Chemical Manufacturer Effectively Streamlines Operations

Acsis was tapped by a major division of a large chemical manufacturer to implement automated data collection technology that would increase supply chain productivity and efficiency, maximize warehouse capacity utilization, eliminate picking and shipping errors, streamline recall efforts, and improve overall customer service.

The Paint and Inks division serves the highly demanding automotive industry. In this competitive market, there is no room for error when it comes to product shipments. Materials are typically ordered “just in time,” so any delay or errors can stop auto plant production cold. To ensure precise, correct shipments, the firm needed to optimize warehouse processing, eliminating picking errors and improving data collection accuracy. Optimization also extended to product labeling. Each automotive client has strict guidelines for how each product must be labeled, and each auto company handles this in a different manner. To meet each unique customer need, the company needed a way to create automated labels for each customer specification.

The company also sought to more effectively track shipment batches. Previously, the firm would manage materials as generic batches. However, if a defect was uncovered that warranted a recall, the company had no way to tell which batches were affected and where those batches had been shipped to. The only effective way to recall the right items was to recall everything that had been shipped during a particular timeframe. This meant the recalls were wider in scope than necessary.