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Day: 24 July 2026

Renault Reduces Order Processing with Robots

Posted on by David Priestman

Global automotive leader Renault Group has partnered with Exotec to automate its spare parts operation across its warehouses in France. Thanks to the implementation of a fleet of Exotec’s Skypod robots, Renault has successfully reduced its order processing time from two hours to just 15 minutes, making a huge difference to efficiency and customer satisfaction.

The challenge

Prior to the partnership, Renault Group struggled to efficiently manage the delivery and distribution of replacement vehicle parts in Europe. Its system was fragmented, and its warehouses were organised by part types rather than by geographic regions or markets.

It also lacked a regional distribution warehouse for France, which accounts for 37% of Renault’s parts and accessories business, while the company relied heavily on outdated systems to handle operations, This severely limited Renault Group’s capacity to meet national demand.

The solution

As part of a significant overhaul of its operations, Renault Group fully reorganised its spare parts warehouses. This involved closing its older Cergy site to make way for a new facility in Puiseux dedicated to serving European and international markets, and the specialisation of the Flins-sur-Seine warehouse to focus on heavy and bulky parts.

Exotec was called upon to help transform and modernise Renault Group’s Villeroy warehouse. This meant installing Exotec’s Skypod system, which hosts 167 Skypod robots, 14 picking stations, two replenishment stations and 67,000 storage bins, processing 4,130 bins an hour with a rack height of 10.8 metres – enabling the storage and picking of over 1.6 million items.

Customer service

Customer service satisfaction rate now exceeds 99.7%, demonstrating a high standard of reliability. The ability to dispatch all parts ordered up to 5:30 PM for next-day delivery by 8:00 AM, ensuring swift and timely fulfilment. Consolidating over 80% of French business into a single warehouse, significantly reducing order processing times and streamlining logistics. Renault Group has integrated over 15,000 product references, with a long-term target of 20,000, ensuring a broad and diverse selection of available parts.

Costs reduction and productivity increases

A reduction in order processing time from 120 minutes to just 15 minutes, significantly enhancing efficiency and customer satisfaction. A productivity improvement within the ReVA perimeter by a factor of 4, aiming to handle 20,000 order lines per day and dramatically cutting customer order processing times. Stabilised and reduced reliance on temporary staff, resulting in a more consistent and reliable workforce.

End-to-end Integration of specialised machines

Integration included a range of specialised machines in tandem with the Skypod system, including two carton forming machines, two closing machines, three packing list printers, two RFID shipping label printers, a wrapping machine, and 30 ergonomic grippers, enhancing operational efficiency.

The project merged dealer label printers with Exotec picking stations to improve inventory traceability and stock management. It incorporated a rubbish collection system directly into the injection stations, optimising waste management processes and maintaining a clean and orderly workspace.

According to Renault Group,

“Keeping to the schedule and achieving our ramp-up curve have been major challenges that we’ve struggled with in the past. We are satisfied with the results achieved following our partnership with Exotec, and are preparing to finalise the organisational transformation around our new facility.”

Romain Moulin, CEO of Exotec, added,

“We look forward to continuing our journey with Renault Group as it continues to enhance its spare parts operation. The initial results following the installation of Skypod at Renault’s Villeroy site are very promising, and we plan to continue this momentum as we expand our relationship.”

Exotec and Renault Group have since expanded their partnership to Germany, where 89 Skypod robots are being deployed at Renault Deutschland AG’s new automated warehouse in Brühl to supply car dealers across the country with spare parts — marking the first time Renault has used an automated warehouse in Germany.

Don’t Operate in the Dark

Posted on by David Priestman

The retail DC has never faced a bigger challenge than that of warehouse data. Advice from Oana Jinga, Co-Founder & Chief Commercial & Product Officer at Dexory, on why retail warehouses cannot afford to operate in the dark.

Rising customer expectations, razor-thin margins, and the pace of eCommerce mean fulfilment operations must be faster, more accurate, and more cost-efficient than ever. Yet many retailers are quietly losing money through a problem hiding in plain sight: they don’t know what’s happening inside their own warehouses.

The gap between what a WMS says is on a shelf and what is actually there rarely announces itself. Instead, it erodes margin through picking errors, delayed replenishment, inflated safety stock, and customer experience failures that don’t surface until the damage is done. Across the industry, inventory distortion (out-of-stocks and overstock combined) runs at roughly 6.5% of global retail sales.

The root cause is consistent: teams are running on stale data. Without continuous visibility, every downstream decision is built on assumption.

When data goes stale, costs compound

Picking errors are rarely the result of poor process design or undertrained staff, rather they stem from inaccurate location data. When a picker is directed to a bay holding something different from what the system expects, errors are almost inevitable. More training doesn’t fix a data problem… better visibility does.

Research shows 71% of shoppers are less likely to return after a poor fulfilment experience. And when inventory data can’t be trusted, the natural response is to over-order, driving higher carrying costs, wasted space, and capital tied up in stock that reliable data would make unnecessary.

The intelligence gap has a solution

The periodic manual stocktake is simply not keeping pace. Thousands of SKUs, fast-moving pick faces, and constant re-slotting create a moving target that manual counts cannot reliably hit. What retail operations need is continuous intelligence: a real-time picture of what is on the floor, reconciled against the WMS before pick tasks are generated.

This is what Dexory delivers. Autonomous mobile robots scan over 10,000 locations per hour, around the clock, without disrupting live operations. That data feeds DexoryView, a real-time digital twin that surfaces discrepancies as prioritised exceptions, so teams resolve the issues that will cost an order first.

What it looks like in practice

Few examples illustrate the impact more clearly than Vente-unique.com, an online furniture and home décor retailer. Operating across an 80,000 m³ warehouse, the business had trialled drone-based solutions that fell short on accuracy and real-time insight.

As Cyrille Mazal, Supply Chain and Customer Service Director, explains:

“Errors and delays can result in reduced customer experience, which can impact profitability. We needed a solution that provided real-time data without disrupting operations.”

With Dexory, inventory accuracy rose from 92% to 98% within three days, with up to 99.9% consistently maintained thereafter. Stock shortages fell by 74% and inventory costs dropped by 30%. As Mazal puts it:

“We have not only achieved exceptional inventory accuracy but also optimised our ability to perform full inventories several times per week.”

That cadence of daily visibility rather than a periodic snapshot, transforms replenishment from a reactive scramble into a confident, data-led process.

Visibility is no longer optional

Every shift run on outdated data widens the gap between what systems show and what is on the floor. The retailers pulling ahead are not auditing more frequently or hiring more people. They are closing the gap between assumption and reality and finding the return faster and larger than most expected.

The question is no longer whether retail warehouses need real-time inventory intelligence. It’s how long they keep operating without it.

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