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#Our streamlined back-office The supply chain also benefits from digital technological innovations. After transforming stock management and warehouse organization, digital technology is helping us to improve services to customers, whose expectations are now similar to those of private individuals regarding e-commerce actors. Warehouse automation is another logistics performance tool. Rexel now has four Autostores with fully automated storage and picking: thousands of boxes are stacked in a metallic structure where automated forklifts pick up selected boxes and bring them to the operator in charge of preparing the orders. During its most recent move, Rexel s Basel branch acquired an Autostore, an innovation so far

only used by logistics warehouses, in operation since January 2017. In this major branch stocked with approximately 30,000 product references, customers can pick up their orders or have them delivered. The Autostore is placed on an upper story, and products are delivered via an elevator to four work stations located at street level. The delay between the moment when the operator selects a product, and the moment when they receive it, is 45 seconds. The customer can pick it up a few minutes later in the self-service zone, which is open during the day as well as at night with an access code. In a country where real estate and labor costs are particularly high, the space and productivity gains offered by the Autostore are significant.

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Click to browse a video of Basel s

Autostore.