Smooth Operations

Consumers across the nation and the world rely on one leading appliance giant to keep their houses running smoothly, turning to them for trusted home appliances in every major category from cooking and refrigeration to fabric care and water filtration.

But when it comes to keeping its own houses running smoothly – its warehouses, that is – this appliance leader relies on Camcode for durable, cost-effective bar code inventory management labels. “When we were using numeric location signs without a bar code, we had no system validation that inventory was being moved to or taken from where we wanted it in our warehouses,” says this company’s manager of supply chain operations.

“Camcode’s signs have helped us to achieve much greater inventory location accuracy, nearing 100 percent.”

“Without that validation, there was a lot of inefficiency and the potential to have a late shipment to a customer because we were chasing inventory around the building.”

After a major 2006 acquisition and a move toward larger mega-warehouses, the company saw the need for an integrated warehouse management system (WMS) to track the movement of inventory more efficiently and accurately. The implementation of the company’s new WMS made it necessary to move away from numeric storage locations to bar code labels.

The company tried floor-mounted bar code tags, but they didn’t hold up under the wear-and-tear of clamp truck traffic. But working closely with Camcode, the company found the ideal bar code solution – a durable, economical bar code label that adheres to racking and can be scanned from up to 30 feet away. “

“Without that validation (of bar codes), there was a lot of inefficiency and the potential to have a late shipment to a customer.”

Camcode’s signs have helped us to achieve much greater inventory location accuracy, nearing 100 percent,” says the supply chain manager. “We’re able to scan these from quite a distance, even at different angles and lighting conditions.”

When the project is complete, more than 40,000 Camcode bar code labels will be in use at five of this company’s mega-warehouses across the country. At each of these facilities, the labels help warehouse managers keep track of roughly 3,500 unique SKUs or about 250,000 units of inventory at any one time. Truck-mounted RF units scan bar codes as inventory moves between storage locations and at inbound and outbound shipping and receiving docks.

The result? A highly efficient and virtually error-free system of warehouse management, helping the company maintain its highly regarded reputation in the global appliance market.

“Before, we had to have a level of trust that inventory was moving to the correct location,” he says. “Now our new system validates all movement of inventory.”