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Increasing operational efficiency with myCCL & Smart Warehouse Solution
The Challenge
As part of its overall strategic plan to deliver operational excellence, Swagelok Scotland wanted a warehouse productivity solution that would increase efficiency and traceability, as well as improve customer experience.
Swagelok Scotland faced many of the challenges common in warehouses, inventory accuracy, picking errors and business processes based on moving paper about, as well as the inefficiency of manually capturing batch codes for traceability.
About Swagelok
Swagelok manufactures precision valves and fittings for pharmaceutical, petrochemical, hi-tech and military applications which are distributed through more than 200 sales and service centres worldwide.
Swagelok Scotland focuses on providing solutions that drive down costs, while at the same time maintaining high performance and safe systems.
CCL Solution
- Installed Smart Warehouse technology (then called SIMPLE) to work in conjunction with Swagelok’s ERP system
- Automated data capture gives 100% reduction in manual data entry
- Dynamic Wave Picking selects multiple orders at the same time with the shortest walk order
- Electronic Documentation removes paper and links to other business processes such as Document Management
- Full Audit Trail for end-to-end traceability, to support ISO certification
- Multi-carrier management integration enables seamless and accurate label production
- Dispatch Notification emails improve customer service and enhance reputation
- Detailed Delivery Performance and Spend Analysis Reports allow cost of delivery analysis by customer
CCL Project Delivery
An initial blue sky meeting took place to understand where the pain points were in the current process. Having identified many areas where CCL could deliver value for both Swagelok Scotland and the wider Swagelok distributor group, a joint team was set up to deliver the project.
The project team then scoped the customer needs, which culminated in a development proposal. Having agreed the commercial details, CCL then started developing the solution.
Training was delivered by CCL the week before launch and again the week of go-live, to ensure a smooth transition.
The solution was delivered on time and on budget, resulting in a new way of managing goods inwards, as well as pick-pack-dispatch for multiple carriers, own vehicles, and customer collections.
The product now has developed to the stage that personally I would recommend it to anybody. I’m very happy, our stores team are very happy, and our customers are very happy.
The Results
The success of Smart Warehouse technology (SIMPLE) can best be measured by Swagelok Scotland’s increase in warehouse efficiency and improvements felt by the business in a larger sense.
Warehouse productivity was improved by 25% with the introduction of Smart Warehouse technology (SIMPLE). The entire warehouse process moved from paper to online, avoiding having to write down batch codes by hand. Now picking error alerts are automatically provided before dispatch, so orders can be amended before they leave the warehouse.
Swagelok now uses live status updates on inventory and stock levels, giving it complete visibility of work-in-progress and workloads, to forecast and resolve warehouse bottlenecks.
End-to-end traceability of orders and products has improved the Swagelok customer experience, increasing trust in Swagelok Scotland’s systems.
In 2015, Swagelok Scotland won a Swagelok Innovation Award, establishing Smart Warehouse technology (SIMPLE) as a leading warehouse productivity solution within the business.
Other distributorships have since implemented Smart Warehouse technology and confirmed warehouse productivity improvements of 25%.
40%
savings
25%
efficiency savings
Zero
picking errors
