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WHOLESALE
PERISHABLE FOOD DISTRIBUTOR
CLIENT:
The company wanted to improve warehouse
operations, eliminate late deliveries, and reduce distribution
costs.
DESCRIPTION OF OPERATION:
The company supplied a large number of
supermarkets with 350 SKUs of wet poultry, frozen meat and
provisions from a central distribution center. The operations
consisted of floor storage with powered pallet jacks. Daily
volume averaged 250,000 pounds of outbound shipments on
10 to 12 delivery trucks.
OBJECTIVES:
Gross & Associates was retained to
analyze and develop methods and procedures to eliminate
late deliveries and to reduce the costs of storing and handling.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
Gross & Associates recommended the
following:
- Change the pick methods so that all
the frozen and provisions are batch picked by truckload.
- Pick the wet poultry by order and
combine the batch picked frozen and provision portions
of the order with the wet poultry before loading each
truck.
- Pick frozen and provisions onto shelf
carts which were designed specifically for their operation.
- Assign fixed pick location numbers
to each SKU and print these pick locations on the pick
documents.
- Slot the fastest moving SKUs closest
to the shipping dock.
RESULTS:
Improved methods and controls reduced
the distribution cost per case from $0.20 per box shipped
to $0.13. The projected annual labor savings were $180,000.
The late deliveries of customers' orders and the overtime
in the warehouse have been eliminated. The order error rate
was reduced dramatically.
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