MHW Magazine News and stories from the Materials Handling Industry
Edwin C Farrall Transport Ltd is a family owned and operated storage and distribution company located in the Northwest, with sites in both Chester and Deeside. Since its establishment in 1956, Edwin C Farrall Transport Ltd has enjoyed substantial growth year on year, and have won Palletforces’ prestigious Depot of the Year award 6 times in the past 8 years. More recently Edwin C Farrall Transport Ltd were approached by the UK’s leading towbar manufacturers, Witter Towbars who, at very short notice, were looking to change their outsourced warehousing services. Founded over half a century ago, Witter Towbars has consistently set the standard for quality, reliability, and value for money.
Having selected Edwin C Farralls Transport Ltd to manage their warehouse operations, one of Witters main requirements was to have links created between the warehouse and their sales and order processing system. The solution, LocateIT, by leading warehouse management software provider Clydebuilt Solutions Ltd was selected as the preferred solution by Witter, as the links into their existing system had been created before and worked well at another site.
Implementation
It’s fair to say that within logistics, customers are becoming more demanding and increasingly approaching partners with requests that have to be delivered now. Witter Tow Bars knew when they approached Edwin C Farrall Transport Ltd that like many, they had tight timescales; in this case, they were looking to move their stock in within two weeks!! Edwin C Farrall Transport Ltd and Clydebuilt worked together proactively to organise and outline a project plan for the implementation, including everything needed from process organisation to racking location labels and hardware.
Working hand in hand with the client, Clydebuilt utilised their extensive experience of setting up these complex systems. Server hardware was sourced, installed, LocateIT WMS, SQL and the RF processes installed and configured. Clydebuilt also worked closely with leading mobile computing manufacturers Belgravium to realise the real time element of the system. Utilising Belgraviums Atlanta 8000 series handheld, the windows based, intuitive solution provided Witters with real-time instructions and information for a variety of their warehouse processes. Within 9 days, pallets of serialised product started arriving in their thousands. Mike Smith, Business Development Director of Clydebuilt comments, "It has been a considerable rollercoaster event, but from the initial pallet into the warehouse, Witters can enjoy the level of stock control that they have come to expect." Clydebuilt and Belgravium staff worked closely with both Edwin C Farrall Transport Ltd staff and those of Witter Towbars to ensure that 2 weeks after the initial contact – the system went live. John Hinchliffe Managing Director, Witter Tow Bars, expressed total astonishment at how quickly everything managed to become a reality.
Future Plans
With the initial install almost out of the way, the next stage will be interfacing LocateIT with Edwin C Farrall Transport Ltd’s existing Traffic System by RoadTech. Edwin C Farrall Transport Ltd offer a host of value added services for its client base and the introduction of LocateIT WMS, the RF barcode processes and Communications will allow the company to continue to grow whilst enhancing the existing high standard of services that their clients currently enjoy.
Tel: +44 (0)141 847 1920
Fax: +44 (0)141 889 7962
www.clydebuiltsolutions.com
e-mail: lisa@clydebuiltsolutions.com
