DC Velocity - March 2014

The Problem: Crider Foods may not be a household name, but its canned chicken and other meat products are on the shelves of many of the best-known grocers in the United States and are a staple in the foodservice industry. Over the past decade, the company has experienced tremendous growth, says Mark Howell, Crider’s executive vice president of sales and marketing—growth that strained the capabilities of the warehouse adjacent to its plant in Stillmore, Ga.

The warehouse became a bottleneck in the flow of goods from the plant to customers. Empty pallets ate up valuable warehouse floor space. Floor-stacked pallets required constant shuffling of products by forklift operators to maintain the first-in/first-out (FIFO) inventory flow essential to food manufacturers. And all the shuffling sometimes made it difficult for forklift operators to find product, creating delays at the loading dock, which in turn led to detention charges from customers’ carriers. The stacking and extra handling also resulted in product damage and inefficient loading on outbound trucks. Using off-site third-party warehouses for the overflow added to storage and transportation costs.

The Solution: Managers knew the
company needed a new warehouse, and the
company did build a new 110,000-square-
foot facility, which opened in 2011. In the
meantime, managers had to find a way to
handle the inventory in the existing facility.
The solution came from Craft Equipment
Co., a Tampa, Fla.-based material handling
distributor, and Steel King, a Stevens Point,
Wis.-based maker of pallet racks, drive-
through rack, flow rack, pick modules,
industrial containers, mezzanines, and other
material handling and storage products.
To clear empty pallets from the floor and
open up about 2,000 square feet of space,
Craft installed Steel King pallet storage rack
over the warehouse loading docks. Those
racks held empty pallets, skids, and return-
able shipping containers.
For loaded pallets, the company installed
Steel King’s SK3400 pallet flow rack. The
flow rack is especially suited for managing
palletloads of perishable goods and other
products that are managed on a FIFO basis.
Forklift operators deposit pallets of prod-
ucts on one side of the rack. Gravity does
the work of feeding the pallets down the
rollers on the rack, and forklift drivers pick
pallets from the front end, ensuring the old-
est product goes out first. The initial instal-
lation had 864 pallet positions, a number
that was later expanded to 1,440.
When Crider built the new warehouse, it
brought the flow rack along and expanded
it further. The new facility has 10,240 pallet
positions in the flow rack, which measures
four pallets high and 12 deep. Howell says
the design allows for the installation of an
additional layer if needed, which would add
500 pallet positions.
The results have been a major improve-
ment in inventory handling and ware-
house efficiency. Load time has dropped to
between 45 minutes and an hour from what
had been an average of two to three hours,
Howell says. Turning trucks faster has
reduced detention charges. And the reduc-
tion in handling has cut down on damage.
Where the previous operation could ship
about 16 truckloads a day, the current sys-
tem can ship 25, and with less labor. Crider
has also been able to eliminate the use of
third-party storage and the related trans-
portation charges. “We brought it all back
home,” says Howell.
problemsolved

Problem: Eliminating bottlenecks resulting from fast growth

THE PLAYERS CUSTOMER Crider Foods Primary business: Producing canned chicken, beef, turkey, and pork products as well as fully cooked frozen chicken products for national brand name companies, private-label and club store customers, and the foodservice industry