14 INSIDE ATR ATR World ILS backs up product availability at Inter Cars Why can Inter Cars customers sleep peacefully? This, among other things, is explained by Wojciech Aleksandrowicz, President and Managing Director at ILS, the company that manages logistics at the Inter Cars Group. eral years before it moved to its new loca tion. This solution was also implemented at the logistics centre in Sosnowiec. This pro ject allowed for further acceleration and simplification of processes. How does the latest new plant of ILS, the European Logistics and Development Centre in Zakroczym, look in terms of new technologies? When we decided to relocate our main op erations to the European Logistics and Development Centre, we began seeking technological solutions that would give way to a severalfold increase in scale. After assessing our options, we decided to implement an innovative system designed to meet our needs of attaining a very effi cient crossbelt sorter. Its features include individual carriages for delivery reception and product returns, conveyor solutions and a parcel shipping sorter. This was a major technological leap for our company that helps us to accurately fulfil our cus tomers delivery expectations. What are the biggest challenges facing ILS, or logistics at Inter Cars today? First of all, we have further distinct project plans that often involves the implementa tion of new, advanced solutions. Of course, due to our growth, we also face challenges in employer recruitment. With the growing In 2020, the domestic warehouses of ILS handled the flow of 117 million pieces of goods, sending over 100 thousand cars on domestic and foreign routes. Is this perhaps the best indication of the scale of growth that ILS is currently facing? Over the years of continuous develop ment and expansion of our logistics cen tres we have reached the point where ILS warehouse floor space in Poland totals al most 200,000 m2. This mainly consists of three main Logistics Centres: European Logistics and Development Centre in Zakroczym Czosnów, Western Logistics Centre in Komorniki and Southern Logistics Centre in Sosnowiec. We also manage an extensive network of socalled midihubs, i.e., mediumsized warehouses located near large Polish cities Białystok, Lublin, Szczecin, Łódź, Wrocław, Rzeszów and Pruszcz Gdański. Let us also not forget about our foreign logistics units. As a cap ital group, we have large warehouses e.g. in Romania, which was one of the first, plus in Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Bulgaria and Greece. Such an extensive logistics net work requires appropriate coordination and we at ILS strive to provide this at the highest possible level. How has the technology used by ILS in logistics changed over the years? The basic technical solution, which was introduced at Inter Cars almost twenty years ago and is still successfully used to day, are belt and roller conveyor systems. Of course, today there are many more sophisticated installations, which often cooperate with other, more advanced solu tions, but I will come back to them later on. Conveyor systems help bring goods col lected at different levels of the warehouse to one place where shipments are put to gether and packed properly. They are also used in the goods receipt process. What else is worth mentioning? Another important modernisation was the introduction of mobile terminals as a basic tool for warehouse workers. These devices provide our employees with all the rele vant information concerning the path of order picking, goods receipt process flow, packaging and loading. We have been us ing radio technology in our central ware houses for almost twenty years. Inter Cars branches implemented this solution hereafter. Though you have streamlined your processes … … and we have eliminated paper in our warehouse workplaces, which is also envi ronmentally friendly. The introduction of the “put to light” system in the packaging area was the last major change to be made to the central warehouse in Czosnów sev