Case study Nutricia

PAKi is involved in the management and optimisation of industrial flows of Nutricia Nutrition Clinique (Danone group), a key player in medical nutrition for all ages of life. For a number of years now Nutricia Nutrition Clinique, together with healthcare professionals, has been committed to improving the nutrition of undernourished patients, or those at risk of undernourishment or those with specific nutritional needs.

Nutricia Nutrition Clinique benefits from the expertise of PAKi in pallet relocalisation

To get the products to its clients, Nutricia Nutrition Clinique works in close cooperation with Eurotranspharma, an independent network company specialising in the transportation of healthcare products in ambient and controlled temperatures.

In continuing this collaboration, Nutricia Nutrition Clinique wanting to optimise the scheme for returning its empty pallets to its distribution centre, recommends the collaboration with PAKi, a logistics specialist in pallet exchange pooling and management at the right quality. Eurotranspharma, impressed by the flexible and efficient approach of the service provider originally established in Europe and with its head office in the Netherlands, accepts the new logistics strategy in pallet pooling management in Europe.

Back in 2014, a fruitful collaboration began between transporter, Eurotranspharma, logistics specialist PAKi and Nutricia Nutrition Clinique. Objective: to optimise the supply chain flows with better tracking of pallet returns to the distribution centre.

"We needed a recommended key player to rise to this challenge of being in command of our supply chain flows, especially for the quality of Euro pallets. Pooling Partners understood our supply chain environment, by guaranteeing a standard quality of Euro pallets, delivered daily to our warehouse for the preparation of orders for our clients. The logistical response given should be absolutely meticulous and operational in order to be adapted to our flow and quality requirements." Bruno Peloin, Supply Chain manager at Nutricia Nutrition Clinique
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Faber Group deploys its PAKi solution in line with the Euro pallet flow of Nutricia Nutrition Clinique

To do this, Faber Group relies on its PAKi solution and its knowledge of information systems. An efficient ERP edited by Microsoft is used in the analysis and daily processing of data. This tool with the advantage of real-time flow tracking, of improving product traceability and technical information legibility (delivery and collection points, operational reporting, scanning original documents, product geolocalisation, etc.). This software package also allows Nutricia Nutrition Clinique to anticipate any possible problems with delivering or returning pallets. It is a complete information system that the company has adopted in its new logistics strategy. All the administrative elements collected are also recorded for better transparency of operations.

With more suppleness and more flexibility the new supply chain of Nutricia Nutrition Clinique gains in efficiency. It will also be better connected to the flows. All the logistic links work in the product quality department of Nutricia Nutrition Clinique.

Eurotranspharma thus continues to transport Nutricia Nutrition Clinique products on Euro pallets, always with the aim of responding to merchandise flows right across national territory. As for itself, Faber Halbertsma Group does its utmost to supply new premium quality Euro pallets to the site of product packaging and to return the Euro pallets after use to different return points with the aim of reusing them locally. Furthermore the family company advocates the circular economy model in its quality approach. It endeavours to promote the continuous recovery and reutilisation of standard pallets and crates through its open and durable pooling systems.

Pooling services, quality transfer and flexibility of operational teams.

In parallel to this relocalisation work and as closely as possible to the expectations of Nutricia Nutrition Clinique, Faber Halbertsma Group ensures quality transfer via the PAKi solution in an intelligent pallet exchange management system. Nutricia Nutrition Clinique in that case has the freedom of choice in its decision to monitor the number of Euro pallets and the expected quality in line with its requirements (from a new pallet to exchangeable quality according to EPAL criteria). Pallet exchanges are facilitated. This enables Nutricia Nutrition Clinique to request a higher quality of pallets to the ones returned. The quality of service of the PAKi solution combined with the great degree of flexibility of Faber Halbertsma Group in its response to distribution platform restraints are one of the strong points in the success of the new logistics strategy.

Nutricia Nutrition Clinique has thus benefitted from the expertise of Faber Halbertsma Group in terms of support management for exchangeable and standardised loads such as Euro pallets; especially in a context where load support flows are still highly complex. The medical nutrition specialist company is also able to count on a large network of pallet exchanges from more than 10 000 logistic points. Similarly, the transfer of quality assured by Faber Halbertsma Group allows teams to evaluate the open pooling model; that is to say to integrate the pooling of exchangeable pallets within its logistics system.

According to Fabrice Chenut, international sales manager of Faber Halbertsma Group for PAKi services, “the success of the new logistics strategy of Nutricia Nutrition Clinique rests on the highly attentive listening by our teams and a very good understanding of the industrial environment. An operational team, entirely dedicated to the client, has facilitated this close relationship in the different exchanges of the logistic chain. Moreover Nutricia Nutrition Clinique was sensitive to our ongoing improvement policy in the daily pooling and relocalisation of Euro pallets. We have a strong level of expertise in more than 22 countries, including France for ten years. We also capitalise on our know-how in the quality transfer between collected exchangeable pallets and the variety of pallets proposed, which are the same exchangeable quality, with sorted premium pallets, new ones in fact, which are thus adapted to industrial requirements. It is a mark of excellence which sets us apart from the rest on the market”.

As service provider which is part of a trilateral logistics strategy with Eurotranspharma, Faber Halbertsma Group has been able to instil confidence in the client with its know-how in the pooling and management of pallets in open pooling management for more than 40 years. The Dutch group has been specifically involved without disrupting the established process nor restricting the global logistics chain of Nutricia Nutrition Clinique, by positioning itself with the help of Eurotranspharma’s transportation business.

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