Four Real-World Stories of How Generix WMS Creates Efficiency and Productivity for Manufacturers

SOLOCHAIN WMS is used by organizations in various industries (food, retail and consumer goods, manufacturing, and more) as a platform for growth and operational excellence. This blog post shares four success stories from customers who implemented SOLOCHAIN WMS to transform their operations and facilitate growth. 

WMS gives granular control and recovers 35% in lost efficiencies 

As a grower-owned network of family hops farms, Yakima Chief Hops required complete traceability, control, and visibility into their finished products from farm to kettle. The company was experiencing lost inventory and customer allocation challenges. The implementation of SOLOCHAIN WMS allowed Yakima Chief Hops to: 

• Stabilize customer allocations with all inventory movements 
• Track inventory and its movement in real-time 
• Attain complete lot traceability and enable recall management for different finished products across the manufacturing process 
• Increase accuracy with quick data entry using QR codes that stored multiple data points on the same barcode 
• Improve shipping lead times by multiple days and 24-hour turnaround for eCommerce orders  
• Automate processes and dramatically reduce paper usage with scan guns 
• Realize a net gain of 83,861 cartons that were not required to be transferred before shipping out to customers 

Through the WMS, Yakima Chief Hops achieved their visibility and safety goals and delivered the quality of service they strived for to their customers. 

WMS increases productivity by 30% in less than a year 

With 18,000 UPCs, 4,500 orders per day, and 22,500 pick lines in a single distribution center, Novexco, a national distributor of office supplies, needed to optimize operations across eight distribution centers to support its business model and allow them to compete with online retail giants. The implementation of SOLOCHAIN WMS provided Novexco the ability to: 

• Successfully integrate SAP ERP for better inventory visibility and management at all stages of the process across Canada 
• Manage all orders from retail stores, B2C, and B2B customers and track product and model numbers in each warehouse for quality assurance and returns 
• Optimize and standardize processes that saved time, reduced human handling and human error, increased picking quality, and reduced non-essential warehouse travel 
• Decrease backorders with better inventory visibility and forecast demand with access to real-time data  
• Enabled faster delivery to customers and multi-site communication between distribution centers 

Novexco can now guarantee next-business-day delivery in most regions in Canada and has seen a 30% increase in productivity in less than a year after implementation.  

WMS doubles output capacity to support growth initiatives 

Blue Streak Electronics, a supplier of remanufactured electronics and diagnostic solutions to vehicle manufacturers, decided to cut ties with their 3PL provider and build and open a new distribution center in less than four months which required the rapid deployment of a WMS. Exceptional inventory management and quality control were essential with a vast dealer network and a rapidly expanding eCommerce business. The implementation of SOLOCHAIN WMS enabled Blue Streak Electronics to: 

• Gain real-time visibility and better order and inventory accuracy to support eCommerce growth 
• Achieve substantial month-to-month operational performance gains 
• Have real-time task management and transparency with SOLOCHAIN Back-Office project management system built into the WMS 
• Meet the tight deadline with ease of configuration with Microsoft Dynamics Nav ERP and integration with ProShip for small parcel solutions 

Blue Streak went live with the WMS in January 2020. Since then, the company has doubled its output capacity.  

WMS enables 50% total sales growth and a 200% increase from eCommerce  

Cameron’s Specialty Coffee, a coffee roasting, packaging, and distribution company, relied on paper-based processes in their warehouse operations. With the growing demand for eCommerce options and food traceability regulations, the company needed to change its inventory management operations. The implementation of the WMS transformed the business providing it the ability to: 

• Remove paper-based processes and now manage every step in the process from roasting, flavoring, grinding, and packaging within the WMS+MES 
• Achieve 99.5% inventory accuracy and increase order fulfillment to 99.3% 
• Decrease cycle count downtime by eliminating the weekly shutdown period 
• Report faster and close month-end sooner due to real-time data transmission into the ERP system 
• Create mobility in the warehouse with handheld devices and run more production lines 
• Address customer compliance requirements (Walmart, Target, Menards, etc.) 
• Enter multi-stage production data into CRM to consider operation particularities to reduce waste and re-route production as needed. 

The 50% growth meant that Cameron’s Specialty Coffee had to enlarge its warehouse space by more than 25% between 2018 and 2020. WMS and MES allowed the company to scale its operations in line with its growth without increasing headcount in its finance department.  

The four stories shared in the blog post highlight the transformation possibilities that manufacturers and Food and Beverage companies can achieve. As the only combined WMS/MES in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for WMS, SOLOCHAIN WMS delivers full-featured functionality manufacturers need to address and integrate complex processes between the warehouse and the shop floor to scale operations and find new efficiencies and productivity improvements. 

Learn more by downloading the Gartner Report today. 

About Generix Group 

As omni-channel driven demands become the norm, with resulting customer satisfaction harder to achieve, supply chain professionals need to leverage advanced WMS technology to keep their operations nimble, efficient, and scaling - especially in these volatile times. 

Given Generix Group's completeness of vision and ability to execute, as recognized once again by the Gartner analyst community, their WMS is well positioned to help companies needing a modern, flexible and agile solution that can easily adapt to their changing needs. We invite you to contact us to learn more.