InterSystems application partner, Chess Logistics Technology, has upgraded UK leisure company Whitbread`s supply chain management system, reconfiguring its previous application to incorporate Cach'e and migrating its software and data to a more powerful hardware platform.
Whitbread`s brands hold powerful positions in hotels, eating out and health and fitness, three of the fastest growing sectors of the lb172 billion leisure market. Its food supply chain distributes products to several subsidiaries within the Whitbread Group including Pizza Hut, TGI Friday`s, Beefeater, Brewers Fayre, and Whitbread Hotels. Throughput is more than a third of a million cases a week split approximately 60/40 between two warehouses.
The new system is designed to support new management processes that will streamline and simplify operations in Whitbread`s warehouses.
Cach'e combines a high-performance database with rapid development technology and is particularly suited to complex applications. It seamlessly integrates relational and object technologies to give developers such as Chess the power to build fast, scalable applications and the productivity to build them quickly.
"The new system has helped us change the way we use the warehouses," says Andy Pickett, business systems manager for Whitbread Food Supply Chain. "We have simplified the way stock is stored and managed."
Chess has worked with Whitbread for a number of years and has developed a supply chain management system, known as Socretes, based on the need to handle large numbers of suppliers and multiple subsidiaries. The application incorporates warehouse management, as well as functions that support the purchase, supply and distribution of goods.
Cach'e`s full compatibility with industry standards such as OBDC, Java and HTML ensured that Chess could easily integrate Whitbread`s business applications such as accounting and order download systems. For historic reasons associated with the scale of the application, the system was originally configured to run on two computers. Stock control in the warehouse had evolved so that each subsidiary had its own storage areas and picking locations. A review of operations highlighted the inefficiencies in the system.
"It made sense to reorganise each warehouse so that products are all stored in the same location and can be picked for delivery to any subsidiary," says Pickett. "In addition to the physical changes required in the warehouse, this meant some changes to the warehouse management system as well."
The simplest option was to upgrade the application and continue running it on the two existing computers. After careful consideration and consultation with the managed service provider, Whitbread decided to take the opportunity to migrate the entire application to a single, more powerful platform.
Pickett and his Whitbread colleagues worked with the managed service provider and Chess Logistics Technology`s development team to plan the migration. The underlying technology of the existing database was unable to make full use of the available processing power and it was decided to upgrade it to the more advanced Cach'e to obtain the full benefit of the additional processors.
Chess is well aware of the high performance Cach'e provides having based Empirica, its latest warehouse management system, around it. Travel Inn, a division of Whitbread, also runs its Web booking and central reservations on the same solution using Cach'e.
"Cach'e has proven to be significantly more efficient than conventional relational database systems at supporting high-volume, online transaction processing applications, especially where complex business logic is involved," says Henry Adams, country manager, InterSystems South Africa.
"Its ability to handle the multiple sets of data required to manage large numbers of suppliers and customers made it a suitable choice for the Whitbread application with its need to support a growing number of retail organisations."
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