DECATHLON: Sports for all | All for sports

In order to be physically fit we need to be associated with some sort of physical exercises and if we choose sports then it is much more interesting. Sports are such an interesting activity, which boost up our energy immensely, and what if we are at a place from where sports equipment are supplied, it’s just exciting!

ISBR organized a visit to Decathlon logistic warehouse on 22 July 2017. Our faculty, Prof. Anni Arnav and Prof.Prabha Kiran accompanied us.

When we arrived at the venue we were guided by Mr. Piyush, an associate of Decathlon, to a meeting room, where we all assembled. After a quick introduction, he shared his experience and some information about the organization from its initial days till now.

The organization was started in the year 1997 in India as a production house. After analyzing the Indian market, in the year 2009, they established as a full fledged manufacturer with vertical integration method. In this method from getting a requirement to the delivery, the whole process is undertaken by the company itself and no external agency is hired.Now, Decathlonmanufactures 40,000 products for 20 different sports.When it comes to selling their product they have a unique way of doing it and that is- the customer first tries the product and if they like it then they buy the product.

Afterward, we were taken to the warehouse facility CAR (which stores stock according to a particular regional requirement) that has three segments; each segment is called cell (there were large racks to stack goods). The first cell constituted something called uniform boxes and blue lines. Blue lines enabled staffs to hand pick any number of quantities from these boxes as per requirement. For easy access to the right product, the tracks are named and products are given a unique RF (identification) number. The entire stock records are processed in SAP software. The layout of this facility was well engineered.

As we moved to cell two, we saw larger boxes of goods with red lines. Red lines indicate that the entire box has to be picked and individual products can’t be taken out. This cell was also dedicated to online shipment. The last cell had irregular boxes and infrastructural spare materials.

One structure that remained constant was the truck bay in each cell; all goods are loaded here and taken to the retail stores.

After the visit, we understood the nuances of the supply chain system. The overall business at Decathlon is very much planned and process oriented which includes; first analyzing the manufacturing requirement, aligning production accordingly and then distribution to the regional store. Decathlon has one major warehouse called CAC, this along with three smaller warehouses called CAR, supply goods to all the retail stores across India.

This visit helped the students understand the world of supply- demand, and retail.