-What is DON DON DONKI?

DON DON DONKI is a Japan-brand specialty store that offers Japanese quality products and goods. Since opening the first store in Singapore in 2017, the group has expanded its business to other Asian countries and regions, such as Hong Kong and Macau, to promote the appeal of Japanese food and culture.

DON DON DONKI is run by the Pan Pacific International Holdings ("PPIH") Group, a multifaceted operator of general retail business, including Don Quijote, known as one of the largest general discount stores in Japan. In Hong Kong, the group has increased the number of stores to 10 in about three years after the first opening in 2019, with its group company Pan Pacific Retail Management (Hong Kong) Co., Ltd. ("PPRM") in charge of local operations.

-What is the reason for the rapid increase in the number of stores in such a short period of time?

We believe that this has resulted from our creation of new distribution channels with international competitiveness and our steady efforts to develop stores in Hong Kong. In general, many customers in North America and Asia consider Japanese brand products to be high-quality, safe, and reliable. Our strength lies in our abilities to secure price advantages through economies of scale and group synergies unique to the PPIH Group and offer high quality Japanese products to those customers.

The PPIH Group will continue to actively promote Japanese agricultural, livestock, and marine products to further increase awareness of Japanese brand products and their consumption outside Japan.

-How do you use ONEsLOGI?

We currently operate our distribution centers (DC: Distribution Center) in Hong Kong by ourselves. We use ONEsLOGI to manage in-bound operations, such as location management of incoming goods, out-bound operations, such as picking and inspection, and inventory operations linking an MD (Merchandising) system.

-Did you create customized functions in ONEsLOGI?

We generally use the standard functions but had LOGISTEED Solutions customize some operations, including the management of temporary locations for processing, such as putting food label stickers, and the in-bound operation of samples that are not registered in the master data.

-What are the size of warehouses, the volume of goods, the number of items handled, and the number of workers involved in warehouse operations?

We currently have two our own warehouses and one external warehouse to manage and deliver products sold in all the Hong Kong stores. The details are as follows:

-Do you have any plans for future expansion?

We are planning to customize the functions gradually and have already consulted with LOGISTEED Solutions. We are also considering setting up our own distribution warehouses for DON DON DONKI in other regions and would like to use ONEsLOGI for them.

-What is the background of the ONEsLOGI introduction?

We outsourced warehouse operations for a while after opening the first store in Hong Kong. Due to an increase in the volume of goods, however, we decided to set up our own warehouse when opening the fourth store. Since Hong Kong is said to have one of the highest real estate prices in the world, it is difficult for us to carry a large number of items in each store. Because of this, we started thinking that we would need our own distribution warehouse to efficiently and properly deliver products to the stores.

Even after we set up our own warehouse, however, the number of stores and products kept increasing, meaning that items were almost overflowing into the aisles of the warehouse. You may think that we should have moved to a larger warehouse, but that is easier said than done with the Hong Kong real estate market.

We also conducted warehouse management manually using a general-purpose spreadsheet software before the introduction of ONEsLOGI. This also caused issues with work efficiency. In response to a demand for systematization from PPRM to HQ to streamline location management and warehousing operations, we started considering the use of WMS.

-Is there any reason why you chose a Japanese WMS instead of a local product even though it is being used in Hong Kong?

We often outsourced logistics operations to external partner companies and never had a full-scale our own warehouse before. Without implementation experience and operational know-how about WMS, it was difficult for us to even define requirements when considering WMS introduction.

We, of course, considered using an overseas product including a local one, but the IT staff in Hong Kong were in charge of opening new stores and supporting the local systems that they have no time for WMS implementation and operation. A lack of WMS knowledge and language barriers also prevented us from considering an overseas vendor for WMS introduction in Hong Kong, but we thought that a Japanese vendor would be able to provide consultations for WMS, such as how to use and operate it, without such concerns.

Unlike in Europe and the U.S., where inventory is managed in large warehouses, detailed management functions in compact warehouses are also required in Hong Kong, like Japan. In fact, one of the tenants we have currently rented is a compact warehouse divided into two floors. This was also a key factor in choosing a Japanese vendor.

-Did you have any other requirements for WMS?

We received a request for the basic functional requirements such as inventory management, location management, and inventory functions from the operation manager and a request for urgent WMS implementation to improve inefficient operations from the management.

We also conducted online research for WMS selection based on the following requirements and narrowed down the prospects to a few products, including ONEsLOGI:

• A global system that supports multiple languages, such as English, and multiple currencies including local ones
• Simple and easy to use
• Support for basic warehousing operations
• Operable with the standard functions
• Future customization possible during operation

-What is the reason for choosing ONEsLOGI?

We chose ONEsLOGI because its cloud-based service allows quick implementation and operational load minimization regardless of where it is used or installed. ONEsLOGI is also flexibly customizable. Another deciding factor is that LOGISTEED Solutions has been proven and trusted as one of Japanese leading logistics groups with support including remote access capabilities.

-How has the ONEsLOGI introduction affected your company?

Previously, we could not grasp the actual number of items in stock until tallying was completed after all the operation. With ONEsLOGI, however, we can monitor the operation status in real-time.

This system also allows efficient location management, reducing the regular work time by 40 to 50% and the workforce by about 10 people. It used to take two days for 30 workers to complete inventory but now takes only one day for 15 workers.

-This is the last question. How do you evaluate ONEsLOGI and LOGISTEED Solutions or do you have any expectations from them?

We once thought that ONEsLOGI had specifications that were a little more than necessary for the volume of goods and the size of the warehouse we were working with. With reliable services and high performance, however, ONEsLOGI is the best for us in terms of future business expansion and utilization in other regions. We are sure that we made the right choice.

Even when all matters had to be handled remotely not only in Hong Kong but also in Japan due to the COVID-19 pandemic, LOGISTEED Solutions supported us smoothly and closely. We appreciate it very much.

We are looking forward to further improvement in multilingual support and hope LOGISTEED Solutions will continue to provide information to us and consult with us as a logistics expert.