WMS Enables Growth for Cold Storage Leader Rick Bestwick

WMS Software: Delivering Innovative End-to-End Service Capability

Rick Bestwick Ltd, part of the Magnavale Group, is a leading UK-based cold storage and food technology innovator. Through investment and acquisitions the company raised its coldstore profile to over 50,000 cold storage and variable temperature pallet spaces at its 500,000+ sq. ft. Chesterfield site where it also offers numerous value-added services.

The Business

• Leading Cold Storage, Variable Temperature & Food Technology Specialist
• Central Location Reaches 75% of the UK in Under 3 hours
• 24×7 High-volume Cold Storage & Distribution Operation
• Services Including: Temperature Controlled Storage, Blast Freezing, Microwave & Rapid Air Up-tempering harnessing microwave technology

Cold Storage & Food Technology Innovation

Rick Bestwick’s 24 hour high-volume cold storage and distribution operation was centred on the Chesterfield campus located five minutes from the M1 motorway enabling deliveries to reach over 75% of the UK population in under three hours. The facilities operate 24×7 and pallets hold both general cold storage and variable temperature items.

Additional services, now managed by In-DEX WMS Warehouse Management Software, include temperature controlled storage, blast freezing and rapid air up-tempering using the latest microwave technology. These specialised services are complemented by order picking and assembly on behalf of customers. Other value-added services include inverting of pallets, re-packing and labelling, tray filling, shrink-wrapping and hand-balling.

Warehouse Management Software for Cold Storage & Food Distribution: Situation

While Rick Bestwick invested in a Warehouse Management System when it opened its first cold store in 1998, the software had become functionally limited and inflexible. After a few years in operation it became clear that the WMS at the Chesterfield site was not able to support planned business growth and changing customer requirements.

In order to align its IT with the functionality and flexibility needed to cope with planned business growth the Rick Bestwick management team needed to source a greatly improved solution. Following a lengthy and detailed market review, Principal Logistics Technologies’ In-DEX WMS Warehouse Management Software was selected.

In-DEX WMS Now Enables 24/7 Management of Value-Added Services Including:

• Product Sleeving
• Date Coding & Labelling
• Contract Packing, Co-Packing & Re-packing
• Product & Pallet Weighing
• Distressed Product Load management

“Pre In-DEX WMS implementation we soldiered on because we had good staff in the stores and got to know our customers and their needs well. But it became increasingly  apparent, and frustrating, that our IT couldn’t deliver the features and efficiencies we needed, and we could not go on just compensating for this with the experience and knowledge of the people working here.
Operations Manager, Rick Bestwick Ltd.

WMS Software: Results

Client EDI/Interfacing: In-DEX WMS Warehouse Management Software operates as Rick Bestwick’s sole standalone WMS and logistics platform enabling multiple value added services. It also permits seamless integration with multiple customer and supplier systems such as SAPR3 and Microsoft MS Dynamics.

In the past, customer orders were principally emailed in and keyed into the WMS but now In-DEX WMS interfaces with these systems and instructions automatically appear in In-DEX WMS as system generated pick lists for the forklift operators in the stores.

System Driven Rules: The smart things here include the fact that In-DEX WMS automatically incorporates the relevant customer’s individual pre-set business rules, industry best practice such as FIFO and any parameters set such as placement of different types of product.

Routing Efficiencies Assured: More key functionality is provided in that In-DEX WMS collates and assigns pick lists to ensure the most efficient routing of trucks in the warehouse. It can also minimise the movement of mobile racking whether loading or picking. The operators use auto-ranging (combined short and long range) scanners to read pallet labels for verification and to feed the movement back into the system.

“Coding detail varies from customer to customer, for example one company’s Mushroom 15mm will be another’s Vegetables 3003 but where necessary, or useful, we can add our coding and apply our own labels. From that entry point on they are fully traceable in our system and can be matched to any other food safety or administrative systems.”
Operations Manager, Rick Bestwick Ltd.

Reading and Generating Client Barcodes: Fundamental to the design of In-DEX WMS is that barcoding is performed on all goods at the appropriate pallet/case level, usually involving the customers’ barcoding and any other identification. New unique identification codes can also be generated as required.

In-DEX WMS takes over at the point when pallets are received at the bays and scanned into the Warehouse Management System. From then on the owner, contents, quantity, location and all other relevant information – such as best before and other key date codes – are all recorded in the database.

Quality Control Automated: In-DEX WMS manages BRC questions, directly captured by via hand-held terminal devices, as part of the goods in process assuring full compliance.

Reporting: At all times the management team can see clearly what stock its holding overall and per customer. It generates its own regular internal reports and provides its customers with whichever reports they need, usually weekly.
 
 

 

“Technically we’ve been operating at 105% of capacity in recent months, partly by utilising our buffer capacity and also by temporarily moving pallets between two warehouses, just around 150 yards, and using any spare floor space. We have no problem doing that as In-DEX enables us to keep constant and accurate track of what is where.”
Operations Manager, Rick Bestwick Ltd.