog begins with cardboard boxes and ends with carrier bags. In between, one can browse through about 4,000 products: envelopes, labels, foils, waste bags, shock-absorbing material, pallets, strapping material, and much more. Some products are small and heavy, such as the steel strapping used for bundling. Others are large and light. Sometimes it even goes so far that air is literally stored and transported. What about, for example, the air cushions used to protect shipments against shocks?

In general, the well-known 80/20 rule also applies here: roughly 20 percent of the items are responsible for 80 percent of the turnover. The products RAJA sells come directly from the manufacturers, about 250 in total. Wido Bourel explains that negotiations with them take place primarily at the group level as well as locally. The supply for the seven countries is entirely managed by RAJA Tongeren’s purchasing department. In addition to requirements regarding the quality of the supplied products, suppliers must also package their materials according to RAJA’s specifications.

Specifically, this means that if RAJA’s catalog offers boxes in quantities of twenty, the supplier must also deliver them in that manner. This benefits efficiency in the distribution center.

Offimac’s Microsoft Dynamics is the heart of the company

Because the goods shipped from Tongeren vary so widely in terms of dimensions and weight, automation is almost impossible. Wireless scanning and voice picking are used. RAJA successfully opted for Offimac’s Microsoft Dynamics. And RAJA has also been successfully collaborating with Offimac for 25 years now.

About stock, WMS, and pick&pack

Because products are delivered quickly to the customer, inventory management is of great importance at RAJA. All products listed in the catalog are always in stock. “The number of units we have in stock for each product,” explains Martin Moermans, “depends on the average sales. The purchasing department ensures that we can actually never run out of stock. Only a truly exceptional sale could surprise us.” If an abnormally large order were to come in that could jeopardize the supply to other customers – because it concerns a certain percentage of the stock – there is an automatic alarm from the Warehouse Management System. RAJA then looks for a solution. Possibly, the customer does not want to receive everything they ordered at once. Alternatively, it can also be checked what other RAJA group distribution centers still have in stock. And perhaps the supplier still has stock. In any case, Wido Bourel assures that if RAJA cannot deliver it within 24/48 hours, no one in Europe can. Although the workload is more or less stable in the distribution center, RAJA does notice that autumn is busier than spring. Other recognizable periods are the run-up to the year-end holidays, when promotional packaging is in vogue, and the closing of the financial year. Archive boxes are very popular then. Sending the monthly catalog in each country also creates significant peak moments. The purchasing department knows the peak periods and which products are popular and adjusts orders accordingly. Regular supply is also needed for bulky goods like bubble wrap or foam, as they take up a lot of space in the warehouse.

In total, 500 to 600 pallets of goods are delivered to RAJA every day. Warehouse employees check for quantity, conditioning, labeling, and visible defects. For certain items, special and specific checks must also be carried out, such as lot number for traceability, logo, company name. For thorough quality control, RAJA works with samples.

Once verified, the goods are entered into the Warehouse Management System (WMS), which will assign them a storage location in the warehouse. It does this based on several parameters, such as the distance to the fixed picking location, whether it is a fast or slow mover, the quantity delivered, whether it belongs to a specific zone (product group), etc. Furthermore, the WMS takes into account the oversized pallets that are very frequent here. For example, it knows that a location where three standard pallets can fit is insufficient if the pallets are larger. The locations in each sub-warehouse are indicated by a code that includes, among other things, aisle, rack number, and level. The very in-depth WMS, which is custom-written in ERP Navision and takes into account RAJA’s way of working, is the heart, but especially the brain, of the distribution center. The system chooses where the goods are stored, manages the replenishment of picking locations, and alerts when an order is so exceptional that it could jeopardize stock levels.

The WMS also receives orders from the countries for which Tongeren handles distribution. Every half hour, orders arrive in Tongeren as a text file via FTP (File Transfer Protocol). The WMS, which makes no distinction between its own Belgian orders and those from other countries, converts the orders into a pick order that is printed and given to the picker. The country where the orders are to be shipped is prominently displayed at the top. The WMS automatically calculates the most efficient route through the warehouse and will allow the picker to process several orders simultaneously. The WMS is so intelligent that it ensures the picker is not overloaded. Manuals in other languages, for example, also appear on the pick order.

Once the picker has collected all products for their order, it is up to the packer to prepare the individual orders. At the same time, they verify the picker’s work. Depending on the order, products are packed in boxes or stacked on a pallet. The completed orders are labeled and immediately placed into the waiting trucks. Rajapack in Tongeren itself uses only one of its own trucks. This serves to make large or urgent deliveries, and – especially – to provide service to major customers. For regular transport, the company collaborates with five different transport firms. Rajapack sorts orders only by country; it is the transporter who takes on the organization of distribution and ensures that the order reaches the customer within the stipulated time. Well-packaged, of course.