Turnkey warehouse automation for a multi-country FMCG distributor — racking replacement, conveyor and sortation system, WMS deployment, Zebra handheld rollout, and ERP integration. Commissioned in time for peak season.
The distributor operates fast-moving consumer goods distribution across three countries, serving over 3 000 retail points from a central DC in Kosova. Volumes had grown 40% over three years, and the existing warehouse — manual operation on basic pallet racking — was hitting capacity limits during peak season. Late dispatches to key retail customers were costing commercial standing.
Management's initial option had been a second warehouse. Virtual Era was retained for a pre-decision assessment, which concluded that a comprehensive automation of the existing site would create 80% of the additional capacity of a second warehouse at 30% of the capital cost.
The critical constraint was timing: the new system had to be commissioned before peak season (Q4) and could not disrupt operations during the peak window leading up to it. A conventional warehouse-automation project timeline (typically 15–18 months for this scale) would have missed the window.
The operational challenge was that the warehouse had to keep running throughout the rollout. Closing the DC for any length of time was not commercially viable. Phased rollout with parallel operations was required, within a physically constrained site where the new and old systems would coexist.
The engagement was designed as four phases within a single site. Phase 1: racking replacement in a defined zone while the rest of the warehouse ran manually. Phase 2: conveyor and sortation system installation in the replaced zone. Phase 3: WMS deployment and handheld rollout, with staff trained on the new platform while the old process ran in parallel. Phase 4: final cutover zone-by-zone, with two weeks of parallel operation per zone.
The WMS choice was deliberate: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management integrated to the distributor's existing Dynamics ERP, rather than a specialist WMS. This meant no integration layer, no data-sync cycle, no additional vendor relationship. The compromise was that a specialist WMS might have offered 5–10% more functionality — but in practice, the operational advantage of a single platform outweighed the feature gap.
"The discipline of the Virtual Era team around phase boundaries was exceptional. Every phase had its own acceptance test. Nothing was allowed to creep forward into the next phase. That's why the peak-season commitment held."
— Operations Director, distributor · [VERIFY]Month 1–3: Phase 1, racking replacement in 40% of warehouse area. Month 4–6: Phase 2, conveyor and sortation. Month 7–8: Phase 3, WMS and handhelds. Month 9–10: Phase 4, zone-by-zone final cutover with parallel operations. Month 11: peak-season operations, RunOps handover.
The single largest in-programme challenge came in Phase 4: the final zone's cutover was complicated by a legacy batch of products with non-standard dimensions that did not fit the new conveyor profile. The solution was a small additional manual handling area for these SKUs — which was added to Phase 4 scope and delivered within the buffer.
The system was commissioned three weeks ahead of peak season. Picks-per-hour — the primary operational measure — moved to 2.1× the manual baseline once operators had completed the learning curve (roughly six weeks post-commissioning). Order-to-dispatch cycle time reduced by 47%, and inventory accuracy moved to 99.7% from roughly 94% on the manual system.
Peak season ran smoothly at volumes 18% higher than the previous year's peak, with no late dispatches and a meaningfully lower overtime bill. The second-warehouse plan was cancelled, releasing capital that was redirected to two additional product lines.
Stow racking system, custom conveyor and sortation design, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, Zebra TC-series handhelds, Zebra label printers, integration to Dynamics ERP, Virtual Era mobile worker-productivity dashboard.
90 minutes, no slides. A senior partner, your relevant executive, and a whiteboard. We frame the opportunity, the risk envelope, and the engagement shape — then agree whether there's a fit before any proposal is drafted.