David Maloney has been a journalist for more than 35 years and is currently the group editorial director for DC Velocity and Supply Chain Quarterly magazines. In this role, he is responsible for the editorial content of both brands of Agile Business Media. Dave joined DC Velocity in April of 2004. Prior to that, he was a senior editor for Modern Materials Handling magazine. Dave also has extensive experience as a broadcast journalist. Before writing for supply chain publications, he was a journalist, television producer and director in Pittsburgh. Dave combines a background of reporting on logistics with his video production experience to bring new opportunities to DC Velocity readers, including web videos highlighting top distribution and logistics facilities, webcasts and other cross-media projects. He continues to live and work in the Pittsburgh area.
As we begin, may i suggest a glass of Altesino Brunello di Montalcino Riserva? This fine red wine from Italy's Tuscany region is aged four years to provide a multidimensional blend of aromas featuring berries, spices, and dried flowers. Its taste is full-bodied and velvety, and it provides a fresh finish.
While you're enjoying your glass of wine, allow me to tell you about Winebow, the New Jersey-based importer responsible for bringing Altesino and other fine Italian vintages into the U.S. market.
Winebow represents over 70 wine-growing estates, offering some of the finest Italian wines available anywhere to wine lovers throughout the nation.
In addition to its import business, which serves cus- tomers nationwide, Winebow also is a regional wholesaler of other fine wines from all around the world. These are sold to smaller distributors, retailers, and restaurants within the Northeast—about 5,000 customers in all.
About a third of its wholesale distribution business is in New York City. Orders there may vary from several pallet loads for a small distributor to a few bottles needed to restock a restaurant's wine cellar.
Recent acquisitions have expanded Winebow's wholesale operations from its base in New Jersey and neighboring New York and Pennsylvania to include Connecticut and Massachusetts. The company also has wholesale distribution operations in Washington, D.C.
All bottled up Wine flows freely
While double-digit growth and the move into new markets have been positive developments for the company, the effect on Winebow's Ho-Ho-Kus, N.J., distribution facility has been more like a bad hangover. The 80,000-square-foot building, which served both the import and wholesale businesses, did not offer an optimal design, nor was it located in a particularly accessible location. The facility was in a small industrial park that was bordered by railroad tracks. Trucks often had to wait for trains to pass before they could move into and out of the small yard.
Actually,Winebow had outgrown the Ho-Ho-Kus facility a long time ago and had been forced to locate product at two offsite facilities and two third-party warehouses. Having its wines in five different locations made things very difficult to manage.
"Our primary issue was space," says Scott Ades, senior vice president of corporate development and operations. "We needed more room and a layout that would provide greater throughput and allow us to improve customer service and our response time."
Winebow contacted W&H Systems, a material handling conveyor and software systems integrator based in Carlstadt, N.J., that is well known for its work designing systems for the wine and spirits industry. The result of the collaboration was the creation of a new 196,922-squarefoot distribution center in Pine Brook, N.J. Situated within 20 miles of midtown Manhattan, the location allows Winebow to have products within easy reach of a large portion of its customer base.
Opened last April, the facility seamlessly handles more than a million cases of wine annually, representing over 3,300 different stock-keeping units (each brand, type of wine, and vintage represents a different SKU). The wholesale division offers 933 unique brands of wine from 600 different suppliers, while the import business has 120 brands.
All of the wine for the wholesale distribution business (with the exception of product bound for customers in Massachusetts and Connecticut) passes through the new building. About one-third of the imported wines also flow from Pine Brook, with the rest shipped directly from the manufacturers.
The new facility provides badly needed room and a much more efficient design. It boasts 23 doors, including three drive-in docks, compared to just four doors in the old warehouse. A new two-level pick module also provides faster and more accurate processing of orders. New conveyors and sorters help whisk cases through the building.
"The new facility has allowed us to be more efficient and productive," reports Ades. "We are more easily able to meet the delivery windows of our customers."
Wine flows freely
Most receiving at Winebow takes place during the daytime hours, with picking of orders done overnight for next-day delivery. As many as 19 doors can be used for receiving, though usually only a handful are assigned to incoming goods. The three new drive-in docks were carved out of the facility floor so that trailers can back up directly inside the building. "We basically built these interior docks for security and to get some of the trailers out of the weather," explains Ades.
The interior docks also provide additional flexibility.Workers can fill a trailer and store it inside overnight until it's time to leave the building. Reefer units can also be pushed into the building to avoid sitting out under a blazing sun.
Currently, received items are checked against paper lists. But within the next few months, the building will be installing the Motek Priya warehouse management system (WMS), which will then control most of the warehouse operations. At that time, products will be scanned into the warehouse management system upon arrival. Ades says Winebow wanted to refine its other processes in the new building before tackling the WMS implementation.
Both the importing and distribution businesses operate from within the building, sharing common areas. "Inventory is virtually separated, but physically together. On paper, though, they are separate operational entities," explains Ades.
Products are housed in three parts of the building. A large bulk area stores approximately 6,600 pallets stacked on the floor. Customers ordering imported products—these, again, are other distributors located nationwide—typically order full pallet quantities or mixed pallets containing full cases. Most often, these are picked from the bulk area and ferried by lift trucks to outbound doors dedicated to the import business.
Products for the wholesale distribution side of Winebow's business—smaller distributors, retailers, and restaurants in the region—are also stored in the bulk area. However, most of the wholesale products stored here are fast movers that replenish the facility's pick module. Replenishment begins during daylight hours and continues as needed during overnight picking.
While the vast majority of the wholesale distribution orders are filled in the pick module, some product for larger customers may also be picked directly from the bulk area as full pallets or loads of mixed cases.
Slower-moving pallets are stored in 2,500 rack locations (the racks were supplied by Unex). Also found within the racking are 700 half pallet locations and some decking for slow-moving wines that are stocked in smaller quantities. Thanks to the 22-foot ceilings in the new facility,Winebow is now able to store products four rack levels high, compared to only three levels high in the old building.
Most of the racked items also replenish the pick module, though, as with the bulk area, some items for customer orders may also be picked directly from these racks. Individual cases selected here are inducted by hand into the facility's conveyor system.
Wine list, please
As much as 95 percent of all order filling for the wholesale distribution business occurs within the pick module. This new area has only been in operation since the first week of November. Prior to that, picking was done from a temporary setup in an overflow bulk room while the module was made ready for occupancy.
The two-level module provides 6,000 square feet of picking space per level. The top level consists of 300 locations equipped with floor-mounted pallet flow rollers. Full cases are picked here by label, with the label attached as the case is removed and placed onto a takeaway conveyor (which was supplied by FKI Logistex).
The bottom level of the module contains a mix of storage for pallets, cases, and individual bottles, with storage systems here also supplied by Unex. Another 30 locations are dedicated to full pallets on flow rollers. Case flow racks provide 250 locations capable of holding 2,500 cases of slowmoving products. Opposite the flow racks is shelving that holds medium and slow movers that are picked as individual bottles. About 25 percent of the wholesale business consists of split-case orders.
As with the upper level, full cases are picked by label, while bottles are picked by lists into order cartons that are then labeled for shipping. Once the WMS is installed, picking of these items may be directed by radio-frequency units or even voice technology.
In the short time that the new module has been in use,
Ades has already seen improvements. It is now easier to locate products, and picking speed and accuracy is better.
"When you are dealing with premium wines, you have to be accurate," he says. "Damage has also been reduced as we are not moving product as much internally."
Picks made on the bottom level are placed onto a takeaway conveyor where they are transported to the upper level by a Ryson spiral conveyor. The cases next pass through a scan tunnel, where Accu-Sort scanners read the bar codes on the labels before cartons are diverted to two loading docks using a pop-up sorter (which was also supplied by FKI Logistex).
Winebow operates its own fleet of 30 trucks for wholesale deliveries. Loading the trucks begins with the start of order filling at 7 p.m. and continues overnight so that the first trucks are ready to depart the building at 5: 30 a.m.
A good finish
The creation of the new distribution center has provided a smooth flow of wines at Winebow. All products are finally under one roof. There's no longer any need to shuttle products between the offsite warehouses, and space constraints are a thing of the past.
"Before, we had to spend time just consolidating inventory to make space for new receipts," recalls Ades. "A fair amount of productivity has been achieved simply by eliminating all of the extra handling and shuffling of products."
In addition to greater flexibility, the additional space gives Winebow the capacity to eventually double its previous throughput. The company distributed just over a million cases in 2007, 12 percent more than the year before, and expects to handle at least 10 percent more this year. It has plenty of room now to accommodate such growth for years to come.
Changes to the material handling systems are also planned to keep up with expected growth. Another pick module can be added, the sorter can provide double the number of diverts, and additional doors can be assigned to shipping. Narrow-aisle racking is also being considered to create additional density in the storage areas.
The large room that had been used for temporary picking before the pick module went live will soon be sublet. This area, measuring 27,000 square feet, can then be taken back in about five years when growth necessitates.
And within the next few months, the new WMS system will provide Winebow with real-time information and improved inventory control.
The new building also proved to be a winner during the recent holiday season, easily Winebow's busiest time. "We were able to process our orders much better than in the past, and we did it all with less manpower and better response time," says Ades.
Best of all, the new facility has improved Winebow's customer service. Greater efficiencies and flexibility have allowed Winebow to extend its order cutoff time from 5 to 6 p.m., with the hope of extending it by another hour soon.
Orders also arrive at their destinations at the promised time, which is no easy task when making deliveries in the traffic of midtown Manhattan.
"Customer service has definitely gone up," says Ades. "Our trucks are on the road earlier, and we hit our delivery windows on time and [with the product] in good condition. Our customers now tell us, 'I'm going to order from you because I know I will get it on time.'"
The New York-based industrial artificial intelligence (AI) provider Augury has raised $75 million for its process optimization tools for manufacturers, in a deal that values the company at more than $1 billion, the firm said today.
According to Augury, its goal is deliver a new generation of AI solutions that provide the accuracy and reliability manufacturers need to make AI a trusted partner in every phase of the manufacturing process.
The “series F” venture capital round was led by Lightrock, with participation from several of Augury’s existing investors; Insight Partners, Eclipse, and Qumra Capital as well as Schneider Electric Ventures and Qualcomm Ventures. In addition to securing the new funding, Augury also said it has added Elan Greenberg as Chief Operating Officer.
“Augury is at the forefront of digitalizing equipment maintenance with AI-driven solutions that enhance cost efficiency, sustainability performance, and energy savings,” Ashish (Ash) Puri, Partner at Lightrock, said in a release. “Their predictive maintenance technology, boasting 99.9% failure detection accuracy and a 5-20x ROI when deployed at scale, significantly reduces downtime and energy consumption for its blue-chip clients globally, offering a compelling value proposition.”
The money supports the firm’s approach of "Hybrid Autonomous Mobile Robotics (Hybrid AMRs)," which integrate the intelligence of "Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs)" with the precision and structure of "Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs)."
According to Anscer, it supports the acceleration to Industry 4.0 by ensuring that its autonomous solutions seamlessly integrate with customers’ existing infrastructures to help transform material handling and warehouse automation.
Leading the new U.S. office will be Mark Messina, who was named this week as Anscer’s Managing Director & CEO, Americas. He has been tasked with leading the firm’s expansion by bringing its automation solutions to industries such as manufacturing, logistics, retail, food & beverage, and third-party logistics (3PL).
Supply chains continue to deal with a growing volume of returns following the holiday peak season, and 2024 was no exception. Recent survey data from product information management technology company Akeneo showed that 65% of shoppers made holiday returns this year, with most reporting that their experience played a large role in their reason for doing so.
The survey—which included information from more than 1,000 U.S. consumers gathered in January—provides insight into the main reasons consumers return products, generational differences in return and online shopping behaviors, and the steadily growing influence that sustainability has on consumers.
Among the results, 62% of consumers said that having more accurate product information upfront would reduce their likelihood of making a return, and 59% said they had made a return specifically because the online product description was misleading or inaccurate.
And when it comes to making those returns, 65% of respondents said they would prefer to return in-store, if possible, followed by 22% who said they prefer to ship products back.
“This indicates that consumers are gravitating toward the most sustainable option by reducing additional shipping,” the survey authors said in a statement announcing the findings, adding that 68% of respondents said they are aware of the environmental impact of returns, and 39% said the environmental impact factors into their decision to make a return or exchange.
The authors also said that investing in the product experience and providing reliable product data can help brands reduce returns, increase loyalty, and provide the best customer experience possible alongside profitability.
When asked what products they return the most, 60% of respondents said clothing items. Sizing issues were the number one reason for those returns (58%) followed by conflicting or lack of customer reviews (35%). In addition, 34% cited misleading product images and 29% pointed to inaccurate product information online as reasons for returning items.
More than 60% of respondents said that having more reliable information would reduce the likelihood of making a return.
“Whether customers are shopping directly from a brand website or on the hundreds of e-commerce marketplaces available today [such as Amazon, Walmart, etc.] the product experience must remain consistent, complete and accurate to instill brand trust and loyalty,” the authors said.
When you get the chance to automate your distribution center, take it.
That's exactly what leaders at interior design house
Thibaut Design did when they relocated operations from two New Jersey distribution centers (DCs) into a single facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 2019. Moving to an "empty shell of a building," as Thibaut's Michael Fechter describes it, was the perfect time to switch from a manual picking system to an automated one—in this case, one that would be driven by voice-directed technology.
"We were 100% paper-based picking in New Jersey," Fechter, the company's vice president of distribution and technology, explained in a
case study published by Voxware last year. "We knew there was a need for automation, and when we moved to Charlotte, we wanted to implement that technology."
Fechter cites Voxware's promise of simple and easy integration, configuration, use, and training as some of the key reasons Thibaut's leaders chose the system. Since implementing the voice technology, the company has streamlined its fulfillment process and can onboard and cross-train warehouse employees in a fraction of the time it used to take back in New Jersey.
And the results speak for themselves.
"We've seen incredible gains [from a] productivity standpoint," Fechter reports. "A 50% increase from pre-implementation to today."
THE NEED FOR SPEED
Thibaut was founded in 1886 and is the oldest operating wallpaper company in the United States, according to Fechter. The company works with a global network of designers, shipping samples of wallpaper and fabrics around the world.
For the design house's warehouse associates, picking, packing, and shipping thousands of samples every day was a cumbersome, labor-intensive process—and one that was prone to inaccuracy. With its paper-based picking system, mispicks were common—Fechter cites a 2% to 5% mispick rate—which necessitated stationing an extra associate at each pack station to check that orders were accurate before they left the facility.
All that has changed since implementing Voxware's Voice Management Suite (VMS) at the Charlotte DC. The system automates the workflow and guides associates through the picking process via a headset, using voice commands. The hands-free, eyes-free solution allows workers to focus on locating and selecting the right item, with no paper-based lists to check or written instructions to follow.
Thibaut also uses the tech provider's analytics tool, VoxPilot, to monitor work progress, check orders, and keep track of incoming work—managers can see what orders are open, what's in process, and what's completed for the day, for example. And it uses VoxTempo, the system's natural language voice recognition (NLVR) solution, to streamline training. The intuitive app whittles training time down to minutes and gets associates up and working fast—and Thibaut hitting minimum productivity targets within hours, according to Fechter.
EXPECTED RESULTS REALIZED
Key benefits of the project include a reduction in mispicks—which have dropped to zero—and the elimination of those extra quality-control measures Thibaut needed in the New Jersey DCs.
"We've gotten to the point where we don't even measure mispicks today—because there are none," Fechter said in the case study. "Having an extra person at a pack station to [check] every order before we pack [it]—that's been eliminated. Not only is the pick right the first time, but [the order] also gets packed and shipped faster than ever before."
The system has increased inventory accuracy as well. According to Fechter, it's now "well over 99.9%."
IT projects can be daunting, especially when the project involves upgrading a warehouse management system (WMS) to support an expansive network of warehousing and logistics facilities. Global third-party logistics service provider (3PL) CJ Logistics experienced this first-hand recently, embarking on a WMS selection process that would both upgrade performance and enhance security for its U.S. business network.
The company was operating on three different platforms across more than 35 warehouse facilities and wanted to pare that down to help standardize operations, optimize costs, and make it easier to scale the business, according to CIO Sean Moore.
Moore and his team started the WMS selection process in late 2023, working with supply chain consulting firm Alpine Supply Chain Solutions to identify challenges, needs, and goals, and then to select and implement the new WMS. Roughly a year later, the 3PL was up and running on a system from Körber Supply Chain—and planning for growth.
SECURING A NEW SOLUTION
Leaders from both companies explain that a robust WMS is crucial for a 3PL's success, as it acts as a centralized platform that allows seamless coordination of activities such as inventory management, order fulfillment, and transportation planning. The right solution allows the company to optimize warehouse operations by automating tasks, managing inventory levels, and ensuring efficient space utilization while helping to boost order processing volumes, reduce errors, and cut operational costs.
CJ Logistics had another key criterion: ensuring data security for its wide and varied array of clients, many of whom rely on the 3PL to fill e-commerce orders for consumers. Those clients wanted assurance that consumers' personally identifying information—including names, addresses, and phone numbers—was protected against cybersecurity breeches when flowing through the 3PL's system. For CJ Logistics, that meant finding a WMS provider whose software was certified to the appropriate security standards.
"That's becoming [an assurance] that our customers want to see," Moore explains, adding that many customers wanted to know that CJ Logistics' systems were SOC 2 compliant, meaning they had met a standard developed by the American Institute of CPAs for protecting sensitive customer data from unauthorized access, security incidents, and other vulnerabilities. "Everybody wants that level of security. So you want to make sure the system is secure … and not susceptible to ransomware.
"It was a critical requirement for us."
That security requirement was a key consideration during all phases of the WMS selection process, according to Michael Wohlwend, managing principal at Alpine Supply Chain Solutions.
"It was in the RFP [request for proposal], then in demo, [and] then once we got to the vendor of choice, we had a deep-dive discovery call to understand what [security] they have in place and their plan moving forward," he explains.
Ultimately, CJ Logistics implemented Körber's Warehouse Advantage, a cloud-based system designed for multiclient operations that supports all of the 3PL's needs, including its security requirements.
GOING LIVE
When it came time to implement the software, Moore and his team chose to start with a brand-new cold chain facility that the 3PL was building in Gainesville, Georgia. The 270,000-square-foot facility opened this past November and immediately went live running on the Körber WMS.
Moore and Wohlwend explain that both the nature of the cold chain business and the greenfield construction made the facility the perfect place to launch the new software: CJ Logistics would be adding customers at a staggered rate, expanding its cold storage presence in the Southeast and capitalizing on the location's proximity to major highways and railways. The facility is also adjacent to the future Northeast Georgia Inland Port, which will provide a direct link to the Port of Savannah.
"We signed a 15-year lease for the building," Moore says. "When you sign a long-term lease … you want your future-state software in place. That was one of the key [reasons] we started there.
"Also, this facility was going to bring on one customer after another at a metered rate. So [there was] some risk reduction as well."
Wohlwend adds: "The facility plus risk reduction plus the new business [element]—all made it a good starting point."
The early benefits of the WMS include ease of use and easy onboarding of clients, according to Moore, who says the plan is to convert additional CJ Logistics facilities to the new system in 2025.
"The software is very easy to use … our employees are saying they really like the user interface and that you can find information very easily," Moore says, touting the partnership with Alpine and Körber as key to making the project a success. "We are on deck to add at least four facilities at a minimum [this year]."