Nationale Loterij

National Lottery live with new “Order Execution System” based on Objective.WMS

On January 18, 2010, the National Lottery went live with its new Order Execution System based on Objective WMS in its Central Distribution Centre in Brussels. This was the final step of the Total Supply Chain Project which the National Lottery had executed in order to optimise the distribution from its Central Distribution Centre through its 8 Regional Distribution Centres to its +/- 5.500 Points-Of-Sale.

In 1934 the Belgian government established the Colonial Lottery to gather money for the development of Belgian Congo. After Congo’s independence, the name was changed to National Lottery. The success of the National Lottery grew spectacularly after the introduction in 1978 of Lotto, a game which allowed players to choose their own numbers. Since then, the National Lottery has introduced numerous popular scratch and draw games such as Keno, Subito, Euromillions, Win for Life, … good for a turnover of 1.13 milliard euro (2009).

The goals of the Total Supply Chain Project were quite diverse. First came the improvement of the service to the Points-Of-Sale with shorter delivery times, the prevention of stock-outs and a better follow-up of the product mix in the points-of-sale. Other goals were security of the products’ during transport, the creation of an improved insight into the supply chain and into the order fulfilment cycle of the National Lottery, and a reduction of the work load in the 8 Regional Distribution Centres so that the employees could focus more on their commercial tasks.

Order Execution System controls the Supply Chain of the National Lottery

The Order Execution System (OES) of De Clercq Solutions is the engine behind the control of the optimised Supply Chain of the National Lottery.

The OES consists of two functional parts: an Order Calculation & Consolidation part and the actual Warehouse Management System.

Order Calculation & Consolidation

De Clercq Solutions especially developed the Order Calculation & Consolidation functionality for the National Lottery for the orders calculation and consolidation with the orders from other systems. Orders can also be introduced through the terminals in the Points-Of-Sale or manually through the Customer Service Center of the National Lottery. The OES also calculates auto replenishment orders based on the historical consumption of the scratch games in the individual Points-Of-Sale. Last but not least are the campaign orders that the National Lottery itself pushes for special actions such as a Super Lotto draw.

Warehouse Management System

The Objective WMS releases the orders for delivery after their consolidation. It also controls the order picking process for each individual Point-Of-Sale (grouped per delivery date and round – the so-called “milk rounds”). The pick orders are split into two streams: on the one hand to three Pick-To-Light cells where items are picked, after which these are checked at a packaging station and linked to the Points-Of-Sale by scanning. On the other hand Objective WMS also generates Pick-To-Label pick lists that enable logistics employees to pick complete boxes supported by RFID. In this case, the picked boxes are again scanned and linked to the individual Points-Of-Sale to guarantee an accurate delivery.

After palletisation, the products are ready to be sent to the Regional Distribution Centres after which they are delivered to the individual Points-Of-Sale in “milk rounds” (a total of 170 milk rounds or sectors with on average 30 or 40 Points-Of-Sale per round). In the Regional Distribution Centres the goods themselves do not have to be manipulated anymore, only delivered. During the actual delivery to the individual Points-Of-Sale the logistics employees can count on well-organized distribution lists from the OES. For each milk round these distribution lists specify per Point-Of-Sale how many boxes need to be delivered from the Pick-To-Light section and how many from the Pick-To-Label section. The distribution lists also contain possible returns and other information.

From now on, the actual value of the “instant products” (scratch games) is created when the products have arrived at the Points-Of-Sale, by scanning the boxes at the terminal in the Point-Of-Sale. Only when the delivery has been confirmed this way, the stock is transferred from the National Lottery to the Point-Of-Sale and the games receive their value. This Proof-Of-Delivery is linked electronically to the Order Execution System of the National Lottery so the orders can be traced up to the actual delivery.

All goals realised ... and more

The National Lottery has realised all of the goals set for the Total Supply Chain Project. The most important was the guaranteed maximum order lead time of three days whereas before, the lead time could amount to two weeks. In the short time that the system has been live, the reduction of stock-outs has also become a thing of the past. The National Lottery can now also guarantee the product security from their departure at the distribution centre up to the actual delivery and value creation at the Point-Of-Sale.

The National Lottery has also realised other advantages. Customer satisfaction has risen among other things because of the clear delivery notes and the simple order introduction at the terminals in the Points-Of-Sales. And last but not least the National Lottery has found that its warehouse operations have become much more efficient when it comes to picking (speed and accuracy) but also because of the improved location and stock warehouse management.