——Interview with Qin Yong, Supply Chain Director of Hunan Snacks is very busy, Commercial Chain Co., Ltd
With a new snack sales model, Snack is busy and has now become a leading brand in the national snack chain industry. In addition to continuous innovation in product selection, quality control, store management and other aspects to build core advantages, the company also realizes high-efficiency and low-cost management of the logistics supply chain through strong management and control of warehousing and distribution, which provides strong support for brand development.
Preface
If a few years ago, the mass merchandising snack brands were like the stars before the dawn, with very few, then today, just a few years later, with the increase in the number of brands, the mass merchandising snack stores can be described as starry-eyed, reflecting a new blue ocean in the retail industry.
In 2017, four "post-80s" who love the song "Cowboy is Busy" jointly founded an offline snack franchise store - Snacks are busy, and quickly developed into a chain enterprise, with the scale of stores doubling every year, and now the number has exceeded 4,000. Just as Jay Chou's "Cowboy is Busy" set off a small whirlwind in the music field, snacks with the brand image of vibrant cowboys are very busy and have also set off a new wave in the retail field, leading the way in the new track of mass selling snacks.
In order to support the needs of thousands of stores, the efficient operation and management of logistics centers has become crucial. Recently, the reporter of this magazine made a special trip to visit Qin Yong, the director of the supply chain of snacks is very busy. Qin Yong has been in the field of logistics since 2007, and although he has only been busy for one year, based on his more than 10 years of experience in logistics center operation and management, he has quickly optimized the efficiency and cost of warehouse distribution for snacks. In this special issue, he shared his sincere and in-depth sharing on the operation and management of logistics centers and supply chains in the snack industry.
Qin Yong
Snacks is busy supply chain director
Reporter: First of all, could you please introduce what kind of company is very busy with snacks, and how has it developed in recent years?
Qin Yong: Snacks are very busy, which can be simply summarized into four key words: entrepreneurial company, young, honest, and fast development.
Snack is a striver-oriented entrepreneurial company, founded by four young people with dreams; Snack is also a very young enterprise, only established less than 7 years, and the staff is very young, the average age is only 26 years old; Snack is busy advocating the four cultures of integrity, efficiency, perfection and altruism; Snack is busy is also a fast-growing enterprise, especially during the epidemic, it has still achieved rapid development.
Snacks are busy stores
Based on the customer positioning of serving all the people, as well as the product positioning that snacks are just needed and affordable for everyone, Snacks is very busy and is committed to building a people's snack brand and meeting the snack needs of more people with a lower consumption threshold. At present, the company is centered in Hunan, and its business has expanded to Hubei, Jiangxi, Guizhou, Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, Sichuan, Henan, Chongqing and other provinces and cities, with more than 4,000 stores. In November this year, with the strategic merger of Snacks and Zhao Yiming Snacks, the number of stores was further expanded to more than 6,500.
Through the core advantages built in multiple dimensions such as product selection, quality control and quality inspection, store standardized management, brand development, and logistics supply chain, Snack is busy has achieved industry leadership in the number of stores, standardized management, digital construction, etc., and has successively obtained two rounds of financing, with a store turnover of 6.445 billion yuan in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 139.7%.
Reporter: What is the layout of the logistics and warehousing network behind the rapid development of the busy business supporting snacks, and what is the construction of the logistics center and the main warehousing and distribution process?
Qin Yong: logistics supply chain is an important driving force to support the sustainable development of the brand, in the process of rapid development of snacks is very busy, we are also constantly vigorously building logistics warehousing network, the current total storage area of more than 140,000 square meters, the total warehouse is located in Changsha, and has Hengyang warehouse, Nanchang warehouse, Jingmen warehouse, Huaihua warehouse, Jiangxia warehouse, Guiyang warehouse, Dongguan warehouse and other eight warehouses. Among them, Changsha general warehouse, Hengyang warehouse, Nanchang warehouse, Jingmen warehouse, Huaihua warehouse are self-operated warehouses, Jiangxia warehouse, Guiyang warehouse, Dongguan warehouse are outsourcing warehouses. In addition, we will also lay out new warehouses in Nanning, Guangxi, Chengdu, Sichuan, Chongqing and other places according to business development and the number of stores covered by warehouses and distribution radius, so as to further improve the logistics warehousing and distribution network suitable for business development.
Our warehouse construction is mainly based on high-standard warehouses. Taking Changsha General Warehouse as an example, the warehouse covers an area of 33,000 square meters, and is divided into five storage areas with the same functional settings according to fire protection requirements. The warehouse is a high-standard warehouse with unilateral access (all other warehouses are bilateral high-standard warehouses to achieve entry and exit separation), and the shelves are stacked in five layers, using the "upper storage and lower picking" mode, with 1 layer for the picking area and 2~4 layers for the storage area.
Snacks are very busy Changsha General Warehouse
The main functional areas of the warehouse include receiving area, storage and picking area, buffer area, collection area, loading and unloading area, etc. The main process of the warehouse is as follows: receiving, manually counting the quantity and conducting sampling, and collecting it to the WMS system; on the shelf, the high-level forklifter will send the goods stacked into pallets to the shelves for storage according to the WMS system instructions; picking, according to the WMS system instructions, the corresponding number of goods will be manually picked on the pallet; the collection review, according to the WMS system instructions, the pallets that have been picked by the forklift will be transported to the collection area to complete the review and collection; replenishment, the high-level forklift personnel will replenish the required goods to the designated picking and palletizing location of the system according to the WMS system instructions。 The main process of distribution: scheduling, in TMS according to the store delivery timeliness, distribution routes, loading rate and other constraints for the system intelligent scheduling and dispatching; loading, the driver according to the TMS instructions on the applet to complete the warehouse sign-in, start loading, pallet by pallet inventory and loading, leftover scanning, Loading and delivery, store signing, the driver uses the TMS applet and the store micro to complete the QR code handover and electronic contract signing, so as to realize the handover of goods and the driver's service satisfaction evaluation; return, the driver completes the handover with the store and the warehouse return group in the TMS applet. The above processes will strive to be simple, simple and efficient according to their own business characteristics.
Reporter: In your opinion, what are the characteristics of the snack logistics center, and what are the main contents of the operation and management of the logistics center?
Qin Yong: The characteristics of the snack logistics center are reflected in: firstly, because the business form is to B, the logistics center serves store orders, usually a single store order is 200~300 boxes, so the picking operation is mainly based on whole box picking, accounting for about 95%, and the proportion of zero picking is only about 5%, due to the small number of zero operations, the whole warehouse process is also relatively simple; secondly, the warehouse throughput is very large, the usual throughput is about 300,000 boxes, that is, 150,000 boxes of warehousing, 150,000 boxes out of the warehouse, the peak period can reach nearly 500,000 boxes, third, the warehouse turnover speed is very fast, the warehouse turnover rate is about 5~7 days.
As we all know, the snack industry is different from the pharmaceutical and other industries, its product unit price is low, and the value of a single piece of goods is only 100 yuan, so it requires a very high-speed commodity circulation, but because of its thin profit margin, and the proportion of logistics costs is not low, which requires higher efficiency improvement and cost control of logistics.
In order to effectively improve the efficiency of the logistics center and even the entire logistics supply chain, and reduce costs, Snacks is very busy planning and setting up a supply chain center, which is directly in charge of the deputy general manager, and the supply chain center consists of multiple departments such as planning and operation department, warehouse and distribution department, and the eight warehouses are managed by the warehouse and distribution department.
Snacks are busy supply chain centers
The overall idea of supply chain management is to build a strong management headquarters and a combat team, build an intelligent digital management system, fully implement the strong management and control of warehouse distribution based on standardization and standardization, and use lean logistics management as a means to achieve continuous improvement in cost and efficiency, and strive to improve customer service guarantee ability and satisfaction to support the rapid development of the company.
Snacks are busy with supply chain processes
Reporter: Please introduce how the snacks are very busy for efficient operation and management of warehouse distribution, and what exploration and practice have been carried out?
Qin Yong: "Warehouse" and "distribution" are the two major factors that affect logistics efficiency and cost. Although the warehouse where snacks are busy is both self-operated and outsourced, and the distribution is in the form of full outsourcing, as mentioned earlier, snacks are busy and fully implement the two strong controls of online and offline warehousing and distribution, and the goal is to manage outsourcing better than self-operated.
In terms of warehouse control, our core management content has three aspects: one is the distribution of the warehouse network, the second is the improvement of warehouse efficiency, and the third is the standardization of all warehouse systems.
The distribution of warehouse network is the core element of logistics cost composition. According to our calculations, the cost ratio of warehouse and distribution is about 1:1.2, if the location of the warehouse is unreasonable, resulting in long distribution distance and insufficient distribution density, it will increase the overall distribution cost. Therefore, the core logic of the network layout lies in the density of stores on the one hand, that is, the number of stores covered by warehouses usually exceeds 100 to form a scale effect, and on the other hand, the distribution radius is usually within 300 kilometers to ensure that stores across the country must arrive within 24 hours.
In order to improve the efficiency of the warehouse and the level of operation management, we implement 6S management, which carries out strong control through the dimensions of sorting, rectification, cleaning, cleaning, literacy and safety, and strengthens the assessment of inventory accuracy, timeliness of delivery, and satisfaction rate of goods. In addition, we focus on improving operational efficiency by streamlining processes, standardizing operations, and simplifying operations.
Under the "6S management", the warehouse is neat and clean, and the operation is orderly
For self-operated warehouses and outsourcing warehouses, we have achieved a unified standard of the overall situation, the whole process, and no dead ends, for which we have also formulated a standardized manual for warehouse operation and management, which is not owned by me, but used by me, and through standardization, the unified management of self-operated warehouses and outsourcing warehouses is realized.
For fully outsourced distribution business, we also have standardized means to carry out strong control, such as formulating a carrier assessment form to standardize distribution operations. At the same time, through the TMS transportation management system and the mobile terminal applet to solidify the distribution operation standard, the use of GPS to achieve full visual management, the use of intelligent scheduling algorithm to further improve the intelligent level of scheduling and distribution lines, the subsequent use of accumulated data accurate to the loading, transportation, distribution handover and other accurate time, for stores, carriers and snacks busy supply chain to create greater value.
Reporter: In order to support the rapid development of snacks, in what aspects will you lead the team to continue to improve their capabilities? What are the goals and layout plans?
Qin Yong: Next, we will continue to upgrade our digital and intelligent capabilities, and comprehensively promote lean logistics management.
In terms of digitalization, with the launch of WMS, TMS and other systems, we will gradually improve the functions of the supply chain digital operation management platform. Through this platform, whether it is warehouse operations or distribution processes, real-time visual management, in-transit tracking, store signing, traceability and other functions can be realized. Digitalization is an important means of management and operation, and we will also introduce functions such as procurement plan optimization and procurement arrival appointment to realize end-to-end supply chain digital operation management from suppliers (manufacturers) to stores.
In terms of intelligence, the snacks are currently very busy planning and building an intelligent distribution center near the Changsha general warehouse, which covers an area of more than 117 acres, with a construction area of more than 100,000 square meters, and will use 20 roadway stacker cranes to automate the three-dimensional warehouse, gravity shelf system, 200 + AGV "order-to-person" picking, vertical handling system, The project is expected to be completed and put into operation in 2025 to better support the local business demand of 500,000 boxes per day, so as to further improve the level of intelligent warehousing.
In terms of lean logistics management, we will gradually popularize the common sense of lean management in stages, let all employees participate in lean operation and management, so that everyone is lean, everything is lean, so that lean normal management, "eliminate waste, reduce costs", and build a lean management system. Finally, create a benchmark for the lean logistics operation of national snack retail!
Reporter: What are your suggestions for the introduction of automation system in the snack logistics center? Combined with the future development trend of the snack industry, what is the development goal of the snack very busy in the logistics supply chain?
Qin Yong: For automation or asset-heavy investment, my advice is: first, the business is stable or predictable, second, the operation is standardized and has a certain scale, otherwise the return on investment will be very low, and third, give priority to the introduction of automation in the links that consume more manpower. However, due to the rapid changes in the snack track, it is difficult to predict accurately, so we adopt the main outsourcing, asset-light, and standardized management and control in the business model, and follow the principle of moderate automation in warehouse construction.
Generally speaking, the introduction of a complete automated logistics system usually has many drawbacks: first, poor flexibility, when the business process changes, or when the business peak can not be adjusted; second, the degree of standardization of individual links is low, and complete automation will increase the investment cost; third, once the business changes, it is difficult to convert and realize; fourth, the return on investment is low, in today's national conditions, social responsibility and employment issues need to be considered, and it will take time for complete automation. Therefore, snack companies need to consider the introduction of automated logistics systems based on factors such as their own business development and standardization.
With the rise of the snack track, brands continue to emerge, and industry competition intensifies. The merger of Snacks is very busy and Zhao Yiming Snacks is also an inevitable choice to promote the healthy and benign development of the industry under vicious competition and price wars. I think that for the mass snack industry, with the increase in industry concentration, next year will be the beginning of real competition.
Snacks are busy, supply chain digital management platform
In this regard, we will further build a moat of the logistics supply chain to form a greater competitive advantage, promote the development of the snack busy brand, and ultimately provide benefits for the people.
———— Logistics Technology and Application ————
Editing and typesetting: Rodin
The content of this article is from the December 2023 issue of "Logistics Technology and Application", and has been deleted.
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