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Material Handling Information - Case Studies - R.C.Willey
   
Case Studies - Consumer Products Application
R.C.Willey
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Application
  • R.C. Willey Intermountain Distribution Center -- Salt Lake City, UT.
  • 860,000 square-foot distribution center serving stores in Las Vegas, Boise, and Salt Lake City.
  • Receives and ships over 3.1 million items a year.
  • Handles products ranging from furniture and refrigerators to televisions and DVD players.
Key Customer Benefits
  • Shipping accuracy of virtually 100%.
  • Increased items shipped/received versus man hours worked by more than 10%.
  • Reduced average pick time for customer will call pick-ups.
  • Improved inventory accuracy.
  • Reduced resources dedicated to cycle counts.
  • Manpower required reduced by 1/3.
Warehouse Management System Requirements
  • Maintain shipping and receiving accuracy on 103 seperate docks.
  • Real-time data-collection.
  • Incorporate an employee incentive payment system.
  • Track inventory through receiving, putaway, cycle counts, picking, shipping, and unpicking of items.
  • Allow interruption of typical picks with priority orders from will-call.
Components
Material Flow Process

Problems
  • Picking tags had to be printed for hours each day before the operators could begin.
  • Operators would sort the tags on their own, which took time and was not very efficient.
  • When items were returned or undeliverable, inventory accuracy often suffered.
  • The fourth quarter equaled the first three quarters combined, which made for inefficient seasonal activity.
  • Will call orders that interrupt normal picking activity often took up to a half-hour to fill.
Solutions
  • Unpicked items, those undeliverable or returned, are automatically entered back into inventory.
  • Proper resources are diverted from normal picking to fulfill priority orders, like will call.
  • The first hour of the day is no longer wasted sorting picking tags.
  • Tracks the movement of items based on information in WMS for employee incentive payment program.
Guest Survey