Bragg was intrigued, but unwilling to sign up without doing his homework. He ran some comparisons, visited a few sites where the WMS was live and consulted some industry colleagues. After detailed discussions with PathGuide reps, he became convinced that Latitude could be adapted to handle the company’s needs. Moreover, he suspected the system could manage options he was considering for the future, like automated storage technology. He signed a deal.
Switching on
Before implementing the new software, Horsman had some clean-up to do: For starters, stream-lining the disparate manufacturer’s barcodes into one format to avoid data corruption, a process PathGuide helped facilitate.
Horsman also secured the new data capture hardware three months ahead of go-live and started running the software in the background.
“That allowed us to capture the information on the Latitude system before switching off the old system,” Bragg says. “We used that hardware to capture the barcodes, the bin locations and to re-do and label any items that did not have manufacturer’s labels with an internal barcode.”
Each shift in the lead-up to the launch Bragg had a few staff members walk through the new processes. This totalled nearly two months of person-hours, but he claims it was worth it—the first full day of operation was glitch-free.
“We were able to ship and receive everything day one. Now, that first day was a 14-hour day, but it was a good implementation. We left nothing on the screen. Everything was done for the day.”
The power behind the picks
So how exactly does the new software work?
In a typical day, the building opens at 6:00am. A worker accesses the P21 system and pulls all the previous day’s sales from the branches. The system compares those numbers to each branch’s minimums and maximums and creates a suggested replenishment report.
“That report is reviewed for case lot size and those things,” Bragg explains. “Then it is posted, which creates a transfer in the system, which drops down into the WMS.”
Only after a second scan is completed at 10:00am do workers start the picking process.
“That allows us to capture more and more of the actual day’s sales and the previous evening’s sales as well, which leads to fewer stock-outs.”
The orders enter the WMS and are sorted automatically into different picking routes, which are structured according to pick efficiency, not end destination. Under the old system, staff had to conduct separate picks for each branch.
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