Case Study
Heartland Produce Co

“In a nut-shell, our warehouse and office management can manage work flow with a precision and ease that takes us to the next level of efficiency and agility.”

Corey Dietz, Director of Operations

Heartland Produce Company logo

Member Since:
2007

Headquarters:
Kenosha, WI

Facility Size:
80,000 sq feet

Users:
35

Product:
Produce Pro, WMS

Industry:
Wholesale

Industries Served:
Retailers

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With Produce Pro Plus WMS, warehouse supervisors gained more visibility into what their staff was doing and the remaining workload. They knew who was doing what task at any given time and when they finished. Supervisors and users also acquired greater visibility into where a product was in the staging and loading areas. They knew where the finished pallets were, what was on each pallet, what has been loaded on a specific trip and what has yet to be loaded, checked or picked.

Results:

  • Decreased Mis-Picks by 86%
  • Short ships decreased by 44%
  • Picker productivity is automatically tracked and reported
  • Automated work assignments, worker tracking and product lot tracking for all outbound order selection.
  • Mobile workers productivity increased by utilizing handheld computers for managing their work, scanning barcodes, and updating the system all in real time, eliminating unnecessary trips and paper.
  • Supervisors no longer search for information, so allowing more time to manage work flow and streamline operations.

Challenges:

  • Inventory Accuracy – Managing changes to operations using paper was cumbersome and created problems with tracking inventory accuracy.
  • Increased Volume – Managers needed a way to oversee 300 paper tickets each day.
  • Error Prone – Picking process managed by paper was difficult, time consuming, and added the risk of papers being dropped or lost.
  • Extra Steps – Changing tickets while in the process of pulling an order required multiple unnecessary steps.
  • Too Many Mistakes – Overages, shortages and mis-picks were too frequent.
  • Had no fast way to make a lot change without taking a trip back to the dispatch desk for the selector.
  • Had to match up paperwork to check orders and manually double check the lot numbers for each line.
  • Loads for trucks were often incorrect due to the manual process of sifting through a stack of tickets for that particular load.

Solutions:

  • Installed Produce Pro Plus (WMS) for 35 users.
  • Outbound operations were automated through the use of barcode printer, barcode scanners and Motorola mobile handheld computers.
  • System controls assure for all steps in the order process to be followed.
  • Barcodes reduced mis-loading pallets, eliminated checking paper orders manually, and marked completed pallets.
  • The Motorola mobile handheld computer allowed for quick lot changes, double checking finished pallets, shortages and other issues without the need to visit the ‘ticket station’