South African-based motor and controls supplier, Zest WEG Group is implementing a warehouse management system at its Linbro Business Park head office, in Johannesburg, to take customer service to another level.
“One of our biggest drives towards being a supply leader is our focus on customer service, as we want our customers to receive their motors and drives at the requested time. As a result of this, we have service level agreements with customers, which enables them to rate our delivery performance. The feedback, in turn, enables us to strive for optimal service,” says Zest WEG Group sales and marketing director Gary Daines.
Zest WEG Group projects and logistics director Luiz Fernando Ribeiro highlights that scrutinising different warehousing management processes, which includes a receiving, put-away, picking, packing, work-in-progress and shipping system, facilitates the efficiency of stock the company receives. It also monitors and times the stock that needs to be sent to clients.
“The warehouse management system will ensure that we have better stock control, management of the dispatch area and ensured control through the work in progress; improved stock accuracy, picking efficiency, cycle counting and stocktake processing; and efficeient control of the stock rotation,” Ribeiro explains.
By focusing on effficiently managing the different processes in its warehouses, the company’s clients will benefit from timely shipments, which will ensure that products will be available to clients when needed.
“Zest WEG Group is a leading supplier of electric motor and drive products for big companies across industries. South Africa-based mining group Exxaro, integrated energy and chemical company Sasol and multinational mining company Anglo American are just a few of our clients. Working with such big companies means that we have to be efficient in our service delivery, as we understand that, should we deliver stock too early, storing will result in monetary loss. We have to be efficient in supplying stock when companies need to use it,” Daines points out.
The company notes that it will also implement the warehouse management solution in all its warehouses across the country. Ribeiro notes that although the idea of the solution remains standard for all Zest WEG Group plants, it is significant that each of its operations will have a custom-designed solution to suit the needs of its clients in that specific area.
Growth Strategies
One of Zest WEG Group’s strategies towards improving its growth and success has been the company’s expansion into Africa. It has operations in Zambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, with a large footprint in Angola, Tanzania and Kenya.
“In 2010, we opened Zest Ghana, which was a strategic business move, as West Africa’s mining industry was starting to grow significantly. It only made sense for us to open a branch in Ghana, as we had already been supplying motors to the country.
“The first part of our success in Africa was based on our understanding of the continent’s countries. Africa is not to be underestimated and one of the early mistakes South African companies make in doing business on the continent their trying to implement one solution across a broad spectrum; however, every country has different needs,” says Zest WEG Group marketing manager Jamie Wilson.
He adds that, as a result of this, the company has worked hard in custom-designing its solutions for African needs to ensure that they are well suited to the projects for which they will be used.
Ribeiro points out that to the group is continuously training its staff on technological and market advances in industry, which, in turn, will assist the company with its growth strategies moving forward.
“We hold seminars to train our staff, from top management to factory workers, in the spectrum of work required in our business. Everything we do is not about standard products, it’s about customising the products to suite our clients’ needs,” concludes Daines.
