Portuguese retailer with gains above 750 thousands thanks to INESC TEC project

INESC TEC’s Centre for Industrial Engineering and Management (CEGI) has worked on a project with Sonae MC, one of Portugal’s largest retailers, which has allowed the company to earn effective gains above 750 thousand euros in the supply chain.

Large retailers have to deal with a complex distribution network with multiple distribution centres, different needs in terms of temperature, and store format. In order to be closer to its customers, Sonae MC opens new stores in different locations every year. Smaller stores place new challenges to the distribution process because demand is more fragmented, and the merchandise to distribute is more heterogeneous than previously.

Entitled “Agile Flow Network”, the goal with the project, which has recently been concluded, was to implement a simulation-optimisation tool that would help rethink Sonae MC’s distribution model. The tool can identify the distribution rules that best suit the more fragmented market dynamic, in which stores are smaller, as opposed to larger stores in larger cities.

The new distribution plan, achieved with the simulation-optimisation tool, has allowed Sonae MC to significantly reduce its distribution costs and to improve the level of service in the stores, delivering the products in a consolidated way.

The CEGI team involved in the project featured Bernardo Almada Lobo (Member of the Board at INESC TEC), Pedro Amorim (Coordinator of CEGI), Sara Martins and Eduardo Cúrcio.

The INESC TEC researchers mentioned in this news piece are associated with UP-FEUP and INESC TEC.

Photo credits: Food and Drink Business Europe