|
Fetching the Fondant Candy Company Cherrydale Farms makes sweet feat out of tough packing jobs
Prompted by the Depression in 1932, Walter Cherry decided to take his 25-year-old confectionary company, E. Cherry Sons & Co., into a new market - fund raising. Cherry astutely realized his quality candy could be sold through schools, churches and other fund-raising groups. Consequently, while other businesses were failing during the Great Depression, E. Cherry Sons & Co. flourished. By 1960, Cherrydale Farms had grown 400%. Since 1980, the company has grown another 900%. In light of this tremendous growth, not-to-mention the constant, ever-increasing pressure from competitors, Cherrydale Farms has developed a number of complex trading relationships which require great efficiency in processing orders and managing inventory.
Solution number one Cherrydale contracted with MKS in 1987 to develop a computer system to support the company's huge modern factory, North American sales force, and regional warehouses, in addition to the 35,000-orders-a-day demand. MIDAS, MKS' distribution/accounting software, has since proven itself by allowing Cherrydale the flexibility and reliability necessary for such a unique marketing organization.
Cherrydale's initial goal was to see each order packed 100% correctly with the proper ID label, moved to the shipping area, staged with the rest of its group and then shipped together. With the expected additional order volume through the new warehouse, however, Cherrydale's steering committee agreed the likelihood of erroneous or missed picks was too high. Hence, a new MIDAS module, the MIDAS Automated Packer Scanner, or MAPS, was developed for the new warehouse. The new module provides a means to confirm orders with barcode scanners on a real-time basis, ensuring accuracy as each order leaves the pick area. Order picking is done in batches by group/organization. A sequence of orders is sent to the CAPS PC and simultaneously MAPS prints a Code 39 bar code label containing order information using a Tharo 112 Plus thermal-transfer printer. The label is placed into a plastic tote waiting on the conveyor, while at the same time the CAPS illuminates the item lights on the upcoming flow racks for the particular order. The items are picked, placed in the tote and transported over conveyors to one of the 32 packer stations.
Packer station designed for simplicity The packer station was designed for simplicity. It consists of two scanning devices - a stationary, "grocery-type" Symbol Technologies B833926 and a hand-held Symbol B503228 - in addition to a red/green signal light and a chart of master scanner bar codes which represent things like beginning and end of shift and end of order. Two Digital ALPHA AXP/150 servers, one being a redundant back-up, running Microsoft Windows NT and MAPS in a client/server Ethernet network are used to tie CAPS, conveyors and MIDAS together. IEC Technologies out of Telford, PA, worked with MKS as a hardware integrator. A packer starts his/her workshift at the station by using the hand-held scanner to record her employee ID-card data. The card is generated by the MKS system using Code 39 and created using the Tharo 112. At the end of the workshift, the end-of-shift code, located on the master scanner bar codes chart, is scanned to log out the user for the processing session. Processing an order at the packer station begins by scanning the order ID label in the tote. The green light flashes once, and a packer then affixes the label to the lower right corner of the shipping carton. Each item is removed from the tote and scanned with either the stationary or hand-held scanner. If the green light flashes once, the item is placed in the carton. A blinking red light indicates a processing problem (for example, if an item U.P.C. was scanned before the order ID label). The master bar codes chart at the workstation contains a section with several bar code error indicators to help isolate and correct a processing problem.
After the last item is scanned and confirmed with a green light, the end-of-order code is scanned on the master chart. If the green light shines steady, the order is complete; the carton is placed on the conveyor to be sealed and weighed. If a red light comes on, there is a problem with the order. This carton is also placed on the conveyor, but the scanners on the conveyor will track this order and divert it into an edit station. The packer also manually tags the carton as a "problem" in case it gets past the diverter. Any orders found to have errors are forwarded to a MAPS edit station for problem resolution. Each edit station is made up of a dumb terminal (Digital VT510), a hand-held scanner on a wedge interface (Symbol B503228) and a mini-inventory For these problem cartons, the order ID label affixed to each carton is scanned, and the system searches for the order and displays it on the computer terminal at the station. The status screen displays the order ID and the correct item quantities along with the picked/scanned quantities and a status message for each line of the order. Next, an editor manually adjusts the quantities, repacks and places the carton back on the conveyor to be transported to the tape station. A tape station automatically seals the carton on the conveyor. The scale, a Checkweigher HI-SPEED, is also on line with the conveyor system. It, too, has a scanner to identify the order as it stops on the scale to capture its weight; MAPS sends this information over the network to a MIDAS database residing on the ALPHA Server 2000. MIDAS calculates shipping charges, invoices the order and appends it to the appropriate manifest queue. At the same time, carrier-specific labels are printed using an Okidata 320 printer and applied.
Customer service still the primary objective Cherrydale Farms will continue to use new technologies to maintain its leadership in the fund-raising industry. "This is a customer service-focused business. Customer service and product quality have been and will continue to be the key to Cherrydale Farm's success now and in the future," says Cherrydale's CEO, Pete Pellicano.
August 1996 Automatic I.D. News |
|
|
MKS,
Inc. • 987 Old Eagle School Road • Wayne, PA
19087-1708 |
Correctly
processing, packing and shipping more than 35,000 orders of
candy a day could make you, well, a little nutty. That is,
unless you have a dollop of distribution/accounting software
and a dusting of automated data capture to help you. Such is
the case with Pennsburg, PA's, Cherrydale Farms, known as
"America's Fund Raiser."
Running
on a Digital ALPHA Server 2000 Open VMS since 1988, MIDAS
has been integrated with King-Way's PC-based Computer-Aided
Pick System (CAPS) utilizing flow racks and a pick-to-light
system. An auxiliary 150,000 square-foot automated warehouse
was constructed in 1994.
Getting
the green light