Bear Creek Corporation
Direct Mail Marketer of Perishable Foods improves Materials Managements Costs by 10% with RF Coverage across Sprawling Site
“As soon as they finish one activity, the picking and packing staff receive instructions for the next, making picking much more efficient… Immediate inventory updates allow resource planners to respond proactively to stock shortages.” – ” Ric Sharp, director of engineering at Bear Creek
Bear Creek Corp. is one of the largest direct mail marketers in the United States, with $500 million in annual sales. Located in Medford, Oregon, the company operates several mail-order catalogue companies that specialize in fresh fruit, bakery items, flowers and small gifts, processing millions of orders each year and delivering worldwide.
To accommodate its ever-expanding business, Bear Creek added a new distribution center of over 275,000 square feet to its existing sprawling facility. The site comprises 50 acres, including multiple manufacturing and warehouse facilities. The components of each order move several times between various locations during the assembly process, including the orchard itself, production lines and warehouses. Facilities include several refrigeration and freezer areas.
The challenge:
- The original paper-based order fulfillment process needed updating. A large workforce was required to maintain it. Lost paper, data interpretation problems, and data entry errors were always a risk. An RF system with real-time inventory tracking was in order.
- Bear Creek needed an RF system that could guarantee wireless coverage across the 50-acre campus, but size was not the only issue.
- Some of the buildings on the site are made of thick concrete. In addition, the refrigerator and freezer facilities have thick insulation.
- Metal warehouses posed yet another problem, since reflection off metal walls can make it difficult for an RF device to lock in on an antenna.
- Finally, RF coverage would also be required outdoors on loading docks and in the field.
- The hardware would also have to be able to withstand outdoor, cold storage and freezer conditions, as well as movement from one to the other.
- After completing a thorough site survey, the Network Services team designed and implemented an RF system that addressed all requirements including redundancy, throughput, security and reliability.
The Solution:
- Radio frequency-enabled handheld computers from Psion Teklogix were installed throughout the site. They communicate over a wireless LAN to the central WMS (Warehouse Management System), which interfaces with Bear Creek’s purchasing, manufacturing and order-entry systems.
- The system provides seamless wireless coverage over 50 acres outdoors, and across 500,000 square feet of warehouse space. The narrowband technology provides the strong signal strength necessary to cover such a large area with a minimum number of access points, and to penetrate the thick concrete walls and insulation. The reflection problem in the metal warehouses was resolved by placing antennas toward the center of the warehouse and incorporating antenna diversity, allowing the RF terminals to determine which antenna has the best signal.
- The Psion Teklogix handheld and vehicle mount freezer terminals are built to withstand the extreme temperatures, as well as the accompanying condensing conditions. They are also rugged enough to function problem-free in the outdoors, tolerating elements such as rain, snow, dust and debris.
- With real-time inventory tracking, an order can be taken over the phone or on the website and immediately be sent to a data terminal on the fork lift of an operator in the warehouse. By scanning the barcode of the product and the location for each item, the system verifies that the correct product is being picked and ensures the order is shipped quickly and accurately.
The Benefits:
The Psion Teklogix RF solution had a multitude of benefits:
- Extra data-entry staff are no longer required to input manual records.
- Real-time data communication has resulted in increased productivity and efficiency, and employees can respond to problems as soon as they occur.
- Inventory accuracy has increased from just over 90% to 99.5% as picking is more efficient
- Immediate inventory updates allow resource planners to respond proactively to stock shortages.
- With the new wireless system, operations have become more standardized. Increased standardization, coupled with the easy-to-use Psion Teklogix devices, has allowed Bear Creek to shorten their training period by two days. This is particularly valuable for a company with extreme seasonal peaks and valleys.
- Reductions in labour, time and errors result in cost savings. Materials management costs relative to units manufactured improved by 10%. Timely and error-free fulfillment keeps customers happy too.
- The success of the warehouse management solution in Oregon has Bear Creek looking to Psion Teklogix again for an installation at their Ohio site in the near future.
