not as effective and efficient as we should be.”
On top of that, the paper systems did not provide real-
time inventory information. Glanbia employees could not
always find products, and when customers made credit
claims, there was no good way to check the claims’ validity.
At the same time, Glanbia was under pressure to reduce
costs.
Glanbia began working with its technology integration
partner, Heavey RF of Ireland, to investigate alternatives
that would reduce costs and resolve its other distribution
challenges. They soon determined that voice-directed technology offered the flexibility to work in many different
areas of Glanbia’s operations. Also, because voice systems
typically have a return on investment of less than a year, the
technology would provide the fast payback Glanbia
required.
The company installed voice systems from Vocollect at
four sites, beginning in September of 2008 and finishing up
in March of 2009. The voice systems now perform a number of operations in two milk manufacturing facilities and
two distribution centers. One of the DCs distributes milk
and cream products, which are bottle- and carton-based,
while the other deals with other food products that are primarily case-based.
CREATING A FLUID PROCESS
The two milk plants operate entirely on voice for their distribution processes. Once the product is manufactured, the
company’s SAP warehouse management software assigns
orders to trolleys, which are wheeled racks in a lattice
framework approximately 5 feet, 8 inches tall. The trolleys,
which act as both storage medium and conveyance for the
milk, are used throughout the distribution process, even to
the point of wheeling them into retail stores where the milk
is offloaded directly onto store shelves.
When it comes time for orders to be picked, workers are
guided to the appropriate storage locations through
instructions received through their headsets. Upon arrival,
they read off a check digit—a three-number code attached
to or suspended above the location—to confirm they’re in
the right spot. The system then requests that the worker
read off a “best before date” to the system to confirm that
the product falls within the customers’ requirements for
expiration dates. The milk is picked onto the trolleys and
the process is repeated until the trolley is full or the order is
complete.
The trolleys are then wheeled directly to shipping, where
the voice system provides instructions on where to place the
milk prior to loading onto trucks. Some milk will ship
directly to customers and agents (similar to brokers), while
the rest will be sent in 40-foot trucks to the central milk
warehouse.
The central milk warehouse turns its stock three times
each day, so it doesn’t actually store product—it merely
stages it so that it can be picked for delivery by smaller route
trucks. The facility operates 24 hours a day six days a week,
turning out 1. 6 million liters (approximately 422,675 gallons) of milk each day. “We have to turn these products
quickly,” says Mee. “It just has to keep flowing. We can’t have
any lost time.”
