From a total of 39,324 inspections last year, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) found 88,846 violations. For warehousers, distributors and manufacturers, the list is familiar.
A quick note: Cisco-Eagle is a sponsor of the University of Arkansas RFID Research center. We’ve been involved with the center since its 2005 inception. I’ve visited the center a number of times, and have seen the innovative work that’s being done.
The center continues to excel with this study on the effect of RFID technology on inventory accuracy.
The study confirms that RFID can have a significant positive effect on retail inventory accuracy. For players like Wal-Mart, this means millions of dollars in savings. A preliminary analysis demonstrated that an automated, RFID-enabled inventory system improved accuracy by about 13% in test stores compared to control stores.
This is the fourth in a series of briefs on cross docking
A recent project for a large retailer in the Southwest provided a good example of how an element of cross-docking might be deployed to reduce the footprint of distribution space required, reduce order fulfillment touchpoints, and shorten the logical pathway for fulfilling orders.
Incoming shipments are anticipated through the use of advanced shipping notices (ASN’s). Stretch-wrapped pallet loads arrive via truck throughout the day. They arrive at doors designated for cross-docking. These doors were selected based upon proximity to the material handling system which takes advantage of the facility layout. Pallets are unloaded by fork truck, the stretch wrap removed, and cases manually inducted into one of several conveyor staging lanes. Each lane represents a “wave” of orders which will be processed either that day, or a specific day later in the week. When a wave is released, it moves downstream, and the individual cases are sorted to a specific shipping lane whose products are destined for a particular store. Other products from static storage positions and non-conveyables destined for the same store are consolidated at this point. (more…)
The big news out of Washington the last couple of months has been on the tax rebate part of economic stimulus. What may have more impact on the economy, and will certainly have more impact on people in the warehousing or manufacturing business, are the business tax breaks that quietly came along with it. We’ll break them down into two primary areas…
Above: Hytrol’s Bill Hawthorne presents Cisco-Eagle President Steve Strifler
with a plaque honoring our 2007 conveyor sales achievements
Cisco-Eagle and Hytrol Conveyor Company recently celebrated our partnership at CEI’s Dallas, Texas facility. Hytrol CEO Greg Goodner, Bill Hawthorne, Matt Farris, and Frank Nichols came to Dallas to present a plaque honoring Cisco-Eagle’s placement as one of the company’s top conveyor distribution partners in 2007. Cisco-Eagle typically finishes among Hytrol’s top 3 distributor/integrators, and recently passed $100 million in total purchases from Hytrol.
Since the gathering was a day before Goodner’s birthday, we honored him with a cake and happy birthday serenade.
PHOTOS: Greg Goodner | The Presentation
This is the third in a series of articles on cross docking
If you started from scratch, many might simply build a cross dock facility with a much shallower depth than most warehouses. A depth of a hundred feet or so, with incoming product on one side that can be easily moved a short distance and loaded on the other side to an outbound truck. Most of us however, must deal with an existing facility, many times a large square box which is not generally the preferred layout. However, as long as the existing facility has a sufficient quantity of dock doors, yard space, and an adequate footprint, you may be fine…
Cisco-Eagle’s Houston, Texas Field Operations team was recently honored by FedEx for its exceptional level of performance and use of quality management tools.
Our guys are always out there doing things for customers at difficult times, in crunch time, and on time. They make things work and keep them working, so it wasn’t any surprise for customers to be happy with them. Matt Lanclos, Tom Hull,and Art Rodgers from our Houston Field Operations group, and James Lawson, Regional Manager Field Operations for Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Texas, received FedEx Ground’s GCST Region Certificates of Excellence on January 9. There were also certificates for Cisco-Eagle’s Houston and Dallas offices…
This article is the second in a series of articles on cross docking
In concept and on paper cross docking looks great, but, what about actual implementation? What kind of return do we get on this investment? The short answer is the implementation can be challenging. However, with planning, a committed team of upstream and downstream participants, and possibly even a pilot program, it can pay significant benefits.
Cross docking does not have to be complicated. Some, even today, execute cross-docking using human-readable paper documentation as the driver. As mentioned in the original brief, cross docking can cover a wide range of distribution activities. In one door and directly out the other is one approach. Many cross dockers also add value in the brief (hopefully) interval between receiving and shipping. Others send product to a temporary buffer in the interval, in many of these cases an automated system (mini-load, AS/RS, etc.) serves as the buffer.
We’ve been busy adding video in various areas of the website, focusing first on conveyors.
There have been quite a few added in recent days. It’s all embedded in web pages (no media player needed!) so it’s easy to view and not worry about having the right player. The videos tend to be the first thing you’ll see when the page loads. Just click ‘em and they play at your convenience.
In no particular order, here they are:
There will be lots more added in the next few weeks. Also, we have added case study videos heavy on conveyor. That includes Excel Beef and ATC Logistics at the moment. More of these coming as available.
To watch, just click the video screen that loads on each page. You can pause by clicking again.
