IBM Smarter Commerce software helps build more efficient logistics for Albéa
Sterling Commerce, an IBM company, today announced that Albéa, a global packaging company supplying regional and worldwide beauty brands such as L’Oréal, Estée Lauder, LVMH and Procter & Gamble, has implemented Sterling B2B Integration Services. The business-to-business (B2B) Cloud Service has enabled Albéa to optimise its supply chain operations and accurately meet customer demand, achieving reduced stock levels, local order fulfillment and ‘just-in-time’ delivery.
Albéa opted for an easy-to-implement cloud service able to offer 24/7 support to its factories, distributed across three continents. Previously operating as Alcan, under the Rio Tinto group, the company spun off independently in 2010. At this point, the development of Albéa’s own B2B integration system became critical as a means of managing stock and inventory. The solution has also enabled the company to set up a B2B integration offering as a service for its customers.
Sterling B2B Integration Services provide visibility and control over B2B processes that Albéa shares with its distribution, retail, manufacturer and logistics partners. Improved integration helps to streamline the sourcing of packaging materials from various locations, allowing customers to constantly replenish orders and stock levels at short notice from multiple fulfillment centres.
"Our customers throughout the world are looking to keep inventories low while guaranteeing on-time delivery,” said Eric Lafarge, chief information officer at Albéa. "By synchronising the high volume of interactions between Albéa and its business partners, Sterling B2B Integration Services enable Albéa to minimise the time stock sits in the warehouse and in transit. The solution also allows for ‘near-sourcing’, so deliveries travel shorter distances, reducing waste and improving sustainability by avoiding the transport of air in empty packaging."
A big part of ‘smarter commerce’, involves using software to build a tighter and highly responsive network of suppliers and partners to enable delivery of the right product or service at the right price, time and place. The Sterling Commerce solution offers Albéa a competitive advantage enabling the company to provide logistics management as an added value service to its clients.
“We are in a customer-and product-delivery focused business and I am absolutely convinced that within the next five years, supply chain logistics will become the key differentiating lever in our industry,” said Lafarge. “In the manufacturing sector, the business survival of suppliers will depend on our ability to provide B2B integration as part of our customer service. Our customers are looking to keep stocks low and inventory moving.”