Claire’s Stores – UK Distribution Centre
Claire’s Stores Achieves Efficient and Accurate Warehouse Management Thanks to RF Solution from Psion
Claire's Stores is a leading international specialty retailer that offers value-priced costume jewelry, accessories and cosmetics to fashion-aware tweens, teens and young adults. The company has over 440 stores in the UK and Ireland and 190 in France, all supplied from its UK distribution centre in Birmingham. Claire’s UK distribution centre handles more than 200,000 units per day.
“The Psion RF equipment is an integral part of our warehouse operation and they have worked very well for us. The operators quickly get used to using the handheld terminals and it is certainly much more efficient to enable communications with the Warehouse Management System (WMS) and merchandising systems directly rather than having to update information through a standard terminal.” - David Dolphin, UK Distribution Manager for Claire’s Stores.
The Challenge:
- Efficient and accurate warehouse management is vital to success due to:
- Volume of units processed and delivered each day, and
- Strict time requirements
- Real-time information is important to ensuring accurate inventory levels
The Solution:
- Claire’s implemented a Radio Frequency (RF) system consisting Psion rugged handheld computers
- Goods are scanned upon arrival to confirm what the product is and the number of boxes, cartons, units of each item
- Scanned information is sent directly to WMS and merchandising system to:
- ensure delivery matches purchasing order, and
- determine destination of each product (ie. storage or shipment)
- Operators are notified on their handhelds the next steps for a product
- Operators confirm with WMS and merchandising system when products reach their destination by scanning a barcode
- WMS maintains a record of each product’s location to ensure quick and efficient retrieval in the future
The Benefits:
- Fast and efficient warehouse operations
- Improved stock accuracy
- Improved worker productivity
- Access to excellent service and quality that ensures system reliability
