Furniture maker finds, moves inventory faster with wireless technology

By installing Symbol Technologies mobile computers linked to a Symbol wireless network, furniture manufacturer Fraenkel Co. increased finished goods inventory accuracy, says Donna Holten, director of IT at the Baton Rouge, La.-based company.

Previously, Holten explains, products were scanned at the end of the manufacturing line—or, in the case of third-party products, on receipt—and again when loaded onto a truck for dispatch to customer. In between: nothing.

"All we knew was that it was somewhere in the building," she says. But items that couldn't be found couldn't be shipped—resulting in disappointed customers and frequent inventory write-offs.

The impetus for change came with the implementation of a new enterprise system: Vormittag Associates' S2K Enterprise Edition for Manufacturing, including its integrated radio frequency-enabled warehouse management module. Compared to Fraenkel's in-house developed system, S2K offered a far more granular view of inventory locations, explains Holten. The system could hold information on bin location, as well as warehousing processes such as picking and awaiting dispatch. "We could scan into a bin, scan when items were picked, scan them onto the dock—and then finally scan them onto the truck," she says.

Symbol's PDT8146 and 9000-series mobile computers—and AP4131 access points—were selected for ruggedness and ease of implementation. "The equipment held up well in our warehouse, and each mobile computer could be deployed in as little as 10 minutes," says Holten.

The immediate benefit was a significant increase in inventory accuracy, with "not found" write-offs falling by 85 percent. But there also have been gains in employee productivity and sales—each directly attributable to better inventory accuracy.

Previously, for example, when inventory records showed low numbers of a particular item in stock, salespeople were to reluctant to push those items, fearing it might not be possible to find them. Now such fears have dissipated, explains Holten—adding that, in any case, with an exact bin location on record within the system, a physical check can, if required, quickly confirm if the number in inventory on the screen is correct.

With less time spent looking for items, warehouse productivity soared. Fraenkel ships up to 15 trucks of product per day, reports Holten, and warehouse workers would routinely work until 10 p.m. These days, such late finishes are rare, with workers usually clocking out at 6 p.m. "The productivity impact has been very definite," Holten concludes.