One company wanted to track the precise location of every item in its DC. Another wanted a way to monitor assets scattered throughout the continent. The answer for both: a sophisticated visibility system.
David Maloney has been a journalist for more than 35 years and is currently the group editorial director for DC Velocity and Supply Chain Quarterly magazines. In this role, he is responsible for the editorial content of both brands of Agile Business Media. Dave joined DC Velocity in April of 2004. Prior to that, he was a senior editor for Modern Materials Handling magazine. Dave also has extensive experience as a broadcast journalist. Before writing for supply chain publications, he was a journalist, television producer and director in Pittsburgh. Dave combines a background of reporting on logistics with his video production experience to bring new opportunities to DC Velocity readers, including web videos highlighting top distribution and logistics facilities, webcasts and other cross-media projects. He continues to live and work in the Pittsburgh area.
Whoever said information is everything could have been talking about the business of logistics and distribution management. Just ask any company that has invested in tracking and tracing technology. These systems, which typically combine data capture technology with sophisticated software, take the guesswork out of determining the whereabouts of items—whether they're inside a DC or somewhere in a far-flung global distribution network. Almost without exception, companies that use this technology say it has allowed them to take service and performance to the next level.
What follows is a look at two companies that have implemented visibility systems and the advantages they've gained. The first, Cooper-Booth Wholesale Co., is using an integrated system to track items within the four walls of its DC. The second, Perfect Pallets, is using track and trace technology to keep tabs on assets scattered throughout the United States and Canada.
A wholesale boost to visibility
For Cooper-Booth, a regional supplier to convenience stores, tobacco outlets, drug stores, and grocers, the move to a sophisticated track/trace system began with its 2009 decision to replace its RF scanning system with voice technology. The wholesaler's original objective in shifting to voice was to kick up picking productivity and accuracy at its 100,000-square-foot DC in Mountville, Pa. Over time, however, the company expanded the system to applications like receiving and putaway, and eventually, inventory tracking. As a result, it now has an end-to-end visibility system that provides info on orders and inventory status, as well as data needed for tasks ranging from labor monitoring to regulatory compliance.
The system, which incorporates scanning technology, a TopVOX voice recognition system, and the company's warehouse management system (WMS), keeps close tabs on inventory from the moment it arrives at the facility. As workers deposit incoming merchandise into picking slots, they scan the locations with Motorola handhelds to marry the slot with the product. When customer orders come in, the WMS allocates products to specific orders and relays picking instructions to workers via the voice system. As workers complete the picks, they read check digits back to the WMS system to verify that items were picked from the correct slots and to confirm the pick.
Data collected during the picking process is automatically transmitted to the WMS, ensuring that its information is updated in real time. Along with the order and inventory status updates, data collected during picking provides visibility into worker performance, which helps the company to better manage its labor.
"We know our productivity, and we know where our errors are coming from," explains Trevor Martin, vice president of operations. He reports that compared with the old RF system, the voice system has not only improved accuracy but also boosted productivity anywhere from 10 to 20 percent, depending on the pick area.
The company has seen other benefits as well. For example, the system provides data needed to track product lots—a capability required by many states in the event of a food or drug recall. It also collects information needed to meet tax record-keeping requirements for tobacco products.
"For tracking purposes, we match the TopVOX data that comes back from picking to the lot that was scanned as it was placed into the pick slot," says Martin.
On top of that, the system enables Cooper-Booth to provide customers with visibility into their orders. Clients no longer have to call or e-mail the company to find out whether an order has been completed or what items an individual order contains. These days, obtaining that information is as simple as logging onto a website.
Perfect tracking
Cooper-Booth's use of a tracking system to monitor goods within a DC is just one example of how visibility systems are deployed. Other companies use the technology to track the movement of goods out in the wider world. Perfect Pallets is one example.
Based in Indianapolis, Perfect Pallets serves as a pallet pooler to the printing industry, supplying reusable plastic pallets to bulk printers for delivering advertising inserts to some 1,200 newspapers in the United States and Canada. At the same time, it operates a fleet of 30 trucks under the Perfect Transportation banner.
The trucking division, which has terminals in Indianapolis; Dickson, Tenn.; and Chandler, Ariz., operates as a for-hire carrier across the United States. But its primary job is to transport the pallets in the company's pool between bulk printing houses and their customers, pick up empty pallets, and handle backhaul loads.
The need to keep tabs on pallets scattered throughout the continent led the company to install a visibility system. "We are not just a standard trucking firm, but have our own assets that we want to keep track of as well," explains Amy Lathrop, director of operations. "We want to have technology to have visibility at all times into our operations."
At the heart of the tracking system is the TMWSuite of enterprise transportation software, which Perfect Pallets adopted several years ago to run its trucking business. The software, which was supplied by TMW Systems, is used in tandem with PeopleNet Fleet Manager to provide in-cab communications and vehicle tracking so Perfect Transportation can continuously monitor the location and status of trucks and their loads.
The system is designed for ease of communication. Using touch screens in their cabs, drivers can obtain the dispatch and delivery data they need—whether it's a new assignment, customer information, load data, sequenced directions, the number of units to deliver, or required documentation. The system, in turn, automatically transmits truck status updates to dispatch every 10 minutes or when an event triggers an update. Status updates include the driver's start time and location, time of arrival at the pickup location, actual quantity of goods loaded, time of departure from the pickup site, and time of arrival at the delivery site.
Clients can track the status of their loads via TMW Systems' online pOréal, eStat. In addition to providing details on shipments in transit, the system allows them to call up information on previous deliveries and view signed proof-of-delivery documents that have been scanned or electronically captured.
"This replaces the old system, where customers had to call for that information. Now, they can just pull it up on the Web," says Walthrop. "From a customer perspective, it shows we provide them with cutting-edge technology, while it adds value to our daily processes. The biggest compliments we hear are from our customers who depend on this system every day."
The British logistics robot vendor Dexory this week said it has raised $80 million in venture funding to support an expansion of its artificial intelligence (AI) powered features, grow its global team, and accelerate the deployment of its autonomous robots.
A “significant focus” continues to be on expanding across the U.S. market, where Dexory is live with customers in seven states and last month opened a U.S. headquarters in Nashville. The Series B will also enhance development and production facilities at its UK headquarters, the firm said.
The “series B” funding round was led by DTCP, with participation from Latitude Ventures, Wave-X and Bootstrap Europe, along with existing investors Atomico, Lakestar, Capnamic, and several angels from the logistics industry. With the close of the round, Dexory has now raised $120 million over the past three years.
Dexory says its product, DexoryView, provides real-time visibility across warehouses of any size through its autonomous mobile robots and AI. The rolling bots use sensor and image data and continuous data collection to perform rapid warehouse scans and create digital twins of warehouse spaces, allowing for optimized performance and future scenario simulations.
Originally announced in September, the move will allow Deutsche Bahn to “fully focus on restructuring the rail infrastructure in Germany and providing climate-friendly passenger and freight transport operations in Germany and Europe,” Werner Gatzer, Chairman of the DB Supervisory Board, said in a release.
For its purchase price, DSV gains an organization with around 72,700 employees at over 1,850 locations. The new owner says it plans to investment around one billion euros in coming years to promote additional growth in German operations. Together, DSV and Schenker will have a combined workforce of approximately 147,000 employees in more than 90 countries, earning pro forma revenue of approximately $43.3 billion (based on 2023 numbers), DSV said.
After removing that unit, Deutsche Bahn retains its core business called the “Systemverbund Bahn,” which includes passenger transport activities in Germany, rail freight activities, operational service units, and railroad infrastructure companies. The DB Group, headquartered in Berlin, employs around 340,000 people.
“We have set clear goals to structurally modernize Deutsche Bahn in the areas of infrastructure, operations and profitability and focus on the core business. The proceeds from the sale will significantly reduce DB’s debt and thus make an important contribution to the financial stability of the DB Group. At the same time, DB Schenker will gain a strong strategic owner in DSV,” Deutsche Bahn CEO Richard Lutz said in a release.
Transportation industry veteran Anne Reinke will become president & CEO of trade group the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA) at the end of the year, stepping into the position from her previous post leading third party logistics (3PL) trade group the Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA), both organizations said today.
Meanwhile, TIA today announced that insider Christopher Burroughs would fill Reinke’s shoes as president & CEO. Burroughs has been with TIA for 13 years, most recently as its vice president of Government Affairs for the past six years, during which time he oversaw all legislative and regulatory efforts before Congress and the federal agencies.
Before her four years leading TIA, Reinke spent two years as Deputy Assistant Secretary with the U.S. Department of Transportation and 16 years with CSX Corporation.
National nonprofit Wreaths Across America (WAA) kicked off its 2024 season this week with a call for volunteers. The group, which honors U.S. military veterans through a range of civic outreach programs, is seeking trucking companies and professional drivers to help deliver wreaths to cemeteries across the country for its annual wreath-laying ceremony, December 14.
“Wreaths Across America relies on the transportation industry to move the mission. The Honor Fleet, composed of dedicated carriers, professional drivers, and other transportation partners, guarantees the delivery of millions of sponsored veterans’ wreaths to their destination each year,” Courtney George, WAA’s director of trucking and industry relations, said in a statement Tuesday. “Transportation partners benefit from driver retention and recruitment, employee engagement, positive brand exposure, and the opportunity to give back to their community’s veterans and military families.”
WAA delivers wreaths to more than 4,500 locations nationwide, and as of this week had added more than 20 loads to be delivered this season. The wreaths are donated by sponsors from across the country, delivered by truckers, and laid at the graves of veterans by WAA volunteers.
Wreaths Across America
Transportation companies interested in joining the Honor Fleet can visit the WAA website to find an open lane or contact the WAA transportation team at trucking@wreathsacrossamerica.org for more information.
Krish Nathan is the Americas CEO for SDI Element Logic, a provider of turnkey automation solutions and sortation systems. Nathan joined SDI Industries in 2000 and honed his project management and engineering expertise in developing and delivering complex material handling solutions. In 2014, he was appointed CEO, and in 2022, he led the search for a strategic partner that could expand SDI’s capabilities. This culminated in the acquisition of SDI by Element Logic, with SDI becoming the Americas branch of the company.
A native of the U.K., Nathan received his bachelor’s degree in manufacturing engineering from Coventry University and has studied executive leadership at Cranfield University.
Q: How would you describe the current state of the supply chain industry?
A: We see the supply chain industry as very dynamic and exciting, both from a growth perspective and from an innovation perspective. The pandemic hangover is still impacting decisions to nearshore, and that has resulted in a spike in business for us in both the USA and Mexico. Adding new technology to our portfolio has been a significant contributor to our continued expansion.
Q: Distributors were making huge tech investments during the pandemic simply to keep up with soaring consumer demand. How have things changed since then?
A: The consumer demand for e-commerce certainly appears to have cooled since the pandemic high, but our clients continue to see steady growth. Growth, combined with low unemployment and high labor costs, continues to make automation a good investment for many companies.
Q: Robotics are still in high demand for material handling applications. What are some of the benefits of these systems?
A: As an organization, we are investing heavily in software that will allow Element Logic to offer solutions for robotic picking that are hardware-agnostic. We have had success deploying unit picking for order fulfillment solutions and unit placing of items onto tray-based sorters.
From a benefit point of view, we’ve seen the consistency of a given operation improve. For example, the placement accuracy of a product onto a tray is far higher from a robotic arm than from a person. In order fulfillment applications, two of the biggest benefits are reliability and hours of operation. The robots don't call in sick, and they are happy to work 22 hours a day!
Q: SDI Element Logic offers a wide range of automated solutions, including automated storage and sortation equipment. What criteria should distributors use to determine what type of system is right for them?
A: There are a significant number of factors to consider when thinking about automation. In my experience, automation pays for itself in three key ways: It saves space, it increases the efficiency of labor, and it improves accuracy. So evaluating which of these will be [most] beneficial and quantifying the associated savings will lead to a “right sized” investment in technology.
Another important factor to consider is product mix. With a small SKU (stock-keeping unit) base, often automation doesn’t make sense. And with a huge SKU base, there will be products that don’t lend themselves to automation.
With any significant investment, you need to partner with an organization that has deep experience with the technologies that are being considered and … in-depth knowledge of the process that is being automated.
Q: How can a goods-to-person system reduce the amount of labor needed to fill orders?
A: In most order picking operations, there is a considerable amount of walking between pick faces to find the SKUs associated with a given order or set of orders. Goods-to-person eliminates the walking and allows the operator to just pick. I have seen studies that [show] that 75% of the time [required] to assemble an order in a manual picking environment is walking or “non-picking” time. So eliminating walking will reduce the amount of labor needed.
The goods-to-person approach also fits perfectly with robotic picking, so even the actual picking aspect of order assembly can be automated in some instances. For these reasons, [automation offers] a significant opportunity to reduce the labor needed to fulfill a customer order.
Q: If you could pick one thing a company should do to improve its distribution center operations, what would it be?
A: Evaluate. Evaluate the opportunities for improving by considering automation. In my experience, the challenge most companies have is recognizing that automation is an alternative. The barrier to entry is far lower than most people think!