Tissue and paper products manufacturer Georgia Pacific, the company behind household brands Lotus, KittenSoft and Thirst Pockets has automated warehouse management at its 350,000 square foot pallet distribution centre near Wigan, Lancashire, using warehouse management from RedPrairie.
Warehouse management interfaces seamlessly with the company’s SAP back office, creating integrated business flows across the entire manufacturing warehousing and distribution cycle.
Georgia Pacific chose RedPrairie for its proven leadership of the European WMS market, demonstrated by live sites and referenceable SAP installations.
Warehouse management met most of Georgia Pacific’s requirements out of the box, was implemented in three months and went live without disrupting day-to-day operations.
Warehouse management has streamlined all warehouse management tasks at the 24/7 distribution centre.
Yard management costs have been halved using warehouse management’s point-and-click functionality to synchronise arrival schedules with the availability of yard personnel, manage vehicle check-in and minimise trailer moves around the depot.
Automated RDT-controlled task management has increased worker productivity by 20%. Real-time traceability of consignments has eliminated the risk of lost items and increased order accuracy from 94% to 100%.
Georgia Pacific uses RedPrairie ’s cycle counting capabilities to streamline stocktaking by interleaving routine inventory checks with putaway and picking tasks. This enables the company to gain up-to-the-minute visibility of inventory levels and enjoy 99.9% stock level accuracy.
Real-time warehouse management, combined with RedPrairie’s advanced storage calculation algorithms has optimised space utilisation, resulting in a 12% increase in warehouse capacity.
As a result the company no longer needs to rent off-site storage facilities to accommodate warehouse overspills. The efficiencies generated by warehouse management enabled us to achieve a 100% return on investment just nine months after implementation.
Less than two years after the initial implementation, Georgia Pacific is now planning to leverage performance improvements and cost savings by implementing RedPrairie at its other European distribution centres in Wales, Ireland and Finland.
Warehouse management has transformed Georgia Pacific’s operations in Wigan and enabled it to exceed key performance indicators for efficiency improvements.
Georgia Pacific has demonstrated how warehouse management can deliver rapid and significant investment returns through the implementation of proven, best-practice processes.
RedPrairie looks forward to strengthening its partnership with Georgia Pacific and helping the company maximise the benefits of warehouse management for its European operations.