Warehouses and Distribution Centers

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Warehouse and distribution centers traditionally require reams of paperwork. A WLAN and a staff, equipped with handheld computing devices with barcode scanning capabilities and portable printers, can eliminate much of the paperwork and at the same time reduce errors and decrease the time needed to move items in and out of the facility.

Warehouse and distribution centers (along with other vertical industries) use barcoding technology because it follows international standards in structuring the content of information held in the barcode, thereby simplifying worldwide supply chain automation. Thus, WLANs and barcoding are almost ubiquitous across most forms of product delivery.

For example, when pallets of goods are received on the loading dock, a worker can scan the boxes to determine in which area of the facilities the products should be stored. The WLAN then accesses the appropriate servers to determine the storage location, and sends the information to the portable printer, which prints out a "put-away" label. A forklift operator can then move the item to the storage location and document the procedure using a computing device mounted on the forklift. Once the pallet is inside the facility, other staff can scan each item's barcode and, if necessary, enter other information from the handheld's keypad or touchscreen (e.g. the product's estimated ship date). The WLAN allows the inventory system residing on remote servers to keep track of all transactions.

Then, as products are needed to fulfill an order, the inventory system spits out the appropriate list of items, their storage location, and the order in which the products should be picked. Warehouse/distribution center employees than take that list, which is displayed on their handheld device, and pick the listed items for shipment. As workers remove the products from their respective storage bins, he or she scans the product's barcode and either scans or inputs the bin number, allowing the inventory system to be updated automatically.

In terms of a WLAN's operational effectiveness within a warehouse or distribution center, the improvement is measured by a marked reduction:

• In errors as a result of barcode scanning.

• In the need for safety stocks.

• In the need for stock counts.

• In physical inventory.

• In missed shipments, short shipments and back orders, which in turn, result in fewer lost sales.

• In time spent reconciling with suppliers and customers.

• In inventory write-offs.

Many times unconventional antenna usage may be utilized to provide the best wireless coverage in a vertical deployment situation. For example, in a typical warehouse or distribution center, there are usually large parallel racks of goods perpendicular to either the front or side walls of the building. The typical installation of several access points throughout the facility would not provide good coverage. But, by using a combination of directional panel and omni-direction antennae, full facility coverage could be provided. The APs with direction panel antennae would be mounted along the one wall, providing coverage down the rack rows all the way to the opposite wall, and an additional access point with an omni-directional antenna would be mounted in the area where the facility's office is situated.

Another way a WLAN deployment in a warehouse or distribution center differs from other types of wireless networking projects is that there is almost always a quick and impressive return on investment. That's because a WLAN enables faster inventory turnover, better equipment and facility utilization, reduction in labor overhead as a result of the elimination of paper-based task assignments, and the optimization of system-driven tasks.

Case Studies

Ca' del Bosco

Although wine making is an art with ancient roots, winemakers haven't overlooked the advantages offered by technology. Ca' del Bosco, an Italian wine producing firm in the heart of the famous Franciacorta area at the gateway to Brescia, produces 13 types of wine, which form the basis of around 200 different products. The firm also exports close to eight million bottles of wine every year. To support that kind of volume cost-effectively, the firm introduced an automation island within its production lines, using LXE Inc.'s 802.11b technology to speed up the handling of the grapes at the pressing operations.

The most hectic period of the year is harvest time when tractors arrive at the acceptance zone of the plant towing their loads of grapes, each coming from a different area of the vineyard. Each tractor's load is weighed on an automatic weighing machine, where a barcode label is issued and placed on the relevant pallet of grapes. On this label is encoded the type of grapes, area of origin in the vineyard, and day of harvest.

The pallets are then turned over to the "helping hands" of the forklift truck operator. Each forklift is equipped with a wireless LXE vehicle-mounted wireless computer with an integrated keyboard and a long-range barcode scanner. These devices are of rugged design and are water- and dustproof, so they can be easily migrated from outside to inside use without condensation problems.

The forklift operator scans the barcode labels, and an appropriate "thermal storage room" destination is displayed on the vehicle's wireless computer. (The grapes have to be placed in thermal storage to bring the temperature of the grapes to "dew point," which is the ideal temperature for pressing because it prevents secondary fermentation and it safeguards the aroma of the wines.) In total there are seven thermal storage rooms, spread over several loading floors.

To ensure that no mistakes are made, each storage room is marked with its own barcode label. Before entering the storage room, the driver must scan this label. He will then receive authorization or be refused entry, based on data in the barcode and data in the system's database.

Once the grapes reach the required dew point in the thermal storage room, they are ready for pressing. When that event occurs, a message is sent to a forklift operator via his wireless computer, telling him to pick up a specific pallet of grapes in a specific storage room and convey the pallet of grapes to one of 17 pressing areas. (There are different pressing areas for different types of wines.)

Ca' del Bosco's 802.11b WLAN operates within a wired Fast Ethernet (100 Mbps) environment on a Windows platform, with the wireless computers operating in a client/server mode. The WLAN not only takes care of the storage handling and management operations, but also monitors the entire operational flow.

According to a company spokesperson, positive advantages arise not only out of the wireless system's ability to provide real time monitoring of the lines, but also from the on-line information collected.

PepsiAmericas, Inc.

PepsiAmericas, Inc. is the second largest Pepsi-Cola anchor bottler, with operations in nine countries. The company manufactures, distributes, and markets Pepsi-Cola core brands, along with Cadbury beverages and other national and regional brands.

In every market served, the company's mission is "to make, sell and deliver beverages." To build strong customer relationships this bottling company has made its everyday goal to deliver first-rate service and superior products. The effort to meet that goal is seen in its day-to-day operations and was the catalyst for the recent overhaul of its sales and delivery teams' business processes via Wi-Fi technology. With Wi-Fi at the helm, PepsiAmericas has morphed many of its business processes into a more customer-centric pre-sell model.

With the company's previous system, its sales and delivery teams' job was to service a defined number of customer accounts each day and to take new orders, most of which were completed manually as the staff went about their daily delivery route. This method was ripe for errors, and those errors could impact the entire supply chain. This led PepsiAmericas to re-assess its sales and delivery business processes and to explore new technology-based solutions.

In analyzing the overall cost of doing business, the bottler found that its inventory management system needed overall, especially in light of the fact that the company's inventory had grown from 55 SKUs a decade ago to the current level of 300 SKUs. PepsiAmericas' existing technology also offered limited access into customer demand, and trucks often returned to the distribution center with as much as one-third of the load still on board. With more than 100 U.S. distribution centers and 50 or so trucks operating out of each warehouse location, it's easy to multiply the additional costs of doing business caused by such an inefficient system. As a result, PepsiAmericas made improving the movement of its inventory its top priority.

In order to streamline processes, increase efficiencies, and reduce errors, PepsiAmericas deployed a Symbol Technologies wireless mobile computing system-a solution broad enough to balance the different needs of both mobile teams (sales and delivery) with the needs of the distribution centers.

For the pre-sales process, the company's account sales managers use Symbol PDT 8000 wireless computers to take customer orders on-site. These devices help to ensure that delivery trucks are stocked efficiently and accurately for the day's routes (on-site orders are remotely uploaded to the central order and routing system using cell phone connectivity).

The rugged PDT 8000 wireless handhelds also empower the sales and delivery staff with access to the information they need to strategically upsell to customers.

For direct store delivery operations, the handhelds provide each driver with an automated tool to track inventory, record deliveries and print invoices to an RP 2000 portable printer. Using the Spectrum24 High Rate wireless local area network (which is based on 802.11b technology) along with their PDT 8000 handheld, drivers can download information including customer list, orders, pricing, and the day's route before leaving the distribution center each morning.

Each handheld is also Direct eXchange/Uniform Communications Standard-enabled for instant data synchronization, facilitating the electronic transfer of receivables and new orders directly into the customer's database.

With the addition of Symbol's RP 2000 portable printer, drivers easily generate invoices at the customer's location. Upon the driver's return to the distribution center, route information is uploaded quickly and efficiently to the host computer via the WLAN.

Symbol's strategically placed wireless access points guarantee the broadest coverage in the distribution centers. As the account sales managers and delivery drivers return to the distribution center at the end of each day and upload their data, it is relayed by the WLAN to back-end systems for route settlement.

Fast access to current information makes it easier to locate and load products on trucks for improved inventory management. Additionally, marketing, sales, or operations management may also use this current information to analyze delivery progress, track returns, manage inventory, or to provide more effective marketing offers.

To complete the wireless mobility solution, Symbol supports management of the wireless network through a remote monitoring service using SymbolCare services 24x7 support, Symbol Wireless Network Management System (WNMS) software, and Symbol AirBEAM. This software is designed to streamline the entire wireless mobile computing device management process, including updating files, applications, and operating systems wirelessly from remote locations.

For PepsiAmericas, the wireless solution provides a more streamlined process, increased efficiency and accuracy, and improved productivity, which, in turn, enables the company to better serve its customers-and that is the key to competing more effectively. And when a mobile worker saves enough time to make an extra stop to another account or sells more products to an existing account, PepsiAmericas gains a strategic advantage over its competitors. Just one additional stop per day for each driver or account sales manager adds up to several hundred additional sales opportunities per year from each worker in the field.

Extended Technologies Corporation (Xtek) is a company that designs and implements software solutions to facilitate communications for all mobile sales and service applications. This includes order management, data retrieval, merchandising, field services, and remote/decentralized distribution. Xtek provided PepsiAmericas with the software applications, including Route XPress NP for delivery (pre-sells and conventional) and full service vending routes; Xtek's Xtended Gateway suite for the integration of RouteXpress NP with PepsiAmericas' host system; and Xnet Communicator for data distribution, mobile application development and mobile device management.

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