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13-12-2010 - Investissement majeur chez Wiptec
La compagnie sherbrookoise Wiptec Logistique s'apprête à investir environ 10 millions $ dans la construction d'un autre bâtiment de 115 000 pieds carrés et l'achat d'équipements spécialisés, dans le parc industriel de Sherbrooke.
Comme l'explique son dirigeant, Martin Ball, il s'agit là du projet qui avait été annoncé en 2007 mais qui avait dû être reporté à cause de la détérioration de l'économie.
«Avec les signes actuels de reprise, il est temps d'investir. Il ne faudrait pas attendre que la demande dépasse notre capacité actuelle», a-t-il expliqué en entrevue téléphonique.
Wiptec Logistique est une entreprise spécialisée dans les services 3PL (Third Party Logistics) d'impartition: entreposage optimisé, gestion d'inventaires, préparation des commandes, services à valeur ajoutée tels que l'assemblage, la mise en kit, l'emballage, l'étiquetage et, finalement, la gestion d'entrepôt.
Présentement, l'entreprise embauche autour de 90 personnes et ce nombre devrait augmenter d'une quarantaine lorsque le projet sera complété.
Gilles Fisette - La Tribune
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23-4-2010 - Wiptec, un expert de la gestion des stocks
Claudine Hébert - Les Affaires
Les frères Martin et Jocelyn Ball ont décidé de tirer profit du courant de mondialisation des échanges pour créer, en 2002, une entreprise de logistique de tierce partie.
Wiptec, de Sherbrooke, se spécialise dans l'optimisation d'entreposage, la gestion des stocks, la préparation de commandes et divers autres services à valeur ajoutée, comme l'emballage et la livraison. " Nous sommes un intermédiaire dans la chaîne d'approvisionnement ", dit Martin Ball, qui copréside Wiptec en compagnie de son frère aîné, Jocelyn.
" Autrefois, les dirigeants d'entreprise voulaient tout contrôler. En 2010, c'est tout à leur avantage de bénéficier de services d'impartition logistique. Que les entrepreneurs se concentrent sur la création et la production, et nous veillerons à la distribution de leurs produits", souligne Martin Ball.
Saisir l'occasion
Les frères Ball ont toujours baigné dans le monde des affaires. Leur père Yvon dirigeait Transformation B.Y., un sous-traitant de Waterville TG. Les frères Ball avaient le choix : prendre la relève de l'entreprise paternelle ou fonder la leur.
Ils ont choisi la seconde solution lorsque l'entreprise Springs Canada a fait appel à leurs talents logistiques. Le manufacturier devait rapidement apporter des corrections à 10 conteneurs de serviettes mal étiquetées et mal emballées, à la suite de l'erreur d'un fournisseur chinois.
Les frères Ball ont compris que l'importation causait des problèmes de logistique de toutes sortes. " Avant, une rupture de stock pouvait être réglée en quelques jours, puis l'usine recommençait à produire. Aujourd'hui, l'usine est souvent établie à l'autre bout du monde, et l'approvisionnement ne se fait pas avant six semaines. C'est ici que Wiptec intervient, optimisant l'espace pour entreposer les stocks ", explique M. Ball.
Autrement dit, Wiptec permet aux entreprises d'épargner sur leurs coûts d'électricité, de location d'espace et d'assurances. La plupart de leurs clients parviennent à réduire de deux tiers l'espace dont ils ont besoin.
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14-4-2010 - You Might Have a Bad Warehouse If... You have to ask the lift truck operator (ALTO)
This bad warehouse example is brought to us by Noreen Ryan, Vice President of First Logistics. Noreen explains she first learned about the ALTO system for locating inventory when she was on a customer tour at a company that we will call Nameless.
During the customer visit, the customer asked how the company kept track of where things were in the warehouse and what sort of locator system was used. One of Nameless's quick thinking managers replied, "We use the ALTO system." That was the end of the conversation and the customer was satisfied. Later Noreen asked that manager how the ALTO system name came so quickly to mind. He replied that they really use the ALTO system. Noreen went on to ask how the system worked, and the manager replied, "It stands for... Ask Lift Truck Operator. They always know!"
Well the manager gets some credit for the quick thinking response but was also very lucky the customer, for whatever reason (not wanting to reveal ignorance, perhaps?) did not follow up with questions seeking more details about the ALTO system.
Maybe ALTO was the standard operating procedure for tracking and locating warehouse inventory once upon a time. That's certainly not the case anymore and relying on ALTO could get a company in a heap of trouble. These days there are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of real time location management systems available at various sophistication and price levels. They are available for any size business either in-house or through the services of your 3PL provider.
Knowing where your stuff is (and its quantities) at every point in the supply chain from supplier to warehouse delivery are crucial to visibility, efficiency and the bottom line. It's what warehouse management systems, from the basic to the most sophisticated, are all about.
The Warehousing Education and Research Council's Best Practice Guide can help you get started on your storage and inventory control journey, sans lift truck. Inventory is money, the guide stresses, and thus "you should keep track of inventory as you would money." When it comes to inventory control, "well-documented and defined processes are the foundation... processes should detail specific tasks and requirements," the Guide says. "The procedures should be the only way inventory is managed and transactions processed."
For starters, the layout of the storage areas should match the basic operation of the warehouse, whether it's adjacent to a manufacturer, a pure distribution facility or one that includes distribution and value-added services on site. Warehouse management systems will be designed to optimize current and future storage needs, product mixes and layouts, while minimizing travel times within the facility. Best practice companies have integrated the capability to track productivity in their warehouses and shipping processes by lot or serial number. A single system of record makes managing data throughout the chain easier.
The WERC guide adds, "Crowed, unorganized, and improperly or poorly-marked storage areas subject product to damage and are prone to inventory transaction errors. Inventory control benefits from good housekeeping and warehouse organization."
Some management systems are even free if you run a small warehouse. See WareSeeker.com for info on what's out there; There's no longer an excuse to use the ALTO system! In short, leaving it up to the lift truck operator will just never do.
By Kate Vitasek | 10/12/2009 | 6:00 AM
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13-4-2010 - You Might Have A Bad Warehouse If... You Use A "Double Protection" Safety Stock Strategy
This bad warehouse comes from Steve Symmes who regularly does warehouse assessments for Supply Chain Visions. During one of his assessments he revealed something we have never seen before – a “double protection” strategy for managing safety stock.
The company had an algorithm in their Microsoft Excel spreadsheet where they would calculate multiple safety stock layers each week for each Stock Keeping Unit. The first layer of protection was their "safety stock” level and the second level of protection was their “reserve safety stock” level. I asked Steve if the
person who had come up with this “double protection” strategy had been watching a feminine hygiene commercial when they came up with their approach!
So what is the right approach for managing safety stock? It is important to assess the risk of disruption and actively manage the levels of safety stock. One company we worked with in Colorado would increase the level of stock for packing materials each winter, holding “snow stock” in case a snow storm closed the roads between their suppliers and the warehouse disrupting the twice daily replenishment of packing materials. Each spring they would lower the level of safety stock because the risk, due to snow closures, was gone. They appropriately and aggressively managed the safety stock level to the risk.
If I had my way, I would permanently ban the term safety stock from the vocabulary of today’s warehouse professionals. The reason? All too often some inventory analysts believe the more piles of inventory they have stashed away as safety stock the “safer” they feel. For all you inventory folks out there – please take this time to ensure your safety stock strategy has a purpose. Perhaps warehousing professionals might make better decisions if we called it “risk stock” and the focus would be on mitigating the underlying risks in a proactive manner.
For those wanting to learn more on setting safety stocks, I suggest the following resources:- Start by reviewing the section on “Inventory Strategy” under “Storage and Inventory Control” in the Warehousing and Fulfillment Process Benchmark & Best Practices Guide, available from the Warehousing Education and Research Council's Online Store.
- For a good review of setting safety stock levels read “Optimizing Safety Stocks” by Dave Piasecki of Inventory Operations Consulting. Just remember to focus your attention on the element of risk as described by Steve in the “Snow Stock” example above.
- Consider reading “6 Steps to Managing Risk” in Supply Chain Management Review, it is an excellent guide to understanding and preparing for supply chain disruptions.
- I would also suggest reading ”don’t look back” an article from DC Velocity’s Measuring Up column. The column focuses on looking forward rather than to history when planning your “Risk Stock” levels. The application of “leading indicators” will require greater insight into your marketplace, but the dividends will pay off in better balanced inventory levels.
By Kate Vitasek | 02/01/2010 | 3:56 AM
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12-4-2010 - You Might Have a Bad Warehouse If... Your Bar Code Equipment Resembles a Dinosaur
Yes there’s a recession on and budgets are tight. However, operating 35 year old bar code equipment is likely to be holding back your inventory management and other operational efficiencies.
This week's bad warehouse example comes from a contest, called "The Big Upgrade." According to the contest, sponsors Ryzex and Psion Teklogix folks around the country reported some bar code scanning machine dinosaurs—including models that were more than 35 years old, according to sponsors. My favorite is below - but you can see the Big Upgrade site for more photos of some of the entries.
The oldest – and possibly the least attractive – entry in the contest was an MSI 2100 portable data-collection terminal that is battery-powered and relies on a cassette tape for memory. (One hopes that at least some fresh tapes were available on a regular basis, and that they were properly stored.) The unit, with its dull yellow outer shell and plastic carrying case, dates back to the early 1970s.
The grand prize winner was randomly selected from eligible entries.
Although the contest's sponsors injected humor into the proceedings, there was a serious point: "With this contest, we saw how people stretched the life of their bar-code scanning devices to an extreme. This illustrates how hard it can be to recognize when equipment starts to cost a company more in maintenance and lost productivity than it's worth," said Chris Glennon, vice president of sales and marketing for mobile technology specialist Ryzex, in a statement.
Choose any cliché you like: The new car is worth 50 percent less (or more) the moment you drive it off the lot; or that new state-of-the art computer and operating system is virtually obsolete within months of purchase. If your bar code equipment memory is still running on cassettes, it’s time for an upgrade.
As always the WERC Warehousing & Fulfillment Process Benchmark & Best Practices Guide has some good advice. “A key requirement of shipping documentation is in product and shipment labeling,” the Guide says. “Best in Class companies can generate customer compliant labels including bar code and AutoID (aka RFID) tags at the time of shipment.” It’s doubtful that a 35-year-old bar code device would be of much use when confronting a modern RFID tag.
So say goodbye to the Pliocene and start the New Year off right with some new warehouse equipment and thereby upgrade your Warehouse Management System.By Kate Vitasek | 12/21/2009 | 9:33 AM
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09-4-2010 - You Might Have A Bad Warehouse If... Forklift Driver Klaus Works For You!
Sometimes it is not the warehouse that is the problem, but the people in the warehouse that do not use their top noggin when making decisions. Since the beginning of the blog, we have showcased several incidences where the people working in the warehouse have made bad decisions.
You may recall the forklift driver in Moscow who couldn’t help but test the product. Then there was the other forklift driver, who should have been an Olympic athlete. Either way they made poor choices while at work.
In the spirit of there never being too much of a good thing, visually speaking, here‘s another video on making bad decisions. This time it is courtesy of German film makers who created a parody of 1980’s work safety videos. The video, title “Forklift Driver Klaus – The First Day on the Job” (in German, GabelStaplerfahrer Klaus – Der erste Arbeitstag), is about a forklift driver named Klaus. The video walks the viewer through all the potential pitfalls a forklift driver has to watch for while operating in the warehouse.
Making bad decisions do not happen just in German warehouses. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OHSA, records show that about 100 employees are killed and 95,000 are injured every year in forklift accidents in the United States. According to Martin Murray, OSHA issues more citations for bad forklift practices within the warehouse than for any other area. For best practices, we will defer to the OSHA guidelines for forklift training, as outlined by Mr. Murray:
- Train, evaluate and certify all operators to ensure that they can operate forklifts safely, follow safe procedures for picking up, putting down and stacking loads
- Drive safely and never exceeding 5 mph and slow down in congested areas,
- Maintain sufficiently safe clearances for aisles and at loading docks or passages where forklifts are used
- Train employees on the hazards associated with the combustion byproducts of forklift operation, such as carbon monoxide.
Just in case you are wondering how they use forklifts in exotic locales around the world, maybe this picture will give you a clue. The picture was sent to us by Paul Delp, President of Lansdale Warehouse Company.