High-voltage service power

Rexel Austria and Quehenberger ensure the continuous supply of the electronics sector, electrical retailers, and industry, too.

From the smallest button cells via cable drums weighing several tons to photovoltaic modules: Rexel, the Austrian market leader in electrical wholesale trade, offers the complete required product range to the electrical trade and – retail business, but also to the industry.
Quehenberger takes care of just-in-time deliveries. It sounds simple, however, it requires a meticulously devised and more than flexibly designed supply chain in the background, because quick and accurate deliveries are no longer a trend, but a competitive prerequisite. The B2C-experience – ordered today and delivered tomorrow – also influences the B2B-sector. Customers transfer these expectations from the private sphere to business, just think of the so-called “amazonisation”. This requires a demanding performance and ever smaller time slots.

FASTER THAN A 24-H-SERVICE

If you order goods with Rexel in Salzburg, Carinthia, and parts of Tyrol until 7 p.m., you will receive them within 12 to 16 hours – delivered by Quehenberger. It is not enough, however, to have this regional industry-specific solution: “To deliver just-in-time is not enough to enable electricians and installation companies to do their work – it also needs to be just-in-sequence”, Andreas Letsch, Director Operations at Quehenberger, explains. A sophisticated route concept with daily innight-crossdock-deliveries from a Rexel central warehouse in Upper Austria to Carinthia and Salzburg has been elaborated in order to guarantee this special service.
The concept includes more than 100 daily, individual deliveries at scheduled dates (time slot 5 a.m. to 1 p.m.), milkruns, regular reporting as well as empties handling and returns management. Two dispatching – and customer service towers in Salzburg and Carinthia steer the fine-tuned Quehenberger vehicle fleet and the available resources ready to take over in case of volume variations. Thanks to complete visibility – the QCCP is directly connected by an interface with the Rexel TMS – the dispatchers can easily and flexibly contact the sales networks of Schäcke and Regro of the Rexel group.

SMOOTH COOPERATION

Quehenberger handles for Rexel approx. 110,000 transport orders to Fürnitz (Carinthia) and another 135,000 transport orders to Salzburg per year. This project is a special challenge due to varying product sizes, and the flexible logistics concept proved to be simply perfect during the pandemic-related lockdowns in 2020.
The key factor of success, however, was the excellent team work and communication with Rexel: “Thanks to continuous process optimisation and close coordination, we have been able to cope exceptionally well with the crisis”, Letsch says.

WELL PREPARED FOR THE FUTURE

The economic uncertainty during the pandemic has not only accelerated the trend towards flexibility. It is indispensable to react specifically to modified requirements and customer wishes: “Whether we are talking about contactless delivery, Click&Collect, the use of sustainable products, or the development of energy-efficient solutions – customer satisfaction is always top priority; and this requires solutionoriented, flexible, and reliable partnerships at eye level”, according to Prok. Stefan Huemer, Supply Chain Manager at Rexel. This full availability of service, delivery, and order processing in all parts of the supply chain is based primarily on the longstanding and appreciative cooperation between Rexel and Quehenberger – handshake quality included.
The customer feedback confirms the common course: “The level of service is very high and we continuously develop and improve in this context. That’s our secret of success”, Huemer affirms.

The next challenge is already waiting for Rexel and Quehenberger: in 2021, the globally prevailing shortage of raw materials, in combination with the high demand in the construction – and electric power industries and the shortage of cargo space resulting thereof, as well as the existing lack of drivers represent a big challenge for the companies – which will be mastered together in a well proven way.