Download PDF
Meeting Seasonal Needs
Technology Category
- Functional Applications - Fleet Management Systems (FMS)
- Functional Applications - Remote Monitoring & Control Systems
Applicable Industries
- Consumer Goods
- Retail
Applicable Functions
- Warehouse & Inventory Management
- Logistics & Transportation
Use Cases
- Fleet Management
- Inventory Management
- Warehouse Automation
Services
- System Integration
The Challenge
Selecting the ideal fleet of lift trucks can be a challenging task for any company, especially for businesses with seasonal demands. PartyLite Gifts Inc. faced an equipment selection quandary due to seasonal demand fluctuation. During the holiday season, PartyLite often sees a peak in business, but it relies on maximum uptime from its lift truck fleet to move products and prepare orders for shipping all year round. The challenge was to handle seasonal demand fluctuation for PartyLite’s products efficiently while minimizing costs for lift trucks that are needed only during peak demand times.
About The Customer
Since 1973, PartyLite has created at-home business opportunities for entrepreneurs with high-quality home products and accents, including candles, home fragrance, candle warmers, and more. PartyLite’s distribution center in Carol Stream, Ill., relies on a fleet of 20 Raymond® lift trucks — including turret trucks, orderpickers, counterbalanced lift trucks, and pallet trucks — to support business demands in North America. The company has a significant presence in the consumer goods and retail industry, focusing on providing high-quality products and maintaining efficient distribution operations.
The Solution
To better handle seasonal demand fluctuation for PartyLite’s products, representatives from Associated recommended a customized usage program for the lift truck fleet. The usage program gives PartyLite the option to choose when to activate certain lift trucks, based on material handling demands, making the lift truck fleet extremely adaptable to changing demands. The collaboration between PartyLite and Associated created a solution that helps PartyLite meet its customers’ demands while minimizing costs for lift trucks that are needed only during peak demand times. Additionally, the Raymond usage program solution allows PartyLite the flexibility to optimize their fleet selection based on seasonal needs and enables Raymond service technicians to perform scheduled maintenance services when the equipment is not in use, limiting any unplanned downtime for the equipment.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
Related Case Studies.
Case Study
Improving Vending Machine Profitability with the Internet of Things (IoT)
The vending industry is undergoing a sea change, taking advantage of new technologies to go beyond just delivering snacks to creating a new retail location. Intelligent vending machines can be found in many public locations as well as company facilities, selling different types of goods and services, including even computer accessories, gold bars, tickets, and office supplies. With increasing sophistication, they may also provide time- and location-based data pertaining to sales, inventory, and customer preferences. But at the end of the day, vending machine operators know greater profitability is driven by higher sales and lower operating costs.
Case Study
Improving Production Line Efficiency with Ethernet Micro RTU Controller
Moxa was asked to provide a connectivity solution for one of the world's leading cosmetics companies. This multinational corporation, with retail presence in 130 countries, 23 global braches, and over 66,000 employees, sought to improve the efficiency of their production process by migrating from manual monitoring to an automatic productivity monitoring system. The production line was being monitored by ABB Real-TPI, a factory information system that offers data collection and analysis to improve plant efficiency. Due to software limitations, the customer needed an OPC server and a corresponding I/O solution to collect data from additional sensor devices for the Real-TPI system. The goal is to enable the factory information system to more thoroughly collect data from every corner of the production line. This will improve its ability to measure Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) and translate into increased production efficiencies. System Requirements • Instant status updates while still consuming minimal bandwidth to relieve strain on limited factory networks • Interoperable with ABB Real-TPI • Small form factor appropriate for deployment where space is scarce • Remote software management and configuration to simplify operations
Case Study
How Sirqul’s IoT Platform is Crafting Carrefour’s New In-Store Experiences
Carrefour Taiwan’s goal is to be completely digital by end of 2018. Out-dated manual methods for analysis and assumptions limited Carrefour’s ability to change the customer experience and were void of real-time decision-making capabilities. Rather than relying solely on sales data, assumptions, and disparate systems, Carrefour Taiwan’s CEO led an initiative to find a connected IoT solution that could give the team the ability to make real-time changes and more informed decisions. Prior to implementing, Carrefour struggled to address their conversion rates and did not have the proper insights into the customer decision-making process nor how to make an immediate impact without losing customer confidence.
Case Study
Digital Retail Security Solutions
Sennco wanted to help its retail customers increase sales and profits by developing an innovative alarm system as opposed to conventional connected alarms that are permanently tethered to display products. These traditional security systems were cumbersome and intrusive to the customer shopping experience. Additionally, they provided no useful data or analytics.