Warehouse Management Success story
Huhtamaki has warehouse improvements wrapped up with Snapfulfil
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uhtamaki (UK) is a global speciality and consumer packaging company focusing on moulded fibre/paper products, films, flexible packaging,
foodservice paper cups and other products based on paper forming technology. The company’s main customer markets include foodservice operators, fast food restaurants, ice-cream and other consumer goods markets, non-food consumer packaging, fresh food packers, pet food packers as well as retailers. Today, Huhtamaki employs some 14,600 people in 65 manufacturing, distribution and sales facilities, in 35 countries worldwide. Net sales in 2008 amounted to 2.3 billio euros. A fast moving, 24/7 manufacturing and distribution operation, the company tracks a variety of Key Performance Indicators such as On Time, In Full (OTIF) to ensure that clients are receiving the best levels.
Requirements
Like all businesses in this difficult economic environment, efficiency gains were a key business driver with the warehousing and distribution operations spearheading the initiative. As part of this process, Gary Owen, UK warehouse & distribution manager, determined that the operation demanded a more sophisticated Warehouse Management System (WMS) for its 3 southern area UK warehouse facilities, capable of delivering ‘Tier 1’ functionality, but without the headaches typically associated with WMS implementations. The challenge was to deliver these business benefits, but with the demanding additional requirements of the 3 warehouse facilities going live with the solution concurrently, 'No Capex', 'No Finance' and a '12-month ROI'.
As an organisation, Huhtamaki embraces the use of the latest in technological advances to leverage competitive advantage; accordingly Owen began evaluating Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions in conjunction with the more traditional WMS software offerings. Following
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IT July 2011
extensive research, he identified Snapfulfil as not only the right WMS, but also the only SaaS WMS solution that could meet all of his requirements and still meet that demanding ROI constraint. The comprehensive blend of functionality present within the Snapfulfil system combined with the Snapfulfil technical
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(OTIF) were increased to their highest ever levels. Product receiving, put away and retrieval have all benefited as predicted and Warehouse Operative efficiency has significantly improved utilising the Snapfulfil system, with more expected within the next few months.
Not only did the implementation of the Snapfulfil system significantly increase the productivity within the warehouse environment, but KPIs such as On Time In Full (OTIF) were increased to their highest ever levels.”
and commercial offering proved to be a winning combination for Owen, his team and most importantly the business. Key business decision drivers were: non- Capex; no traditional finance models; 12- month ROI; comprehensive functionality; minimal IT resource demands; proven solution; rapid Implementation; and interface capability to Huhtamaki Corporate Host. Key operational areas Snapfulfil were selected to improve included: • Multi-Site control and visibility. • Stock receipting from Production to verify production runs and ensure rapid visibility and availability of inventory for despatch.
• Put-away of both raw materials, WIP needed to be verified for accuracy and have immediate visibility.
• RF driven processes increasing efficiency, accuracy and ensuring that correct stock rotation was followed.
• Automated management of task allocation to warehouse operatives to reduce administration and supervision.
• Reporting of resource efficiency would help to maximise efficiencies in overall headcount and highlight where operators required further training.
Immediate benefits
Not only did the implementation of the Snapfulfil system significantly increase the productivity within the warehouse environment, but KPIs such as On Time In Full
With the successful launch of 3 sites concurrently came the ability to view inventory across the business, as well as in transit, this being made significantly easier by the exceedingly low IT resource requirements, both in terms of physical hardware and personnel. Such has been the success of the project, Huhtamaki is now employing the Snapfulfil system within other areas of the operation to deliver complete inventory control and visibility across the entire business.
Owen carried out a post-implementation review once the Snapfulfil system had been live for 6 months. This review highlighted a number of areas where savings had been realised: headcount reduction; stock items no longer ‘lost’; overtime reduced; reduced error rates; stock obsolescence removed; hardware repairs removed; and paperwork production and administration almost eliminated. Huhtamaki Implemented Snapfulfil in 2008. Since then, increased efficiency across 3 sites has allowed rationalisation of inventory and despatch processes. Benefits have included: reduced headcount by 20 per cent; reduced stock losses by 99 per cent; reduced overtime by over 90 per cent; and increased OTIF KPI to the highest figure in company’s history. Year-1 net savings were £84,000, and after Snapfulfil subscription costs year-2 and year-3 total expected net returns are £240,000. Owen concluded: “Snapfulfil has helped us to realise significant improvements across the operation and save money at the same time – really a winning combination.”
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