Change isn’t easy, especially when it involves a redesign of an entire five-warehouse network spread out across the country. So, when a leading consumer products company struggled with the changes they needed to make in their warehouse operations, they made the right decision: partner with DSC Logistics. DSC took charge, analyzing the company’s business and managing the change inherent in the first six months of warehouse integration and start-up.

Stepping into all operations, we implemented DSC systems, transitioning the company’s manually-run system to our Warehouse Management System (WMS). The results: improvements across the board—in level of service, overall efficiency, cost savings…you name it.

A major inefficiency that our customer wanted to correct was control of their inventory and of inventory deployment. So, prior to the conversion, DSC analyzed their inventory at all sites, identifying stock by how fast it shipped and moving it to appropriate locations. We established efficient pick line locations to expedite order picking. We improved whole order allocation by increasing case fill; we handled the consolidating of orders and increased on-time deliveries

Another inefficiency we corrected involved providing a more accurate picture of available stock. In their old system, as soon as something was produced and put on a truck, it would show up as available, but that wasn’t really accurate because transit times and unloading times were not factored into the equation. Using DSC’s system, we made recommendations to correct the transit times resulting in improved case fill and customer satisfaction.

In addition, we set up a more efficient operation to manage multiple overflow sites (four to six separate buildings). With real estate constraints and high inventory levels, it became necessary to operate from multiple buildings while consolidating the final product to ship out of one location. DSC’s system was modified to manage the unloading, putaway and shipping from these multiple sites while minimizing delays and costs associated with the multiple moves. DSC’s management of the change in this major consumer products company’s large and widespread warehouse network shows that no matter a company’s situation DSC can make it operate more efficiently—in an extremely short time period..