Our analysis suggested our efficiencies would increase by 50 percent. The results, however, were dramatically better: Our receiving process and pick-per-hour speed increased by almost 300 percent.
Third-party logistics company SKU Distribution offers its clients the freedom to focus “on their business” rather than get trapped in the day-to-day of operating “in their business.” As the company grew, its previous supply chain software slowed it down: picking, receiving, and inventory put-away speeds fell below industry averages, leading to more labor hours and overtime.
The Needs
SKU Distribution needed a scalable, efficient and accurate solution to bring down operational overhead – and they needed it quickly, because as the company’s customer base grew, its inefficiency was growing exponentially.
An Unusual Rollout
Issues with the previous software had reached a critical point: SKU Distribution opted to roll out the new solution over a weekend during the busiest time of the year.
“Operations were shut down at noon on a Friday after the completion of all picking and shipping activities. Ten college students were hired to assist in the transition: Everything was cycled counted in the primary locations for picking. The process was completed by Sunday afternoon. We went live with Savant Sunday afternoon, tested several orders and were up and running Monday morning with very little downtime. By Tuesday afternoon, we were in full operation mode,” explained James Peacock, Founder and CEO.
The Solution
SKU Distribution found the right fit through Honeywell Marketplace and its Independent Software Vendor, Savant Software. Savant’s solution utilizes the rugged, future-proof Honeywell CT60 for every activity in the warehouse, from receiving and put-away of goods to picking for direct-to-customer and direct-to-retail clients.
The Benefits
• The order picking rate approximately doubled to 60/hour on average, giving employees the ability to pick 20 orders at a time with one sweep through the warehouse.
• SKU was able to reduce picking staff by 50 percent, reassigning three employees previously dedicated to accuracy checks to perform other operational activities.
• The unload and put-away process shrank immediately with the Savant rollout, from 6+ days to 8 hours. The system allowed SKU Distribution to locate and mitigate any issues in real-time and gives its clients’ real-time access, too.
A responsive web portal for SKU’s clients
The Savant/Honeywell solution’s responsive web portal gives the company’s clients the ability to see orders at every stage of the picking process, as well as those waiting to be picked. Clients can place orders on hold, change shipping details, and add or remove products from the order in real time, in addition to viewing when orders are shipped or back-ordered.
The upgrade eliminated 99.9 percent of SKU Distribution’s customer service calls, allowing the company to reduce customer service staff by 30 percent.