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Case Study: Puerto Rico Supplies Group
Technology Category
- Functional Applications - Warehouse Management Systems (WMS)
- Analytics & Modeling - Real Time Analytics
- Functional Applications - Remote Monitoring & Control Systems
Applicable Industries
- Consumer Goods
- Food & Beverage
Applicable Functions
- Warehouse & Inventory Management
- Logistics & Transportation
Use Cases
- Inventory Management
- Predictive Maintenance
- Warehouse Automation
Services
- System Integration
- Software Design & Engineering Services
The Challenge
The PRSG team implemented a voice-directed picking workflow with their old voice provider in 2010. After a few years, the PRSG team learned one of the harsh truths about technology vendors. “It’s not enough to find a great technology,” said Carlos Falcon, Distribution Center Director, PRSG. “It’s just as important to find a great partner. Unfortunately, we just didn’t have a great partnership with our first voice vendor so we decided to begin searching for a new one.” Falcon and the PRSG team wanted to drive further productivity improvements by implementing a replenishment workflow, but they were unable to get the project started with their previous vendor. Additionally, the hardware they used was approaching the end of its useful life and their contract with their former voice provider required PRSG to shoulder the costly burden of replacing the outdated devices. In 2015, the PRSG team started looking for a way to mitigate the cost of the hardware upgrade and began vetting new voice providers.
About The Customer
Puerto Rico Supplies Group (PRSG) is a leading total channel, total category distributor of major brands imported from all over the world, including food items, consumer packaged goods, and premium spirits. PRSG offers major retailers and small mom-and-pop shops a wide range of products, all housed in and distributed from the company’s 250,000 square foot distribution center. Over the last 20 years, PRSG has experienced tremendous growth in large part due to their focus on perfecting distribution operations which enabled the company to distribute faster and more cost-effectively than their competitors. The PRSG team consolidated their operation from 8 distribution centers spread across the island into a single facility located in the San Juan area. Next, they replaced their paper-based picking process with voice automation from Vocollect.
The Solution
At the top of the PRSG team’s must-have list was advanced real-time visibility. “With our old voice provider, we were highly restricted in the kind of analysis and reports we could access,” said Falcon. “Most data was not accessible until the next day, by which time it was too late to make corrections. Productivity is our number one metric. It’s how we serve our customers and it’s a key factor for compensating our pickers.” As PRSG narrowed their search, they found that Voxware was the only voice provider that offered easily accessible real-time visibility into distribution operations as a standard feature. A second key factor in the decision process was Voxware’s hardware replacement program. Since Voxware offers both SaaS-based Cloud VMS and on-premise implementation options, PRSG could choose a deployment model that worked best for their operation without a substantial upfront capital investment. The subscription model also includes the most up-to-date version of Zebra hardware, which meant PRSG eliminated the need for an expensive out-of-pocket hardware replacement. “Having access to the latest hardware addresses one of the key issues we were having with our previous voice provider as we were hesitant to make such a large financial investment only to have to repeat this process in the future,” said Falcon. “Having the latest Voxware software and Zebra hardware while controlling our costs is something that we had hoped, but didn’t expect, to find during this vetting process.”
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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