National Importers is dedicated to bringing its customers the finest foods from around the world. The food conglomerate needed a system that would provide accurate recording and tracking of products being picked and shipped, as well as ability to deliver quality products in a timely manner. The Avante bar-code real-time shipping solution is doing just that.
National Importers Inc. National Importers West Ltd. and National Importers Canada Ltd (hereafter referred to as "National Importers") have been importing food products from virtually everywhere in the world for over half a century. Together with Grantham Foods, these four entities compose the Food Group for a diverse Canadian conglomerate. In this competitive, high volume, low value business, the Canadian Food Group must consistently raise its standards by continuing to improve accuracy and deliver product as rapidly as possible.
To meet this challenge, Summa Tech, the information technology arm for the 18-company conglomerate, was charged with moving the Food Group from a manual pick and ship system to an automated one. With Epicor Software Corporation's Avanté solution already in use throughout the conglomerate, it was natural for Summa Tech to partner with Epicor to add bar-code real-time shipping (BRS) to the total solution for the Food Group-based companies.
Shipping Methods Needed an Update
Prior to implementing Avanté BRS, National Importers was using a manual pick and ship system to meet its shipping needs. However, due to the manual nature of the system and the high level of detail required, the company had to keep adding staff in both warehouses to keep up with shipment entries. With more than 500 sku's, 3,500-plus customers and 70,000 invoice line details per month, Summa Tech and Food Group management knew it was time for a change.
"After meeting with the Epicor team, we realized that we would greatly benefit from the efficiencies of Avanté BRS," says Ken Askew, general manager, Summa Tech. "Our high volume, together with the diversity of products in the Food Group – especially National Importers – made this a critical decision--one which would enable us to better serve our customers with more efficient control of our inventory."
Implementation Highlights
As an existing Avanté customer, the BRS module integrated seamlessly with the rest of National Importer's solution. The Epicor team spearheaded the BRS hardware and software implementation, which included a radio frequency (RF) system and bar-code related technology.
Epicor partners with Intermec Corporation, the leader in data collection equipment for manufacturers to deliver the BRS solution. The National Importers implementation included the Intermec Controller to maintain real-time Avanté sessions designed to fit on the handheld unit's small text screen. This capability allows handheld sessions to stay alive when the unit is off, making restart easy for the warehouse user.
To initiate accurate lot control, National Importer's set up included turning on location control for the warehouse and establishing location codes. The staff created location master records, as well as added item/warehouse coding to each item in the system. Bar coding was also added to each pallet in the warehouse.
"Now that BRS is up and running, pickers can look at their handheld units to view their pick order, then scan the lot and item number from the bar code located on the pallet. All very accurately and rapidly," continues Rob Hayman, Food Group controller. "And we are better utilizing resources. Our accounting staff is freed up from the manual entry of shipments to do other things. And, warehouse managers can do faster, more accurate warehouse inventory checks with the handhelds."
Lot Control Before and After
Managing different lots of food is critical in the food distribution business. Lots that have been in the warehouse the longest need to be picked and shipped before newly arrived product. When using a manual system, it is difficult to track and control lot shipment to meet this requirement. In fact, before Avanté BRS, National Importers lot control as shown on the books would often go into the negative, because pickers didn't necessarily record or pick from the actual lot number.
The company's lot control accuracy has much improved with BRS. Now, by using handheld devices, National Importers warehouse pickers automatically record the lot/location via the scanning barcodes.
"With better lot control, we can run the business more efficiently and make more timely decisions," declares Hayman. "For example, if there is an industry recall, we now have the data to retrieve the stock, wherever it is. It's also important for us to know what lots are in the warehouse, because it enables us to do the best before dating so we can pull stock and, if necessary, put it on promotion."
National Importers has realized a number of time-saving benefits since implementing Avanté BRS, but they have seen the most in the shipment-to-stage phase. With Avanté BRS, the step to go from shipment entry to stage-to-ship entry is now just two keystrokes.
"When you do the math on the time savings of just keystrokes, it's pretty amazing," according to Askew. "Given that the average shipment entry was five minutes per order prior to BRS, and that now, with BRS, the average stage-to-ship entry is now one minute, that's a gain of four minutes per order. National Importers West has an average of 3,750 orders per month. At four minutes per order, that's a savings of 250 hours a month!"
What's Next
The next step for Summa Tech is to expand Avanté BRS into the fourth Food Group company (Grantham Foods) and work with Epicor on customizations.
"We've built a very successful partnership with Epicor and are looking forward to working with them on some BRS customizations to meet our business needs," states Askew. "For example, we'd like to have the system automatically generate invoices, removing another data entry step. We are also working to customize the stage-to-ship process to eliminate the printed packslip. With our growing volume, the time and cost savings of these customizations should be substantial."
Summa Tech is also looking at the Avanté Advanced Packing and Tracking (APT) module. This new Avanté module would enable the Food Group to use cartons as shippable entities for those customers who prefer this tracking method.
"The flexibility to grow and enhance our picking process as the market dictates is critical to our continuing success," concludes Hayman. "With Avanté BRS, we have the tools to rapidly respond to the changing product tracking needs of our suppliers and customers."
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