48 DC VELOCITY JUNE 2017 www.dcvelocity.com
a
p
p
l
ic
at
i
on
s
IN 2015, PITMAN CREEK WHOLESALE FOUND ITSELF
facing the classic growth challenge. Founded in 1978 by
Don and Marella Stephens, the Danville, Ky.-based fishing
gear company started out as a custom lure manufacturer
catering to customers in Central Kentucky. But after James
S. Coffey purchased the company in 1993, it evolved into
a full-line tackle distributor serving more than 2,000 retail
locations in 49 states and several foreign countries.
That kind of growth is great for the bottom line, but
it can create problems elsewhere in the organization. In
Pitman Creek’s case, it was the company’s distribution
operation that was feeling the strain. The wholesaler, which
by then was stocking over 26,000 items from some 240
vendors, had outgrown the piecemeal warehousing system
it had patched together over the years. “We were basically
building our own warehouse management system with all
the different applications [for packing, picking, and receiv-
ing],” says John D. Johnson, the company’s chief operating
officer. “The problem was supporting these applications
when we [needed to ramp up operations].” The applica-
tions did not have the capability to scale, he explains, which
caused the apps to slow down or even crash during peak
periods.
On top of that, the lack of a comprehensive inventory
tracking system was hindering efforts to receive and put
Proliferating SKUs were creating headaches for
fishing gear supplier Pitman Creek. But with
new warehousing software, things are going
swimmingly.
WMS helps Pitman Creek tackle
the challenges of growth
client’s current processes and compliance levels. Within
a week, a Labelmaster team headed by senior consultant
Mike Pagel came back with a complete audit report that
included recommendations for the transfer of responsibilities and the steps needed to maintain ongoing compliance.
Along with the report, Labelmaster provided a shipment
processing guide, with detailed procedures for every type of
battery Omron Adept ships across all modes of transportation—ground, air, and sea. The guide included instructions
on how to properly package and label the cargo and how to
complete required documentation.
Following the audit, Labelmaster conducted training sessions for Omron Adept staff to ensure that workers in the
facility were certified to ship and transport dangerous goods.
(Ultimately, 12 Omron Adept employees were certified.)
Around the same time, Omron purchased Labelmaster’s
Dangerous Goods Information System (DGIS), a software solution for managing dangerous goods shipping. A
Labelmaster software consultant visited the plant to conduct individual training sessions for platform users.
With the training complete, Labelmaster representatives
observed the team handling and processing the shipments
to make sure all procedures were performed correctly. A
month after Omron Adept first contacted Labelmaster, the
in-house shipping program was fully up and running.
As for how it’s all working out, Watson says he’s very
pleased with the support from Labelmaster. To begin with,
he and his team appreciate the ease of use of the DGIS software. “DGIS is very intuitive with prompts for everything
needed, and the warehouse staff has an easy time working
with it,” Watson said in the release.
Watson also says he’s happy with the regulatory updates
Labelmaster provides. “Labelmaster keeps us notified regularly about new and changing regulations that apply to our
business,” he said in the statement.
But perhaps most important of all has been Labelmaster’s
role in ensuring that Omron Adept is able to ship products
to customers efficiently and in full compliance with the various hazmat regulations. “We have not had any compliance
issues yet, and I don’t think we will,” said Watson. “With
our current system in place, I think we will be in great shape
for a very long time.”
