Case Study: Contract Warehousing Company Manages Inventory Levels, Expiration Dates and Shipments for Major Beverage Manufacturer

The Challenge

A contract warehousing company stores and ships beverages for a major manufacturer. Inventories are maintained manually on spreadsheets. Physical inventory counts are conducted several times a week to maintain accuracy. There is no reliable method to do lot tracking or manage product expiration dates. Receipts, movements and shipments are all done manually. The manufacturer is planning to implement a new ERP system in 12-18 months time which will be made available to the warehousing company. Our contract warehouse can’t wait that long and needs a solution now.

The Solution

CoreIMS is implemented along with RF bar code scanning. All inventory operations are now conducted in real-time. Lot and expiration date tracking are implemented. Lot integrity is maintained during shipment. The oldest expiration dates are shipped first.

The Result

The contract warehousing company and manufacturer are both very pleased. The manufacturer is envious of the fact that, for a very reasonable price, a system was implemented quickly which delivers everything they need to manage inventory. RF bar code scanning has improved inventory accuracy to the high ninety percentile. The manufacturer receives timely reports concerning the status of their inventory and can access lot and expiration date information with the click of a button. Physical inventory counts have been replaced with periodic cycle counts resulting in higher labor productivity at the warehousing company.