Manhattan helping Sonepar transform distribution network

Manhattan Associates is helping Sonepar Group to transform and harmonise its global distribution network.

Sonepare is expanding its current Manhattan Active Warehouse Management capabilities to support its ongoing global omnichannel supply chain transformation.

The company is investing in Manhattan's offerings to provide top-quality service more quickly, reliably and sustainably.

The decision comes in response to major eCommerce growth and customer demand for a seamless digital and physical experience.

Sonepar, with its Australian subsidiary, Lawrence - Hanson, intends to become the first global B2B electrical distributor to give all its customers a completely digitised omnichannel experience.

Sonepar uses its multichannel distribution and logistics network to make its supply chain more robust, offer competitive pricing and strengthen its customer relationships.

The company's products are available anywhere, anytime at its branches, showrooms, online and on mobile devices.

This rollout sees Sonepar building on previous successes with Manhattan's Warehouse Management offerings, and Manhattan's services will initially be rolled out at Sonepar's Cebeo division in Belgium, followed by other locations.

"Manhattan's cloud-native supply chain solutions are innovative and run on a unique platform enabling us to drive the rapid rollout of state-of-the-art distribution facilities globally, underpinning the buying journey and offering our customers a seamless omnichannel experience," Sonepar chief supply chain officer Jo Verbeek says.

"We believe expanding the global partnership with Manhattan will help Sonepar Group become the first global B2B electrical distributor capable of delivering a truly complete omnichannel experience to each and every one of our customers in a more sustainable, cost-effective way.

"We look forward to working together with Manhattan's team of experts in the coming years to realise this long-term, strategic goal."

Manhattan Active Warehouse Management is the most technologically and operationally advanced supply chain execution system ever created.

Additionally, the cloud-native application is versionless, so it never needs upgrading. This allows organisations to put their efforts into delivering improved customer experiences instead of focusing on systems.

Further, Manhattan Active Warehouse Management uses Order Streaming technology, which makes it the only offering that continuously plans, learns and replans every task and resource simultaneously across retail, wholesale and direct fulfilment workflows.

Orders are streaming individually (or organised into wave-like collections depending on the urgency, type of fulfilment and customer needs) the moment they arrive.

Instead of overloading distribution centres with work all at once, Order Streaming technology makes sure the right resource with sufficient capacity is quickly identified, meaning orders get to the dock ahead of the carrier cut-off times and promised service commitments.

"At the core of Sonepar's offering today is the need to respond to the unique and evolving requirements of every customer," Manhattan Associates senior vice president Henri Seroux says.

"By providing digitised and orchestrated omnichannel capabilities through Manhattan Active Warehouse Management and our other cloud native Manhattan Active Supply Chain solutions, Manhattan is demonstrably and actively contributing to Sonepar's international business goals and long-term success as well."

Manhattan Active Warehouse Management is powered by AI to reach the full potential of customer distribution processes, supporting organisations such as Sonepar to foster greater execution across inventory, labour, advanced automation, robotics and physical space, as well as balance competing task requirements across retail, wholesale and direct channels to achieve optimal fulfilment.

"With a built-in warehouse execution system (WES), Manhattan Active WM is the only distribution system capable of the seamless orchestration of all work across man and machine," Manhattan Associates Australia and New Zealand managing director Raghav Sibal says.

"Organisations like Sonepar and their Australian subsidiary business Lawrence - Hanson will have more visibility than ever before with Manhattan Active WM's highly actionable, real-time operational data visualisations across every facility in the enterprise and integrated direct communication with the workforce."