Wolverton Case Study - Maximum Computer Systems, Inc.

Wolverton Inc. got out of the doghouse
with an integrated solution for its
4-acre distribution center, says Dave
Harper, senior systems analyst.
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Customer: Wolverton Inc.
Headquarters: Lansing, Mich.
Business: Wholesale distributor
of pet supplies
Challenge: Integrate one-off packaged
and homegrown applications
Solution: Moved to the Infor ERP A+ suite
to create a seamless, end-to-end
information and operations flow with help
from Maximum Computer Systems
Hardware: Power Systems server
running IBM i
Software: Infor ERP A+ suite,
UPS’s Roadnet
Pet Project
Wolverton Inc. saves time and money with Infor ERP A+ suite
By Jim Utsler ✦ Photography by brian kelly
W
hether it’s due to company
acquisitions or years of
creating one-off applications
to handle specific tasks, many organizations have multiple systems running
on multiple platforms to support their
operations. And why not? When these
systems play well together, there’s no
reason to separate them.
Often, this idealistic playground
setting turns into a battleground,
forcing IT departments to create links
between different programs to develop
an integrated solution that serves
all of its users in an unencumbered
manner. Not only is this a strain on
IT, it impedes end-to-end, controlled
business operations.
This issue becomes particularly
onerous when companies begin adding
new technologies and services to the
mix. For example, when Wolverton Inc.,
a pet-supply wholesaler, built a stateof-the-art warehouse and distribution
center, its disparate software solutions
could no longer keep pace with its lofty
vision of a truly integrated future.
The company sought a solution that
would supplant its here-there-everywhere application model, and found the
Infor ERP A+ suite. Now, Wolverton’s
employees have a single access point
into the company’s operations, creating
a “corner-to-corner” integrated
application environment worthy of its
new 4-acre warehouse and distribution
center, as Dave Harper, senior systems
analyst with Wolverton, describes it.
No Moving Involved
Headquartered in Lansing, Mich.,
Wolverton was established in 1940 as a
garden- and pet-supply retailer. After
being purchased in 1965, it closed its
retail front and began focusing on
wholesale distribution of pet-related
goods, of which there are more than
14,000 different categories, including
pet food, electric fences, flea control
and even pet clothing. “You name it, we
probably have it,” Harper says.
Wolverton’s customers run
the gamut from big-box stores and
mom-and-pop shops to veterinarian
clinics and kennels, all of which are
located in six states: Michigan, Ohio,
Indiana, Kentucky, Virginia and
Pennsylvania. As one might imagine,
this keeps the Wolverton warehouse
and distribution center hopping, as it
processes more than 850 orders—some
55,000 individual product units—each
day and ships them via its fleet of 26
trucks, commercial carriers and UPS.
The company continues to grow year
after year.
No wonder, then, that it needed to
upgrade its warehouse and distribution
center—and not just into a typical
pick-and-pack environment. The
company’s new setting includes lifts and
carousels and automated box delivery.
It features Wi-Fi throughout and uses
radio-frequency (RF) devices in the
picking-and-packing process.
When an order comes in, whether
over the telephone, via EDI or on
the Web, it’s held within order entry
until the order-fulfillment shift at the
warehouse is ready for it. Orders are
released in groups by route. As the
order enters the warehouse system, it
is split between bulk (bags of food and
other large items) and pack (pet supplies
and other items that can be boxed).
Those items are reunited when the
customer’s pallet is assembled. (To read
more about Wolverton’s state-of-the-art
packing process, see “How a Pack
Order is Filled” on page 16.)
ibmsystemsmag.com/power
june 2012
Reprinted with permission by IBM Systems Magazine, Power Systems
edition.
15
Under One Roof
Prior to moving to Infor, Wolverton
had a hodgepodge of both packaged
and homegrown software on a
Power Systems* server running IBM i,
performing different but ultimately
related tasks. For example, one solution handled order entry and another
supported warehousing. On their
own, each operated just fine, but the
company had to invoke some programming trickery to get them to interface
with one another.
In some cases, this resulted in
duplicate data being held within
different software application systems,
which created yet another set of
issues. “One of the problems we had
involved costing,” Harper says. “That
information would have to go to both
our warehousing and accounting
systems, but that meant we would
hold that data on two sets of software.
So if someone wanted to get costing
information, they would have to figure
out where to go to get it. And it’s
supposed to be standardized, so people
had to determine which number was
the correct number.”
Wanting to combine systems
to create a seamless, end-to-end
information flow, Wolverton sought
a single system that wouldn’t require
additional programming to tie
processes together. It may sound like a
simple job, but the company had some
specific requirements in mind. A key
one being the solution had to run on
its Power Systems architecture, largely
because the company was heavily
invested in the platform and trusted its
reliability and availability.
Another requirement was that
the solution had to handle a large
amount of simultaneous transactions,
a quality Harper says was hard to find
after considering a number of different
solutions. More important, though, the
solution needed to cover nearly every
aspect of Wolverton’s operations, from
financials and costing to warehousing
and distribution, giving users the same
view of all of the company’s data no
matter the department.
How a Pack Order is Filled
“Let’s follow a pack order,” says
Dave Harper, senior systems
analyst with the pet-supply
wholesaler Wolverton Inc.
“First, the system decides what
sizes and how many boxes
to create. As the boxes are
created, they are labeled with
bar codes, which are the link
between the box and the order
items assigned to it. The boxes
are then placed on a conveyor
belt, starting their journey.
“The first stop is our
carousel system. An operator
scans the bar-coded label,
identifying all of the [smaller]
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june 2012
items that are on the carousel
and belong to the order. The
platform where the operator is
standing will raise and lower,
stopping at the correct level.
The carousel will spin and stop
with the correct item in front of
the operator and then identify
the correct number of items to
pick. This process is repeated
until all items for the order
from the carousel are picked.
The box is placed back on the
conveyor belt and continues
on to its next stop. It’s possible
an order will have multiple
boxes built for it, and as they
ibmsystemsmag.com/power
are filled, they are placed on
the conveyor where they’re
transported to a staging area.
“The second stop is
Pick-To-Light. These are
medium-sized items; too large
for the carousel, but small
enough to be boxed. All of the
locations with items for the
box are lighted, and an LCD
display identifies the quantity
to be picked. Once all of the
items are picked, they’re
placed on the conveyor to be
reunited with the bulk side
of the order. The customer’s
order is then placed on a
pallet, shrink-wrapped, and is
now ready for the truck.”
As Harper further sums
it up, “People move up and
down on the lifts according to
computer controls. So you’re
pulling product for an order
and you’re never moving,
except up and down on the
lift. The carousel comes to
you, the appropriately sized
box comes down a conveyer,
and a lighted bin drops in front
of you, indicating how many
items you have to pick. It really
couldn’t be much easier.”
—J.U.
“We were looking for something
that had a complete suite of packages. It had to handle everything,
including EDI, purchasing, order
entry, accounting, warehousing and
even RF,” Harper recalls. “All of those
things and others had to be under one
roof. If they weren’t, what would be
the point of getting rid of everything
we already had?”
Bolt-On Functionality
After culling possible candidates,
including recommendations from
some of the company’s peers,
Wolverton, which Harper says is
“100 percent behind automation
wherever possible,” decided to go
with Infor ERP A+. This packaged
solution satisfied all of the company’s
requirements and more, leaving
room to bolt on additional functionality as needed.
Because the company wanted to
roll Infor ERP A+ out across the entire
enterprise, it chose to take a measured
approach to the implementation.
“This was a long process—about
three years—mostly because we wanted
to make sure that when we flipped
the switch, we flipped the switch
everywhere. We didn’t want to do
warehousing and then accounting and
then costing—that would have defeated
the purpose. And then everyone had to
be trained, everything had to be tested
and everything had to be integrated,”
Harper says.
This integration included tying
the company’s new warehousing and
distribution systems into Infor ERP
A+. To do this, Wolverton brought
Maximum Computer Systems on board.
Together, they designed and deployed
the necessary interfaces to automate the
process between Infor ERP A+ and the
carousel system, thereby truly creating
that end-to-end workflow Wolverton
was seeking.
The company also considered the
homegrown routing system it used to
control its fleet of trucks. That software
had already been interfaced to Infor
ERP A+, but when a new warehouse
manager was hired who had previous
experience with Amazon and UPS,
the decision was made to move to a
more robust solution—UPS’s Roadnet
routing software—and bring that, with
an interface written by Harper, under
the cover of Infor ERP A+.
“Before then, we really weren’t
optimizing our routes,” Harper says.
“But once we integrated Roadnet with
Infor ERP A+, everything changed. We
now upload all of the day’s orders to
Roadnet, it configures our routes based
on where orders are being delivered,
and it sends that information back to
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june 2012
17
“The biggest part of my job is using
technology to create greater efficiency
throughout Wolverton.”
—Dave Harper, senior systems analyst for Wolverton Inc.
Infor ERP A+ with the route IDs and
stops for each truck, providing for
the most efficient delivery of product.
Also, this gives us more accurate
delivery times that we can provide to
our customers.”
Risk, Reward
Thanks to the massive initiatives
Wolverton undertook, the company
now has an integrated solution reaching
every corner of its operations. While
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other companies might question the
price tag that accompanies such a move,
Wolverton is convinced the outcome
is well worth it. In fact, Harper says
the company is now saving more than
$300,000 per year through reduced
labor costs, improved fuel efficiency
and increased efficiency.
Although all of the savings can’t
be solely attributed to the deployment
of Infor ERP A+, the integration
possibilities the solution opened up
ibmsystemsmag.com/power
have helped. Without Infor ERP A+,
Wolverton’s new, state-of-the-art
warehouse would operate somewhat
independently from the rest of the
company and the company’s fleet
routing would be less than optimal.
As it stands now, however, the
company is poised to continue its
growth without the pain of having to
create and integrate new applications
to keep things running. As Harper
succinctly puts it, “The biggest part
of my job is using technology to
create greater efficiency throughout
Wolverton.”
Jim Utsler, IBM Systems
Magazine senior writer,
has been covering
technology for nearly
20 years.