30 minute read
Movers + Shakers
Trailcon Leasing has appointed Stacey Rumley as director of human resources. Rumley has over 20 years of HR experience, and has developed programs in recruitment, retention, talent management, organizational effectiveness, and employee engagement. She earned a BA from McMaster University and a post graduate Certificate in Human Resources Management.
Michel Letellier has been appointed to CN’s board of directors. Letellier joined the board on October 1, 2022. He is president and CEO of Montreal-headquartered Innergex Renewable Energy Inc. Previously, Letellier was responsible for the development and operation of hydroelectric projects for Boralex Inc. He is an experienced director, having served on public and private boards since 2012. Letellier holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Finance) degree Université du Québec à Montreal, and an MBA from Université de Sherbrooke. The CITT Toronto Area Council had its annual elections in September, and elected a new executive team for 2022-2023. The following posts were filled: Denise Ponte, account manager, Transplace/Uber Freight was elected chair. Lisa Vegso, of Peco Pallet, was elected vice-chair. Brett Poe, senior pricing manager at Apex Motor Express, is treasurer. Jacob Diflorio, supply chain improvement analyst at Church and Dwight, is secretary. Cheryl Meens, recruitment consultant at SCL Search, is project coordinator. Tom Pauls, managing director, SCL Search Consultants Ltd., is executive advisor. Valeriy Kucherenko, Grace DiMarca, George Beck, Duane Chiasson, Bonnie Parkinson, Jennifer Carneiro Demers, and Devin Colston are all members at large.
Glen MacInnes has been appointed as the new British Columbia container trucking commissioner and Karm Jauhal has been appointed deputy commissioner. MacInnes is a labour relations specialist and senior manager with more than 25 years of experience representing employers, employees and unions before administrative tribunals in both the private and public sector. He is currently the managing director of operations for the United Food and Commercial Workers Union - Local 1518, the largest private-sector union in British Columbia. MacInnes’s term will run until Sept. 7, 2025. Jauhal has been working in the Office of the British Columbia container trucking commissioner since its inception, most recently as director of operations. Jauhal’s term will run until Mar. 7, 2025. The appointments will replace outgoing commissioner Michael Crawford and fill the vacant deputy commissioner position.
Jaco Maritz has been appointed global CEO of Syspro, while co-founder Phil Duff will be stepping into the role of executive chairman. Syspro will remain a privately owned business. Maritz’s appointment is a result of a transition plan that was implemented when he took on the role of chief operations officer in 2019.
π
SHIPPING SUPPLY SPECIALISTS
OVER 40 PALLET TRUCK STYLES IN STOCK
ORDER BY 6 PM FOR SAME DAY SHIPPING
COMPLETE CATALOG 1-800-295-5510 uline.ca
BrightDrop expands into grocery fulfillment
ELECTRIC DELIVERY VAN builder BrightDrop, General Motors’s technology startup, is expanding into grocery fulfillment. The company is launching a temperature-controlled fulfillment cart for e-commerce grocery orders.
Kroger, the largest grocery chain in the US, is slated to be the first customer to introduce the BrightDrop Trace Grocery into its e-commerce operations, beginning this year. The companies piloted the system at two Kroger locations earlier this year. The grocer found a noticeable improvement in both customer and associate experience using the carts.
Orders are picked directly into the carts, which are then placed curbside for customer pickups. Nine separate compartments segment items by order, temperature and product type.
They have assisted propulsion, so pickers can load and move up to 350 pounds of products. The company says cold items can be maintained at temperature for up to four hours.
With access given after digital verification, Trace Grocery is compatible with most grocers’ existing online fulfillment apps, enabling flexibility for customers when retrieving their purchases.
Full-scale availability of the Trace Grocery system is expected in 2024.
Research solves part of AV bad weather challenge
RESEARCHERS HAVE FIGURED out a way for autonomous vehicles to better navigate in bad weather conditions.
A team at Oxford University’s Department of Computer Science, in collaboration with colleagues from Bogazici University, Turkey, have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) system to let autonomous vehicles (AVs) achieve safer and more reliable navigation, especially under adverse weather conditions, and when GPS is not available.
“The difficulty for AVs to achieve precise positioning during challenging adverse weather is a major reason why these have been limited to relatively small-scale trials up to now,” said Yasin Almalioglu, who completed the research as part of his doctorate in Oxford’s department of computer science.
“For instance, weather such as rain or snow may cause an AV to detect itself in the wrong lane before a turn, or to stop too late at an intersection, because of imprecise positioning.”
To overcome this problem, Almalioglu and his colleagues developed a new, self-supervised deep learning model for ego-motion estimation. Ego-motion is a crucial component of an AV’s driving system that estimates the car’s moving position relative to objects observed from the car itself. The model brought together detailed information from visual sensors (which can be disrupted by adverse conditions) with data from weather-immune sources (such as radar), so that the benefits of each can be used under different weather conditions.
The model was trained using publicly available AV data that included information from multiple sensors such as cameras, lidar, and radar under diverse settings, including variable light/ darkness levels and precipitation. These were used to generate algorithms to reconstruct scene geometry and calculate the car’s position from new data. Under various test situations, the researchers demonstrated that the model performed well in all kinds of weather, including rain, fog, and snow, as well as during the day and night.
The team anticipates that this work will bring AVs a step closer to safe and smooth all-weather autonomous driving, and ultimately broader use.
“Estimating the precise location of AVs is a critical milestone to achieving reliable autonomous driving under challenging conditions. This study effectively exploits the complementary aspects of different sensors to help AVs navigate in difficult daily scenarios,” said professor Andrew Markham, from the department of computer science at Oxford University, and a co-supervisor for the study.
FUTURE-PROOFING THE SUPPLY CHAIN
A global imbalance between supply and demand has put supply chains into the headlines. Less understood, however, are the contributing factors that have been developing over the past decade.
Supply chain professionals no longer get blank stares when they describe their work to friends and family, according to Abe Eshkenazi, CEO of the US-based Association for Supply Chain Management (ASCM). “The awareness of what a supply chain is has just exploded,” he says.
Few people, however, appreciate the steps involved in delivering a package to their door. “There’s very little understanding of all the activities in the supply chain that it took to get it there,” says Eshkenazi. “People don’t understand the complexity of the supply chain, the synchronization necessary, and the global nature of the supply chain.”
A shortage of personal protection equipment (PPE) in Africa, for example, could affect the delivery of a pair of shoes in Vancouver. “We live in a globally-connected environment,” says Eshkenazi. “The impact of increasing or decreasing capacity in one node has a ripple effect both upstream and downstream for organizations and the entire supply chain.”
These factors have contributed to pandemic-related supply chain dis-
C o n t i n u e d o n pa g e 16
FUTURE-PROOFING CHAIN
Professor David Johnston
ruption in virtually every sector. “What we’re hearing from our members and their companies is that we’re headed for another very difficult time over the next six to 18 months,” says Eshkenazi. “In terms of rebalancing supply and demand, we’re still seeing surges and shifts, and the supply chain, in terms of delivery, has not caught up with the demand side as yet. But on the other hand, the consumer hasn’t changed in terms of their expectations.”
As consumers faced numerous disappointments in the past year, supply chains have become a convenient culprit for anything from manufacturing shortages to hoarding to political instability. “Supply chains get a bad rap,” says Vijay Pandiarajan, director, supply chain intelligence at IBM Sterling. “I see it as an acknowledgement because it brings attention to the supply chain as an unsung, yet critical, business enabler. But I honestly think it’s not so much that supply chains have failed. It’s because people’s behaviors and buying preferences have changed with the pandemic and continue to rapidly evolve; the supply chain is simply a byproduct of that demand and how it’s managed at scale with greater workflow intelligence needed to do it well.”
Contributing factors
Promoting a responsible, data-driven approach to supply chains is a key focus of the George Weston Ltd. Centre for Sustainable Supply Chains at the Schulich School of Business at York University in Toronto. “Should we blame supply chains and supply chain professionals for the situation we’re in right now? No more than we should blame science for the fact that we have a pandemic,” says the centre’s director of research, professor David Johnston. Johnston is also the director of Schulich’s Master of Supply Chain Management program.
According to Johnston, the disruptive impact of the pandemic has been amplified by existing vulnerabilities in global supply chains. “What has happened is that there’s been a confluence of supply situations that have been years in the making,” he says, “and these have been impacted by a slate-cleaning, systemic disruption, which is the pandemic. But just to keep things in perspective here, we did have supply shortages before the pandemic, and in some cases we had imbalances between supply and demand.”
The drive to meet high consumer expectations has drawn supply chains out on a limb. “We’ve been driven by lowest cost for decades,” Johnston says. “And everybody wanted to buy their cheap stuff that’s sourced from cheap places connected by very long and vulnerable supply chain lines. So now we have more disruptors – we have the pandemic, climate change, labour shortages, and social and political unrest. So when you have already vulnerable supply chains and are confronted with more disruptors and more frequently, more shipments are bound to not arrive on time.”
Growing concerns about sustainability have also compounded the difficulties of meeting consumer demand for faster, cheaper,
and better. “Supply chains won’t be about just price anymore, but compliance with sustainability regulations, their customers’ sustainability goals, and their own as well,” says Jan Burian, head of IDC Manufacturing Insights EMEA, who is based in Prague and London.
The issue is not just about sustainable products, however – it’s also about the supply chain itself. Accordingly, creating sustainable supply chains isn’t just about meeting requirements – it’s about ensuring that supply chains will continue to be viable in the face of myriad challenges, including the perennial issue of recruiting qualified employees.
“I think there are some really major sustainability issues in the industry,” says Johnston, “and it’s not just carbon and stuff like that. It also includes, for example, how companies are utilizing some of their manpower. For example, companies haven’t been very good at dealing with things like inclusion.” “We need to do a much better job of increasing our inclusion,” Eshkenazi agrees. “We have a great opportunity. There’s a huge demand for talent, and we need to open our aperture in terms of qualified and capable individuals.”
Broadening the conversation
Much of the focus during the pandemic has been on reactive measures to bring supply chains “back to normal”, when what’s needed is a bigger conversation involving all stakeholders. “I think all the ripples and bullwhip effects from the pandemic will settle down,” says Johnston. “But stakeholders need to be sitting with each other, maybe with the help of government, and asking ‘how do we assure a minimum level of supply for critical goods and services under different scenarios of disruption?’”
Government’s role will be essential in areas such as ensuring public safety. “You need to think about what works best in an emergency,” says Johnston. “We don’t have a free-enterprise, market-driven solution to respond to a humanitarian logistics crisis when fire and flood take out industrial infrastructure.”
“I think we need to get that public-private partnership into the discussion,” says Eshkenazi. “How can we be better prepared for just-in-case? Where do we see disruptions? Who is responsible for the initial inventory or responding to PPE or ventilators? How do we respond as an industry? And how do we respond, as economies, to the changes in the challenges that we faced before? It cannot be on the back of a private enterprise – there have to be public-private partnerships to respond to these types of shifts and changes or the demand spikes.”
Meeting the information challenge
Better information sharing on an ongoing basis will be key to this discussion. “The major issue that companies face right now is visibility, both upstream and downstream,” says Eshkenazi. “The pandemic-related disruptions that were caused last year were predominantly tier-two and tier-three suppliers, not tier-one suppliers, for a lot of organizations. And unfortunately, most of the companies did not have visibility – whether it’s through technology or through relationships – to analyze those tier-two and tier-three issues and make informed decisions.” This need for better visibility is being intensified by sustainability concerns. “It’s not just where things come from,” says Pandiarajan. “It’s how they were sourced, what manufacturing methods were used, how it was transported, labour practices. All this becomes part of the story of what the product is, particularly from a environmental sustainability perspective.” Technology will be key to achieving this. “We look at sustainability as something that should be enabled by digital technology,” says Burian. “To start recycling is fine, but to be able to reduce your carbon footprint and get to net zero, you’ve got to be able to track it and measure it. And to track and calculate carbon during the lifecycle of a product through the whole value chain takes a lot of collaboration, and a lot of capturing and sharing of data.” Artificial Intelligence (AI), IoT sensing technology, mobile apps, and improved integration between diverse data platforms are all helping companies create this higher degree of transparency. More recent is the use of blockchain technology, which can ensure an immutable record of all the supply chain events leading to the delivery of a product. “We believe blockchain and AI together have a huge part to play in this, because you need to know these things in an immutable way, and you need to know what to with the information to help gain a competitive advantage,” says Pandiarajan.
Investments in technology to achieve this can have far reaching benefits. For example, monitoring the provenance of a product to ensure that sustainably sourced materials were used, or that unfair labour practices weren’t involved, also creates the level of visibility that can help companies identify vulnerabilities in their supply chains. Equally important, it can help build stronger supply chain partnerships. “Visibility is a critical aspect of trust,” says Eshkenazi, “and I think this is one of the areas that organizations need to focus on is that collaboration across the enterprise. Also, visibility and trust are a great foundation for extended supply chains – you need to know that your partners are providing you the accurate information so that you can rely on that data to make the necessary decisions for your organization.”
Learning curve
The learning curve, however, will be significant. “A lot of the supply chain organizations don’t have the expertise to use the technology well,” says Johnston. “They are at the same stage as manufacturers in the 1980s and 1990s were when they were trying to figure out how to adopt robotics and harness it to improve products, people, systems, and processes.”
Many companies will have to change their policies about developing their employees. “What often happens is that when companies are impacted by a negative financial outcome, the first thing to get cut is professional development investment in their workforce,” says Eshkenazi. “This is where we need to walk the talk. I think every organization will tell you that their employees are their number-one asset. So in your worst of times, what do you invest in? Your best performing assets or your worst-performing assets? I think clearly, we need a greater focus on investment in talent.”
Executive competencies will be key here – Johnston believes that supply chain managers will be called upon to manage not just to the financial bottom line, but environmental and social bottom lines. “Governments are going to become very pushy about things like climate change, as will the investment community, who will want to reduce the risk of business disruption,” he says. “And they’re going to zero in on organizations that are sloppy in accounting for their impact on people and the planet.”
These trends are already raising the bar for what is considered good supply chain management. “The definition of good management has changed to be one that encompasses a broader definition of supply chain risk, and includes investment in capabilities to anticipate, mitigate, and avoid them,” Johnston says.
FINDING CAPACITY
Tech startup bridges the gap between shippers and trucks
Mathieu van Gent believes he is building a better mousetrap. In the freight brokerage space, where many have stepped up to offer websites and services to connect loads and trucks, van Gent earlier this year launched
Truxweb, a platform aimed at small and medium businesses.
The Quebec-based company aims to assist shippers that move more than 50 full truckloads a year to find carriers when they need them, and at the best price. Since the launch in March 2022, van Gent says uptake has been incredible, and revenues are surpassing $100,000 a month. And that’s through a non-subscription model. van Gent is careful to differentiate what Truxweb is doing from big players like Convoy or Loadsmart. He says it’s the automation. “We only require maybe one account manager for every 200 or 300 clients to be able to support any exceptions to the 95 percent that goes right.”
With background in a family freight business, van Gent had plenty of exposure to the challenges shippers face in finding carriers, as well as the costs of using a freight broker. He was working on a Master’s degree at Concordia University and came across a course on building new ventures. He decided to create a business that would cut the middleman out of the shipper-carrier relationship, and. He pitched the idea in 2020, and in 2021, collaborating with a team of software developers, he built the platform. With funding aboard,
Truxweb was born and ready to launch this year. A shipper looking for capacity goes on the platform and inputs the parameters of the load. Then the shipper can select one or multiple carriers, and sends a confirmation request for the availability. The carrier has an hour to confirm. The shipper then choses which carrier they want, depending on factors such as if the carrier accepted it exactly as it was sent, if they modified the date or the price, or if they rejected it, van Gent explained.
So far Truxweb has about 100 shippers and three carriers on board, covering more than 3,000 lanes. van Gent said he’s had shippers leave their broker to join, because they not only get the load for less, but the process is far quicker. What used to take two hours, “including all the documentation and the wrap up can actually be done now in 12 minutes,” he said.
Where a traditional broker charges 15 to 20 percent, Truxweb costs in the four to nine percent range, van Gent said. And, there’s no subscription cost.
“Shippers and carriers, without any investment of even a penny can go onto the platform, start to use it immediately,” he added.
Truxweb offers other bells and whistles, like integration with Marsh for cargo insurance, real-time document sharing, automatically populated bills of lading, and a direct messaging app so carriers and shippers don’t have to make calls to clarify questions.
“People are very resistant to change. We had to adapt our process to what carriers and shippers value,” van Gent said. “Both are email heavy. They don’t necessarily like to pick up like the phone and they want to pay in 30 days. Perfect. We’re doing that, and we’re making everything automated so we can make this entire process quicker. So everybody wins.”
Happy customers
Customers seem impressed. Carrier AI Express has worked with van Gent’s company for more than a year. Logistics director Nicholas Duncan said communications between his team and shippers is easy through the platform, and “the fact that Truxweb has qualified it its client group and guarantees to pay us on Net 30 terms is a positive. It eliminates one of our major stressors with new clients.”
On the shipper side, Quebec-based wood products manufacturer Barette said Truxweb has made it possible to find capacity with reliable carriers, allowing it to meet obligations in the US.
“Our sales volumes fluctuate seasonally and at the height of our busiest period, when carrier capacity was hard to find, Truxweb’s solution was very helpful,” said Michel Fortin, the company’s transportation manager.
Refinements
van Gent is working on attracting new shippers to the platform, and says adding to its functionality is helping in the process. “We’re building an artificial intelligence pricing calculator to help carriers become more competitive and more aware when they provide prices on the market,” he said. “We can use about eight different components, including four which are derived directly from our platform – data analytics – in order to give that kind of feedback.”
As the company grows it’s looking for capital, but van Gent says they are not aiming to be acquired. “We don’t want to be snapped up; the goal is for us to create value. And when we create value, who knows what can happen? Right now, we want to help shippers, and we see that it’s helping. So that’s what we’re focusing on right now.”
ALONGGETTING
Shippers and 3PLs align on goals and outlook
The quality of relations between shippers and their third-party logistics suppliers have declined this year in the post-pandemic chaos.
The latest edition of Penske’s annual ThirdParty Logistics Study with research by CSCMP, paints a picture of slightly declining (down seven percent) contentment from shippers, while the service providers remain happy. Still, with 83 percent of shippers agreeing their relations with 3PLs are successful, it seems they are mostly getting it right.
Tech is key
A majority of shippers (71 percent) say using a 3PL improves customer service, and provides access to innovative logistics solutions. Shippers count on 3PLs to provide up to date technology. The study tracks 19 different information technologies and 14 of these have been pinpointed as must-have by the shippers surveyed this year. The most frequently cited are transportation management planning (62 percent), transportation management scheduling (57 percent) and warehouse/distribution centre management (48 percent).
Three quarters of shippers say technology solutions are now more important in their evaluation and selection of 3PL partners. From the other side of the table, 87 percent of 3PLs said shippers have placed a greater emphasis on technology solutions during their evaluation and selection process.
Labour
Among respondents, 56 percent of 3PLs and 78 percent of shippers said labour shortages impacted their supply chain operations. Opinion is split, however, on whether the talent shortage is going to be a long-term problem. Both groups say they are looking into automation and new technology to help alleviate the labour crunch.
The toughest workers to find and retain are certified, licensed hourly workers, such as truck drivers and equipment operators, as well as hourly workers, such as pickers and packers, according to both 3PLs and shippers. Almost half of both groups say it can take two to three months to fill hourly positions. Management positions are even more of a challenge, with 61 percent of 3PLs reporting it takes two to three months, compared to 49 percent of shippers.
The shortage may be helping 3PLs. Almost three quarters of service providers and half of shippers say that engaging a 3PL is a strategy being adopted to help offset it.
Cold chain heats up
Demand for temperature controlled space and services is on the rise. Increased consumer demand, rising competition and advances in technology are all expected to shape the cold chains of the future as 3PLs and shippers attempt to meet high expectations for deliveries.
Shippers and 3PLs both see increased competition leading to an increase in capacity over the next three years. About 60 percent of shippers and 3PLs expanded their cold chain capabilities in the last year. As well, 67 percent of shippers and 72 percent of 3PLs plan to continue to expand their cold chain capabilities and capacity in the next three years. A majority of both groups also foresee more outsourcing of cold chain needs over the next three years.
Returns rising
A majority of shippers, both in the business-to-business and business-to-consumer space, see customers’ expectations of the returns experience rising. B2C shippers also expect the rate of returns to continue climbing, with 61 percent predicting the increase in demand, driven by growth in online purchases and direct-to-consumer shipping. At present, the majority of shippers handle returns in house, the report found. A third said they plan to outsource more reverse logistics over the next three years.
ESG goals
Achieving environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals is becoming more important. Reducing environment and climate impacts; improving diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI); and social contribution and responsibility; along with the need to meet regulatory requirements and mandates drive this area.The study found that shippers are ahead of 3PLs in their ESG initiatives, with 22 percent of shippers rating themselves as ESG leaders, compared to 17 percent of 3PLs. As well, 45 percent of shippers said their organization is about average in its ESG practices compared to 41 percent of 3PLs.
Inventory
The study also asked shippers about inventory challenges post-pandemic. Shippers are actively working to rebalance inventory levels, with 81 percent saying they’ve already taken action. They are also adjusting their supply practices, with 80 percent reporting they are rebalancing production locations to move towards more regional or domestic production networks.
THE GLASS IS MORE THAN HALF FULL
Beverage distributor benefits from integrated services
In order to move more than 30 million cases of beverage products a year, The Odom Corporation operates 700,000 square feet of warehouse in four states with 1,650 employees.
The family-owned beverage distributor, which handles beer, wine cider and non-alcoholic drinks alike, was founded in 1933 in Alaska. In the years since, the company has expanded into Washington, Idaho and Hawaii, and has customers that range from stadium venues and grocery stores all the way to restaurants and mom-and-pop diners.
The operation is complex and has many moving parts, making it a challenge to gain the visibility needed to ensure product gets to the right place, at the right time. It’s crucial that Odom is able to communicate effectively across the entire enterprise. To help facilitate this, the distributor works closely with Raymond West, a Raymond dealer, to deploy intralogistics solutions, including both lift trucks and technology such as telematics, labour management and pick to light, through all four warehouses.
STANDARDIZATION AND ACCURACY As the business – and number of SKUs – has grown, so have Odom’s technology needs. Accuracy is extremely important, and the company needed a way to provide a standardized operator experience across its locations, along with improved visibility into picking, labour and costs. Labour challenges are also prevalent in the industry, and Odom sought a uniform way to train and retrain operators across multiple pieces of equipment through its four-state operation.
Odom turned to Raymond in 2014 after learning about the capabilities of iWarehouse Intelligent Warehouse Solutions. By 2021, Odom was relying on Raymond for complete intralogistics solutions comprising telematics and labour management systems, operator assist technologies, more than 100 lift truck models, racking, energy solutions, maintenance agreements, and tracking. Together these solutions talk to each other and provide a comprehensive view of the entire Odom enterprise.
By using Raymond for all these solutions, ODOM gets a standard experience in equipment use across all four facilities. “Instead of having 10 to 15 different brands of equipment in the warehouse, we had one holistic experience, all connected with one integrated technology solution. That really gave us a lot of advantages,” said Mike McCartney, director of operations at The Odom Corporation in Alaska.
With one brand of product, operators know what to expect when they get on a piece of equipment. The standardization of equipment across Odom’s facilities also means that an employee can move from one facility to another and is able to jump on the equipment with minimal orientation. This reduces labour costs and saves time.
TELEMATICS Raymond’s telematics system allows Odom to gather valuable information directly from its fleet, assets and workforce to enhance efficiency and reliability. By leveraging these connected technologies, Odom uncovered optimization opportunities that would have otherwise gone unnoticed, such as missing time. Since the initial implementation, Odom has seen an 86 percent drop in missing or unaccounted for time. It’s down to 36 percent.
Additionally, that data collection gives supervisors insight
into wasteful or dangerous operator behaviours, and the opportunity to change them. This results in less downtime, as operator training is reinforced by alerts and impact monitoring.
“iWAREHOUSE Fleet and Asset Management System has improved our operation in a lot of ways. I think it’s single-handedly the coolest piece of software that we’ve ever put in. It really gave us end-to-end visibility of what the trucks were doing,” said Mike McCartney, director of operations at The Odom Corporation.
LABOUR MANAGEMENT
With employees accounting for nearly three-quarters of total operating cost for many operations, nothing offers the potential for enhanced productivity more than a labour management system (LMS). Raymond’s LMS provides Odom with clear visibility into where and how labour dollars are being spent, allowing the company to quickly and easily analyze costs and identify inefficiencies, such as missing time, at every level of the operation. Operating together, Raymond’s LMS and iWarehouse Asset Management System help to provide a full picture of Odom’s performance and labour utilization.
“Raymond’s LMS does a beautiful job of driving efficiencies through visibility, capturing raw data and illustrating missing time. We’re seeing continuous improvements throughout our entire organization,” said Elle Shrefler, vice-president of operations at The Odom Corporation .
OPERATOR ASSIST
Odom also uses Raymond’s Pick2Pallet LED light system, a patented put-to-light technology within the truck forks that reduces picking errors by using coloured lights that work in tandem with audible instructions to help operators visualize the correct product placement. This system has been customized for beverage pallets, and lets Odom operators pick three pallets at a time.
The Raymond Pick2Pallet system made the training process more efficient. Now, the same operators who previously could only pick one pallet are running three pallets through the pick path within a couple days. Training reinforcement can happen as soon as a manager notices an area for improvement. “When we see the employees’ errors increasing, we will put them on the Pick2Pallet LED Light System jacks and within a single day their errors are reduced to an acceptable level,” said Vaughn Sommerseth, warehouse manager at Odom’s NW Beverages.
“Adding the Pick2Pallet LED light system really supplements operator learning and provides a solution to one of our biggest weaknesses, which is putting cases on the wrong pallet. In the future, when we buy a pallet jack, it will come with Pick2Pallet,” McCartney added.
INDEX OF ADVERTISERS
COMPANY WEBSITE SERVICE AND SUPPORT
In Alaska, finding good service is hard due to the population size. McCartney noted, “In my 20 years, Raymond has some of the best service techs that I’ve ever seen.” Raymond West technicians service everything from forklifts to conveyors at Odom – providing invaluable expertise that helps keep Odom’s distribution up and running. “We’re only successful if we have equipment that is moving product,” said McCartney.
BENEFITS
Odom’s business is thriving through its collaboration with Raymond West. In Odom’s industry, accuracy is extremely important. By helping reduce errors, lower costs and increase productivity, Raymond intralogistics solutions help Odom cultivate a consistent experience across all locations.
“When we finally aligned with Raymond throughout the entire organization, it started bringing our warehouses together. They could give you the equipment, and they could tie it into iWarehouse Asset Management System. They could integrate into LMS. And now you have a full end-to-end, end-user experience,” said McCartney.
Odom managers are confident in a future with Raymond by their side. “As we continue to grow and invest in our business, Raymond is there every step of the way working with us hand in hand to continue to grow,” Shrefler concluded.
PAGE
Polaris Transportation .................................................. www.polaristransport.com ........................................................................ 2 3D Storage ................................................................... 3Dstoragesolutions.com............................................................................. 4 GX Transport ................................................................ www.gxts.com ............................................................................................ 8 Automation Associates Inc........................................... www.rfpathways.com.................................................................................10 Uline ............................................................................. www.uline.ca .............................................................................................. 11 Cardinal Couriers ........................................................ cardinalcouriers.com.................................................................................. 12
Johnston Equipment .................................................... www.johnstonequipment.com...................................................................18 House Ad...................................................................... www.insidelogistics.ca.............................................................................. 22 Wurth............................................................................ www.shop.wurth.ca................................................................................... 26 Inside Logistics Subscription........................................ www.insidelogistics.ca.............................................................................. 28 Atlantic Provinces Trucking Association....................... www..ATLS.ca ............................................................................................31 FedEx ........................................................................... www.fedex.ca/international...................................................................... 32
Simply complete this form TODAY and Mail it to 48 Lumsden Crescent, Whitby ON L1R 1G5 or online at: www.insidelogistics.ca/subscribe/magazine/
THANK YOU FOR TAKING THE TIME TO RESPOND
YES, I WISH TO RECEIVE INSIDE LOGISTICS MAGAZINE FREE! NO, THANK YOU Choose your Edition: Print Print & Digital__________________________________________________________________________
(Email Required)
Signature: __________________________________________________ Date: __________________________________________________
PLEASE ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS TO QUALIFY FOR YOUR FREE SUBSCRIPTION:
1. Do you purchase, or influence the purchase, of goods and/or services related to distribution logistics, including warehousing operations
(receiving, storage or shipping) or inventory control or materials handling? Yes No
2. If Yes, do you have plans to buy any of the following in the foreseeable future? (Check as many as apply)
(A) Forklifts and mobile materials handling equipment (E) Third-party logistics services (B) Racking, shelving and storage equipment (F) Transportation services (C) Software, eg WMS, TMS, YMS, WES, etc (G) Real estate, eg warehouses, existing or new building (D) Automated materials handling systems (H) Data capture and inventory control equipment
(Z) None of the above
TRANSPORTATION SERVICES:
LTL Trucking Truck Load Trucking Intermodal Marine Rail Courier Air Freight None
3. What is your company's PRIMARY business? MANUFACTURING (Check one only)
(01) Food & Beverage (02) Consumer Durables (03) Paper & Print (07) Pharmaceuticals (09) Computers & Electronics (10) Transportation Equipment
(04) Automotive Parts (05) Clothing, Apparel & Textile Products (11) Lumber & Building Materials (12) Manufactured Industrial Inputs
(06) Chemicals, Petroleum & Hazardous Waste (98) Other Manufacturing (please specify)________________________________________________________________________
NON-MANUFACTURING (Check one only)
(13) Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing & Mining (14) Transportation Services
(16) Distributor (17) Construction (15) Storage & Warehousing Distributor (18) Retail Trade (99) Others Allied to the Field (please specify)____________________________________________________________________
4. Which of the following categories best describes your PRIMARY function? (Check one only)
(A) Executive Management (E) Financial / Administrative Management (B) Purchasing / Procurement (F) Plant Production / Operations / Maintenance Management (C) Engineering / Design Engineering / Research & Development (G) Transportation & Distribution (D) Storage & Warehousing (H) Materials Management (Z) Other (please specify)______________________________________________________________________________________
