Sotreq striving Parts Logistics Excellence to serve Customers

For more than 80 years in the parts and equipment solutions market, Sotreq is one of the most successful cases of companies that were born to operate in various sectors, with emphasis on the markets of construction, mining, energy, oil, gas and maritime, forestry and agribusiness. With 100% Brazilian capital, it started its operation through the representation of the CAT brand in Brazil, based on a partnership with Caterpillar. Today, its range of solutions covers several other global partners such as Trimble, Rajant, Ponsse, Resemin, Michelin, Agco, among others.

In 2020, to manage the largest stock we have, we implemented a tool developed by CAT that treats each demand curve with the most appropriate algorithms in each situation.

To better serve our customers and being aware of the challenges that are imposed daily to serve them, Sotreq has made strong investments in its logistics structure and infrastructure over the last few years. We invested in Management Systems, such as WMS (Warehouse Management System) and TMS (Transportation Management System). As well as automated storage solutions (VLMs - Vertical Lift Modules), in partnership with SSI Schafer. The last one brought important gains in the face of the challenges of increasing our availability for immediate customer service and helping us to reduce handling costs through productivity gains.

The implemented applications brought the “goods to person” concept to our Parts Distribution Centers, improving our performance and costs per transaction, providing yet another competitive advantage for our business.

The decision to continue with the vertical storage system through (VLMs) was due to the fact that in the timeline, considering, implementation time, investment cost of these solutions versus the costs of traditional expansions in buildings and warehouses in addition to the application of traditional furnishings would not bring competitive advantages to the business, considering the fact that solutionscan be easily reallocated between operations as needed.

We are attentive to the needs of our customers and the constant changes that the market imposes on us. Starting with our inbound operations, which strategically take place at night to increase productivity in attendance transport overnight, mainly on routes with shorter distances, supporting stock and emergency operations with competitive and robust lead times, in addition to the strong performance in security of the load through own Trasportantion risk management. Faced with market needs, we are always open to new fronts and market differentials, delivering complete and modern solutions to customers such as our DropBox (RetirAqui) at our branch in Sumaré (São Paulo state), where, through a QRCode, the customer can pick up their products whenever they want, in a simple and agile way, without depending on any interactions, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

It is also important to highlight our strategically positioned logistics HUBs to efficiently pick up materials, avoiding loss of time and unnecessary trips for our technicians to execute field services.

“ We are a company that always seeks to innovate and bring new proposals and solutions to our customers ”

We are a company that always seeks to innovate and bring new proposals and solutions to our customers. The sustainability topics are in our DNA, through a robust corporate ESG agenda. In our logistics, we have already started to design, and piloting initiatives related to more sustainable deliveries with electric vehicles in our branch at Contagem (Minas Gerais state), as well as to reverse packaging logistics with an strategic partner in Brazil.

There are more than 50 branches in Brazil, where we have approximately 6 thousand employees, most of them highly qualified technicians in the markets, who are dedicated to the delivery of differentiated and complete product support in parts, services, contracts, and technology. One of our greatest achievements, from a human perspective, was the recognition obtained, in 2021, when we entered the great place to work (GPTW) ranking in Rio de Janeiro, among the best companies to work for. In 2022, we increased our relevance in the same ranking, as we were among the main ones, not only in Rio de Janeiro (4th position), but also in the countryside of São Paulo state (15th position).

In conclusion, in our Parts Logistics structure we have achieved significant gains and we have, daily, taken significant qualitative leaps, focusing on important pillars such as People, Processes, Systems and, above all, always putting the Safety of our employees and partners first. All in line with our business vision, always connected and up to date with the constant changes required by the market.

Solutions:

Drop Box: Automated Customer Parts Pickup

 

 

 

 

 

 

Partner: CliqRetire

Implementation of a last mile delivery service using an electric motorcycle with semi-trailer

Partner: BikeInLine

 

 

 

 

Vertical Automated Storage (17 Equipment’s Applied 2021/2022 - $2MEuros Investments)

Partner: SSISchafer.