Dhygietal and Exotec: Automation Serving Growth

Faced with the explosion of the online para-pharmacy market, Dhygietal made the bold bet on automation to support its leadership ambitions. Discover how this French company transformed its logistics to handle more orders, expand its catalog, and improve working conditions for its teams.

Before automating the warehouse, Dhygietal operators walked an average of 15 kilometers to prepare up to 4,000 daily orders.

The installation of the Exotec robotic system has radically transformed this reality, with the aim of retaining employees:

• End of long distances traveled with “goods-to-person” robots
• Simplification of the picking process, which has become intuitive
• Significant reduction in work difficulty

As Didier Campanella, Deputy General Director of Dhygietal, emphasizes: “For the teams, there’s no longer the anxiety of not finding a product: if the product isn’t in the bin, you report it and move on to the next one. This brings real serenity to the teams.”

The system was quickly mastered, with “a grasp of basic operations in just two weeks and optimal picking productivity achieved in one month,” according to Didier Campanella

One of Dhygietal’s major challenges was to significantly increase its number of references while optimizing its floor space. The Exotec system provided a decisive answer to this challenge:

• Increase from 25,000 to 40,000 references “almost without logistical effort”
• Utilisation of height up to 11 meters to maximize storage
• Automated management of expiration dates, previously visual and human
• Increased flexibility in delivery and inventory management

“The densification is a success. Going from 25,000 to 40,000 references was easy. The main difficulty is no longer finding physical space, but simply registering these new references in the system,” confirms Didier Campanella.

This spatial optimization allows Dhygietal to enrich its customer offering, the true engine of its growth strategy, without traditional logistical constraints.

The Exotec solution now supports Dhygietal’s strong growth:

• Addition of 5 ASRS robots since the site launch to ensure site performance
• Flexibility to increase preparation capacity, with the addition of a 4th picking station
• Ability to quickly integrate new activities, particularly with the acquisition of Pascal Coste Shopping and its 8,000 additional references
• Comprehensive and integrated solution, from injection to parcel output

The independence of the robots is also a major asset: “With our current 43 robots, if one breaks down, the others continue to operate, avoiding a complete system shutdown.”

This scalability responds to the group’s acquisition dynamics, as illustrated by the integration of Pascal Coste Shopping’s activity, decided after the installation of Exotec’s Skypod system.

Ultimately, the collaboration between Dhygietal and Exotec demonstrates how warehouse automation can not only address current logistical challenges but also constitute a true strategic lever to support ambitious growth.