Food Logistics

JAN-FEB 2015

Food Logistics serves the entire food supply chain industry with targeted content for manufacturers, retailers, and distributors.

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46 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015 • FOOD LOGISTICS www.foodlogistics.com over the order fulfillment and delivery func- tions, they invested in freezers and automatic conveyor and sortation systems in a new 300,000-square-foot facility. The company deployed a WCS for the conveyor and sortation systems, but to ensure they would optimize the benefits, they sent a request for proposal to 20 software provid- ers for a new WMS. Westerville, Ohio-based Transtech Consulting evaluated the WMS proposals. They eventually selected the Softeon suite that includes order management, labor management, transportation and slotting. Dietz and Watson decided on a phased approach of implementing one product line at a time over a period of four months. Now, product is received from the manufacturing facilities in Philadelphia, Pa. Baltimore, Md. and Corfu, N.Y. Softeon developed an inter- face with the corporate operating system to achieve complete real-time order and inven- tory synchronization. In 2013, Dietz and Watson's plans were temporarily scuttled by a fire that destroyed the DC in Delanco, N.J. Wiese says the com- pany wasted no time designing a new facility with even more automation, including pick- ing, sorting, labeling and robotic palletizing. Wiese says this would not have been possible if the company didn't have confidence in the WMS system. "Direct pick-to-belt will speed up the process," Wiese says. Tracking units in shorter time intervals As order fulfillment becomes faster thanks to new technology, management software will have to also be capable of tracking individual prod- ucts. Shippers need to be able to track products as government and trade organizations will have stricter product tracing requirements. Knapp Logistics Automation Inc. has already developed solutions capable of captur- ing package codes and tracing this informa- tion throughout the entire supply chain, says Robert Engelmayer, business area manager. Prism Logistics has deployed the AFS Technologies' WMS platform with function- ality and integration with GS1 standards to provide single-scan traceability, says Jere Van Puffelen, president of Stockton, Sacramento, Livermore and Hayward, Calif.-based Prism Logistics. Distributors can rely on a single WMS tool to gain better visibility into food traceability and automate data throughout the warehouse with a single scan. Prism Logistics has had the ability to scan UPC codes for years, but the AFS Technolo- gies upgrade now allows customers to scan a GS1 label once, extract multiple data ele- ments, including GTIN, lot and quantity. Prior to the GS1, lot codes typically had to be logged into the system manually. Van Puffelen says GS1 is especially impor- tant in light of the new food safety regulations. In the meantime, he expects more of his cus- tomers' customers to be mandating scannable lot codes. "The whole chain of custody will become more of an issue; who has it when," he says. The fact that the GS1 is an interna- tional standard makes it all the more attractive to companies in the supply chain. WMS and WCS: Do you need both? WMS and WCS systems both continue to evolve. Some WCS providers argue that new WCS systems are capable of handling enough management functions and that a WMS, which is more expensive, is not necessary. A WCS controls automated equipment that can interface with a WMS. The WCS is the "middleware" between the WMS and the warehouse floor to manage all real-time communications, observes Richard Lan- pheare, director of business development at Retrotech Inc., the Rochester, N.Y.-based system engineering and integration firm. The WCS can manage and control the material handling equipment, data collection systems, order planning and processing, and the pick, pack and ship processes. It is the single inter- face for a stable, flexible control of warehouse operations, Lanpheare says. The WCS can instruct a diverter on a conveyor to direct a case down a specific chute, or instruct voice- directed picking, or signal an automatic pack- aging system to place a label on a package traveling along a conveyor belt in an effort to streamline the process. Some WCS software can also perform put-away, inventory transac- tions, replenishment, order processing (based on WMS rules) and labor management. A labor management component in a WCS can provide a real-time view of operations as a dashboard, with the ability to identify per- formance problems, bottlenecks and other obstacles to productivity to give supervisors a view into their operations so they can take corrective action immediately. Power Automation Systems, the Lathrop, Calif.-based storage system provider, has added a WMS module to its WCS software that can manage outbound orders, says Cory Hypes, executive vice president. "We see it as a 'mid-level WMS' for food and beverage WMS Tiers 1, 2 and 3; Cost and Functionality WMS TYPE COST RANGE FUNCTIONALITY Tier 3 $20k-$150k PC based, create work orders, print shipping labels, zone picking, inventory control Tier 2 $150k-$500k PC/mainframe, automated wave picking, cross docking, system-directed replen- ishment, load planning, real-time data, partial integration Tier 1 $500k-$2.5M Mainframe or web based, voice activat- ed, RFID tagging, wireless communica- tion, full integration with ERP SOURCE: IFMC, Inc.,Yorba Linda, Calif. Photos: viastore systems • viastore systems' software for managing automated storage and retrieval systems allows pickers to pull orders in the warehouse as they are received. The viastore system can integrate both automated picking and manual picking in a warehouse.

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