A review of the career of Thierry Fabris, trainer and consultant with a passion for logistics
After a purely logistics-based education, including a DUT in Transport and Logistics obtained in Lille, Thierry Fabris is now at the head of two flourishing companies : TFCL, a consultancy firm offering services in four main areas (implementation of logistics information systems such as WMS (e.g. Medline, Groupe Coopératif Agricole Unicor), TMS and other software (e.g. Unicor Generix, ODOO Interflora), mechanisation of logistics sites (e.g. Lidl, Décathlon, bioMérieux), reorganisation of warehouses and staff, transition management) and Etxe Logistika, a logistics warehouse that is a member of E-Logik, a national network specialising in e-commerce. Mr FABRIS is also a trainer and, in this capacity, has on several occasions lectured at ESTIA Ecole d’Ingénieurs de Bayonne, INP Ecole d’Ingénieurs Purpan and ENIT Ecole Nationale d’Ingénieurs de Tarbes.
Thierry Fabris’ philosophy, according to his website https://www.tfclog.com/ which we urge you to consult for further information :
• Assimilate the company‘s DNA • Listening to and understanding existing projects and flows • Audit the organisation and identify areas for improvement together • Recommending and quantifying the impact of change • Recommend performance measurement tools • Support for operational implementation • Training teams • Assisting in the launch phases
At first sight, Mr FABRIS was not at all predisposed to working in the parcel and order preparation sector. In the end, it was more a matter of chance and the need to leave the family cocoon that led him to take an interest in the “logistics microcosm”, he explains, whose scope and ramifications were very small at the time, which, according to him, created a truly favourable breeding ground for a privileged understanding of a sector, and then a profession, in the making.
He then obtained his first qualifications in distribution and logistics by joining the teams at Leroy Merlin in LILLE (on a qualification contract with INTERFOR AMIENS formation Chambre de Commerce et d’Industrie de Picardie), a “fabulous company”, according to him. As he goes on, the seasoned logistician praises the quality of the educational system in the sector at the time, thanks in particular to a “very intelligent” rhythm, with a school apprenticeship timetable based on 4 days at the company for 2 days at school, and a plethora of responsibilities for students wishing to get involved in the Leroy Merlin purchasing centre (Thierry FABRIS was assigned to the taps/electricity department at the time). He also recognises that the group was a forerunner in the digital era and was very adaptable.
Thierry FABRIS then did his traditional military service, a course that enabled him to see a lot of the country and learn values that he now considers essential, such as discipline, rigour and readiness to work. In his view, these three pillars are quite simply vital in logistics. Before it is even a physical operation,” he continues, “it is first and foremost an information operation, at the convergence of information (in the supply chain in particular = logistics + transport)”, before concluding: “This phenomenon is all the more exacerbated at present, with e-commerce, not least because we want everything, right away and perhaps too quickly…”.
After 10 months’ military service, Thierry FABRIS became Supply Manager at Castorama’s central purchasing office between 1994 and 1999 (electrical and sanitary products). At the time, Castorama was the economic leader in the DIY sector, and he describes the company as “magnificent”. It had a lot of resources at its disposal, which it put to good use and made available to its employees. What’s more, he mastered IT completely, which enabled him to be a leader and trainer for his colleagues.
Over the next two years, the apprehensive crisis of the “Y2K bug” combined with the introduction of a new “client-server” era to shake up all the codes of the time. Thierry FABRIS was then an IT project manager when he became Project Director. His mission was to change the ERP for the logistics part of Castorama, which at the time was not using a Warehouse Management System (WMS) but had been asked to implement one to link all the warehouses in the North region (5 warehouses in total). Drawing on this considerable experience from a different perspective, but still focused on logistics (his objective was to make this WMS understandable and functional for all users), coordinating requirements, managing operators and the corporate culture, Thierry FABRIS came away not only with a wealth of experience, but also with an even greater thirst to further develop the skills and know-how he had acquired.
In 2002, he became Castorama’s Northern Regional Director of Warehouse Operations, a new experience rich in contributions of all kinds. In 2004, after a fantastic decade, Thierry Fabris decided to move to the surfwear brand Quiksilver, initially based in Antwerp. Throughout his ten-year adventure with Quiksilver, he implemented logistics outsourcing, working alongside international giant Katoen Natie in a warehouse of over 30,000 m². In 2007, he became Logistics Director for Europe and moved to the brand’s headquarters in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, in south-west France. In 2007, he helped set up a second warehouse of the same size, following Rossignol‘s takeover of the brand, and was appointed to modify the production layout accordingly, to box 150,000 to 180,000 items a day.
This professional epic came to an end in 2014, at the dawn of mass digitalisation and the advent of B2B / B2C omnichannel, to open new blank pages as a freelancer. That year, he set up TFCL, with which he carries out a wide variety of assignments in all types of business, whatever their size (for small businesses such as VSEs and SMEs, and even the self-employed, as well as large companies and major groups), their nature or the way they operate.
He has worked with Point Vert, Imerys (world leader in mineral specialities for industry), the Chantelle group, Loxam, GT Logistics, Sokoa Genexco (optimising existing storage resources, recommending storage methods based on physical packaging and product rotation, optimising the layout and preparation path and recommending a location management method), Fives Cinetic (an industrial group specialising in robotics), SAP, Meca-Système (specialists in packaging mechanisation) and many others. TFCL is currently working on a major project with Interflora, a specialist in the delivery of fresh flowers 7 days a week.
In September 2016, Thierry FABRIS met Thierry DUPRE, founder and Chairman of E-Logik, at the Paris e-commerce trade fair. DUPRE invited Thierry FABRIS to join the network of logistics platforms, which now has more than 20 in France and Switzerland. The Etxe Logistika adventure then began, fraught with pitfalls like so many start-ups, generating a year of doubts and questioning, adjustments and research, the most delicate task of which was finally to find suitable premises.
With his partner, Jean-Christophe PASTOURET, also a logistician at Quiksilver, Thierry FABRIS, who is positive by nature, eventually found the right warehouse. Today, Etxe Logistika focuses its business on telephony, cosmetics and food, its spearheads. The catchment area : the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region and Spain. Most of the time, stories between future partners begin with a request for advice. Today, Etxe Logistika dispatches almost 2,500 parcels a month, all over the world, 80% of which are in France and 15% in Europe. Etxe Logistika sends between 20 and 30 of these parcels a day, using Blocbox.
After more than 20 years of sending parcels and handling cushioning materials, including the selection of these materials, Mr FABRIS deplores the fact that the cushioning and packaging market (including all types of parcel protection, as well as stacking, strapping and other types of handling, excluding distribution) has seen so little development, despite current technological know-how and progress in general. So it was a natural step to test the Blocbox and Ouatbox innovations as soon as they were launched on the market.
In his opinion, their main advantages are economic, which is very interesting for positioning oneself as a challenger to the competition, and the eco-friendly aspect also echoes this opportunity, particularly for boosting the communication of the user company. According to Thierry FABRIS, Blocbox and Ouatbox are the best cushioning materials today for protecting glass, in particular because it is such a sensitive material. He acknowledges, however, that there is still a need to “educate” end-users and recipients, because with any new cushioning material, a turning point must necessarily be reached in the “acceptance” of the protective product, and the general public, like e-commerce and supply chain professionals, are not always prepared for this.
To this end, the Blocbox and Ouatbox labels inserted in the parcels seem, in his view, to be a good way of communicating these innovations and enabling consumers to get to grips with them. One of Etxe Logistika’s partners, Freskoa, an online grocery shop offering Basque products sourced directly from farms or artisan workshops, will be the first Etxe Logistika partner to adopt the use of Ouatbox in its parcels.
On the operator-user side, Thierry FABRIS reminds us that behind a parcel there is – for the time being – always a man or a woman, in other words a human being, and that in this sense it is essential, even primordial, to prepare the individual well (for example by means of training). At Etxe Logistika, thanks to on-the-job training and close communication between the creator of Blocbox and the warehouse manager, as well as his right-hand man and partner Jean-Christophe PASTOURET, the “feeling” is “very good” for the logisticians who have tested Blocbox and Ouatbox, recalls Mr FABRIS.
A final word of advice from the expert for the road ahead? “Logistics efficiency starts with receiving, locating and then storing. The information system is a real bonus here.
To find out more :
TFCL : https://www.tfclog.com/
Etxe Logistika (logistique e-commerce) : https://www.etxelogistika.fr/
E-Logik (prestataire logistique e-commerce) : https://www.e-logik.fr/
Freskoa (le meilleur du Pays Basque sur votre table) : https://freskoa.store/