Time Pet Products have selected Navigator WMS with
Vocollect Voice to optimise
processes in their Gold Coast distribution centre.
The Company
Time Pet Products are a leading distributor of exclusive pet care products to retailers across Australia and New Zealand. With an ever increasing product range and a growing number of orders each month, Time Products went to market in search of strategies to improve the performance of their distribution centre.
In particular, Time Products were looking for a way to improve the packing and despatch of collars and leads. These products are small, easily tangled and difficult for customers to accurately receive against the packing slip - leading to a large number of credit claims.
The Solution
RFBS worked with Time Pet Products to design a new picking system which addressed the main accuracy and performance issues present in the original paper picking process.
We suggested that credit claims could be reduced by designating one picker as an 'expert' for the collars zone in the warehouse. By ensuring that a known picker works on the more complex 'collars' area, customers could be assured that errors in picking could be drastically reduced. RFBS also suggested that the number of lines picked per person each day could be improved through the introduction of batch picking (picking more than one order at a time).
Order Picking
Workers sign in to the system and speak the number of the zone in which they are working. By speaking '1' (Collars) or '2' (General Warehouse), pickers are assigned one or more orders. The Vocollect system allows the picker to receive instructions on which bin location to visit next via speech - and confirm that the correct item is picked by speaking the last three numbers of the product barcode.
Receiving
The system allows workers to use a mobile scanner to receive stock against purchase orders. Each item is scanned and matched against the purchase order to show the expected quantity, and the number of items received so
far. The worker can enter the amount received, then record where the stock was placed by scanning either a pallet 'lot number' or the picking bin barcode.
Once the receipt is marked as complete on the scanner, Navigator automatically creates the Inwards Goods transactions within EXO.
Replenishment
The replenishment function directs workers to fill bin locations in priority sequence. Bins with insufficient stock to fill orders are targeted first, while
bins below their minimum level are processed once all other tasks are completed. The system drives stock rotation, with workers directed to take stock
from the oldest lot numbered pallets first. The replenisher scans the item and the picking location to confirm stock is always placed in the correct bin.
Cycle Counting
The cycle counting function removes the need to perform a full "closed warehouse" stocktake by automatically generating instructions for workers to find and count stock items. As cycle counts are completed, a supervisor can 'approve' the count to update inventory in EXO.