Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

APPLICATIONS

WMS provides cool solution for HVAC company facing red-hot growth

As sales soared, HVAC distributor Hercules Industries gave its outdated fulfillment operations a lift with PathGuide software.

People in warehouse, scanner

When William E. Newland founded Hercules Industries Inc. in 1962 as a Denver-based distributor of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment, he could never have guessed what the company would become by 2020.

The business is still family-owned and -operated today, but it has grown to become a steel fabricator that manufactures its own ductwork for projects ranging from skyscrapers to single-family homes. Hercules now has four manufacturing facilities and 20 sales and distribution centers in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming.


Hercules stocks some 11,500 SKUs (stock-keeping units) for customers that range from commercial wholesalers to residential mechanical contractors. And until recently, it was running the whole distribution operation from an aging enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. To direct fulfillment activities, managers would print out paper picking tickets and hand them out to warehouse workers.

So several years ago, Hercules bit the bullet and decided to invest in a new warehouse management system (WMS) to update that legacy process. The company turned to PathGuide Technologies Inc., a Bothell, Washington-based tech developer that provides the Latitude WMS, a software product that’s designed to boost picking and shipping rates, improve inventory accuracy, and offer advanced functions like manifesting as needed.

FORGING A BETTER PROCESS

For the first phase of the project, PathGuide implemented the new platform at Hercules’ main DC. Once that system was up and running, it rolled out Latitude to the other 19 locations over the next two years. Among other benefits, the implementation allowed Hercules to reduce inventory-holding costs in its DC from 8.2% to 6.4% between year two and year three, Hercules’ chief financial officer, Dan Luzietti, said in an article posted on the vendor’s website.

Hercules also saw a big jump in efficiency and throughput, which has allowed it to meet growing customer demand without additional floor space. Other benefits include improved cycle-counting and inventory performance, which now allow the company to fine-tune inventory and replenishment levels for each SKU.

Much of that success is due to a team-based approach to the software implementation, which helped ease the transition to the new processes and technologies and bring even the most change-averse workers on board. Today, each warehouse has one or two designated Latitude “champions” who come together once a year to share best practices. This helps from a credibility standpoint, the company says, because the initiatives are driven by users rather than someone in IT or finance.

Asked about the overall results, Luzietti points to two main benefits of the company’s shift to Latitude: “We’ve made our people better at what they do,” he said in the article, “and we’re managing our capacity better.”

The Latest

More Stories

Trucking industry experiences record-high congestion costs

Trucking industry experiences record-high congestion costs

Congestion on U.S. highways is costing the trucking industry big, according to research from the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI), released today.

The group found that traffic congestion on U.S. highways added $108.8 billion in costs to the trucking industry in 2022, a record high. The information comes from ATRI’s Cost of Congestion study, which is part of the organization’s ongoing highway performance measurement research.

Keep ReadingShow less

Featured

From pingpong diplomacy to supply chain diplomacy?

There’s a photo from 1971 that John Kent, professor of supply chain management at the University of Arkansas, likes to show. It’s of a shaggy-haired 18-year-old named Glenn Cowan grinning at three-time world table tennis champion Zhuang Zedong, while holding a silk tapestry Zhuang had just given him. Cowan was a member of the U.S. table tennis team who participated in the 1971 World Table Tennis Championships in Nagoya, Japan. Story has it that one morning, he overslept and missed his bus to the tournament and had to hitch a ride with the Chinese national team and met and connected with Zhuang.

Cowan and Zhuang’s interaction led to an invitation for the U.S. team to visit China. At the time, the two countries were just beginning to emerge from a 20-year period of decidedly frosty relations, strict travel bans, and trade restrictions. The highly publicized trip signaled a willingness on both sides to renew relations and launched the term “pingpong diplomacy.”

Keep ReadingShow less
forklift driving through warehouse

Hyster-Yale to expand domestic manufacturing

Hyster-Yale Materials Handling today announced its plans to fulfill the domestic manufacturing requirements of the Build America, Buy America (BABA) Act for certain portions of its lineup of forklift trucks and container handling equipment.

That means the Greenville, North Carolina-based company now plans to expand its existing American manufacturing with a targeted set of high-capacity models, including electric options, that align with the needs of infrastructure projects subject to BABA requirements. The company’s plans include determining the optimal production location in the United States, strategically expanding sourcing agreements to meet local material requirements, and further developing electric power options for high-capacity equipment.

Keep ReadingShow less
map of truck routes in US

California moves a step closer to requiring EV sales only by 2035

Federal regulators today gave California a green light to tackle the remaining steps to finalize its plan to gradually shift new car sales in the state by 2035 to only zero-emissions models — meaning battery-electric, hydrogen fuel cell, and plug-in hybrid cars — known as the Advanced Clean Cars II Rule.

In a separate move, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) also gave its approval for the state to advance its Heavy-Duty Omnibus Rule, which is crafted to significantly reduce smog-forming nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions from new heavy-duty, diesel-powered trucks.

Keep ReadingShow less
screenshots for starboard trade software

Canadian startup gains $5.5 million for AI-based global trade platform

A Canadian startup that provides AI-powered logistics solutions has gained $5.5 million in seed funding to support its concept of creating a digital platform for global trade, according to Toronto-based Starboard.

The round was led by Eclipse, with participation from previous backers Garuda Ventures and Everywhere Ventures. The firm says it will use its new backing to expand its engineering team in Toronto and accelerate its AI-driven product development to simplify supply chain complexities.

Keep ReadingShow less