DHL Supply Chain Supports Baycrew's Growth Strategy in Japan With Automated Packing Line (APL)

DHL Automation solution provides stable and high-quality service to support Baycrew’s rapidly expanding e-commerce business, an essential part of the customer’s growth strategy

DHL Supply Chain Japan, the global leader in contract logistics, announces the deployment of an automated packing line in Baycrew’s outbound logistics operations to support its plan to strengthen e-commerce business. Baycrew’s is a leading apparel company in Japan offering a wide range of products for both retail and e-commerce and DHL Supply Chain Japan has been engaged in their logistics operations since July 2016 at Kashiwa-shonan Logistics Center.

“To support Baycrew’s plan to grow its e-commerce business, we thought it was critical to come up with an innovative solution to increase throughput without increasing the operations footprint whilst delivering productivity improvements” says Abe Yutaka, Head of Consumer & Retail at DHL Supply Chain Japan. “Our solutions design & operations teams first analyzed which process was most labor-intensive and suitable for automation. Then they identified e-commerce packing process as the best fit and proposed the automated packing line solution to increase outbound capacity and become less labor-intensive.”

The auto packing line combines multiple equipment with manual work. The required packing output can be achieved when each element performs up to its designed capacity. The solution was not only about automating manual processes but also about streamlining processes with support from the customer. Additionally, the solution has been modularized, allowing for some manual packing to ensure stability and flexibility.

Eiji Takano, Executive Officer at Baycrew’s says, “I trust that automation in logistics will provide the necessary capacity, cost performance and service level to support our growth. We don't want to just mechanize everything, but also leverage manual work where necessary, maximizing performance and integrating ‘machine’ and ‘people’ in alignment with our philosophy of ‘People first in everything we do’. Also, as labor saving solutions are inevitably needed not only in logistics, but also in all industries, I hope that this automation will serve as a role model and make a significant contribution to the apparel industry.”

“It's all up to people how effective you can be with technology and automation,” adds Hiroyuki Dobashi, Baycrew’s Supply Chain Division Director. “I believe that it is the power of ‘people’ and ‘operations management’ that unleashes potentials, and this is the area where DHL is strong in. We have already seen capacity and productivity improvements after go-live, and I am excited about further potentials. I hope that through our partnership, DHL and Baycrew’s can lead the apparel logistics industry in Japan, and deliver products to customers at higher service levels.”

Jérôme Gillet, CEO Japan and Korea, DHL Supply Chain says, “DHL Supply Chain Japan is constantly exploring automation solutions and innovation with a focus on delivering productivity improvements, better quality and scalability to support our customer's growth.”