Get a peek behind the scenes of the day-to-day happenings at Origlio Beverage
For the last year and a half, Origlio’s warehouse has been undergoing a dramatic shift. The changes have been a true team effort between the inventory, maintenance and picking/loading departments, as well as DSRs, all working together to make our processes more accurate and efficient. Heady Times caught up with Joe Hoban, Origlio’s Special Projects Manager in Operations, to learn more about these changes and what they mean for our retailers.
Heady Times (HT): First off, can you tell us how the operations department works at a beer wholesaler?
Joe Hoban (JH): Operations at Origlio has many processes that must be followed. Once customer service receives an order, it is sent to the routing team. The routing team then uses our Roadnet software to assign orders to the correct trucks/routes to make the deliveries. The orders are then palletized and sent to the warehouse team to pick and load them for the following day.
HT: There have been a lot of changes to our operations recently, what are the two biggest improvements?
JH: The two major improvements made over the last year and a half are an entirely new picking program and a warehouse management system (WMS). These systems used to work independently of each other, which was not ideal. Our new WMS (a system that helps in all aspects of operations, from quality control to inventory management) now works in tandem with our new picking system, eoPick, which has dramatically improved our pick accuracy.
HT: Can you take us through the process of how beer is picked in our warehouse?
JH: Once the orders are sent to the warehouse, the order pickers begin the picking process with the new tablets that are mounted on their forklifts. On the tablet, the picker can see the location of the product in the warehouse, a picture of the product and the amount of an item that needs to be picked. Before they can move onto the next item, they must confirm they’re at the correct location with the correct amount of product.
Then, our new WMS works as quality control once an order is picked. When an order is picked, it’s sent to a checker with an iPad and a scanner. When the pallet is scanned, the system recognizes what the pallet is supposed to include and how the order is meant to be assembled. If any errors are detected, we can fix them before the order goes out. It gives us another set of eyes on what has been picked.
HT: How have these changes helped our retailers?
JH: With these new systems in place, our accuracy number has improved dramatically. Our pick inaccuracies are under 0.5%. A few years ago, we were at 1.5%. When you consider how many cases we’re picking every day, a 1% improvement is an incredible achievement.
HT: What are some other changes happening at Origlio?
JH: We’re in the process of installing a massive generator to make sure we can still operate in the midst of a power outage. Also, Origlio is adding three new docks to our building to bring the total number to 19. We’re also investing in more equipment for our order pickers that will make picking even more efficient. But the biggest thing coming is a new building across the street that we can use for storage. It will allow us to open our pick paths at this facility, making the picking area less congested.
