January 15, 2014 - DFDS Logistics installed a warehouse management system (WMS) from Chess Logistics Technology at its warehouse and distribution facility at Whittlesey, near Peterborough. The system is designed to consolidate service levels provided to their major customer, a multi-national food manufacturer. DFDS stores a range of pre-manufacture food products at the Whittlesey site, as well as packaging for use in manufacturing. Product is received from the customer and its suppliers, and is delivered to customer manufacturing plants locally and elsewhere in the UK. The warehouse of approximately 17,000ft2 (1580m2) is equipped with racked and block storage suited to the fast moving bulk product stored.
The Empirica WMS from Chess, working with real time handheld equipment from Touchstar Technology, allows incoming pallets of product to be received by barcode scan, before putaway according to system instruction. Customer-delivered product is received by scanning barcodes on a standard ‘SSCC’ label. The Empirica WMS is able to specify when additional scans are required to capture all receipt data needed, which may not all be held in a single barcode. Real time wireless equipment is also used for picking and despatch operations, and the system facilitates batch picking of despatch orders to comply with strict manufacture requirements. In a second phase to the project the Empirica WMS system will be interfaced with the customer’s enterprise-wide SAP solution.
This will improve distribution performance by ensuring 100 per cent receipt accuracy and streamlining existing despatch order processes, as well as saving labour and minimising paperwork. The integration, done in conjunction with the customer’s in house SAP team will provide real-time transaction updates and deliver 100 per cent accurate supply chain stock data at enterprise level. Matt O’Dell, Operations Manager at the DFDS Whittlesey site, commented: “The physical warehouse control and the IT integration offered by the Empirica system will help us consolidate the service we currently provide to the customer and enable us to exceed their expectations in the future. We are confident that the future support provided by Chess will help us achieve this.”
Chess Logistics Technology Limited has provided software for logistics and distribution applications for nearly 30 years and is recognised as a specialist in its field. The company has an extensive client list of national and international companies.