Robert Bosch Canada and Scancode: Economy and Control in a High-Volume Fulfillment Operation.
The Customer
Robert Bosch Canada houses more than 55,000 SKUs in its 152,000 square foot Mississauga, Ontario warehouse, each business day shipping 600-700 orders to destinations coast-to-coast that range from light weight parcel shipments to full load tractor-trailer or rail car.
Like the size of its orders, shipment contents leaving the Bosch warehouse vary widely and include automotive aftermarket parts, power tools, accessories and security systems. The customer profile is similarly diverse, according to Distribution Manager Chris Dyer.
“We ship to everyone from the corner garage to major automotive retailers, local hardware stores to national retail home improvement centers,” he says. “For example, a warranty shop might need just a couple of screws, but if they need them, their orders merit the same level of attention as does a truckload of table saws going to Home Depot.”
The Challenge
Robert Bosch Canada is the Canadian arm of the North American Division of The Bosch Group, with international headquarters based in Germany- employing approximately 250,000 people in more than 50 countries. To deal with its complex distribution matrix of products, carriers and customer preferences, Robert Bosch Canada has a sophisticated IT structure. An IBM AS/400 system houses data for Bosch & Skil power tools, Bosch Automotive and Bosch Security product lines, with other units residing on an SAP system. Bosch is currently in the process of migrating both Bosch and Skil product lines to the SAP platform as well. Both systems interface to the Nova Warehouse Management System [WMS].
The Problem
Orders are downloaded to the WMS system for fulfillment however, until early 2006, parcel-size orders were picked and packed and then rated using a Pitney-Bowes system. Large orders – the truckloads, LTLs and rail car loads – were manually rated and routed, with paperwork manually generated.
“Over time these procedures became unsatisfactory on several levels,” Dyer says. “Software support was unpredictable since it usually came out of the US, which meant slow response times. Information was not readily available to our customer service teams. And too often we found ourselves restricted for LTL shipments because we did not have an expedient way to source the carrier with the most economical solution, which would also satisfy our customers’ specific requirements. It was apparent that we needed a flexible and robust shipping solution that would accommodate all types of shipments within a single system.”
The Discovery
Finding it wasn’t so easy, Dyer says. He researched the available options and “While some systems satisfied Bosch’s operational requirements, Scancode’s ATMS had the best ROI and based on the selection and review process, it gave us the highest confidence level in meeting the implementation target, as well as providing ongoing timely support.”
Additionally, Scancode’s Advanced Transportation Management System (ATMS) could be acquired economically on a lease; the company was located in the Greater Toronto area; and it answered all of Bosch’s requirements in terms of implementation, flexibility and functionality.The Solution
The Scancode ATMS is a multi carrier-compliant enterprise logistics software solution that provides efficient planning and execution of shipping and warehouse activities at multiple touch-points in the distribution process. Scancode supports rules-driven automated routing of Truckload (TL), Less-than-Truckload (LTL), Small Package Carrier, Multi-Modal, Fleet and Messenger Services.
Once the Scancode system had been selected, Dyer worked with Scancode project managers to define the transition program which involved several stages. First they laid out the scope of the project, including a review of the entire warehouse process. They identified the steps that represented the optimum flow of information from the SAP-AS/400 management software, where orders and inventory information were maintained, to the warehouse system, which executed the receiving, inventory management and finally to the soon-to-be-installed Scancode shipping solution.
In this manner, the implementation team was able to determine what information was required by Scancode and also the data that was needed back from the shipping system. Scancode’s implementation team remained on-site throughout the process.
The Implementation
The Scancode ATMS was installed on a network server and interfaced with the Nova warehouse management system. “This provided us with a high speed exchange of data between the two systems, virtually real time,” Dyer says. “Orders drop from the databases into the WMS system and once they are picked and packed, the data drops automatically into the Scancode software for rating and routing according to cost and customer delivery requirements. Scancode performs these tasks automatically, verifying customer order numbers, shipment weights, shipping details, and choosing the most economical routing, also providing alternatives if the options programmed into Scancode are not compatible with customer requirements.”
According to Dyer, about 60 percent of the orders leaving the warehouse are small parcel shipments, with the balance ranging up to complete loads. For most shipments, Scancode has programmed in comprehensive rating information for eight selected carriers, with four handling the majority of transactions: two for parcels and two for freight. Parcels are normally carried either by Purolator or Same-Day Courier. Larger shipments move either through CCT Logistics or Midland Transport. The company has arranged for scheduled pickups by these carriers at various times of the day.
Once the shipments are rated and routed, Scancode generates the shipping labels and carrier bills of lading. All carrier loads are manifested daily from Scancode and its electronic data interchange (EDI) module enables it to send advance shipping documentation to EDI-enabled carriers, as well as retrieve delivery information on shipments that were previously shipped and delivered.
The Results
The efficiencies achieved using Scancode are readily apparent, Dyer says. “Scancode can handle all of our shipping needs, from the very smallest package to the largest full loads,” he says. “We haven’t officially quantified savings at this point, but it is easy to see that they are significant. And we’re through with handwritten documents: Scancode prepares printed, error-free copies automatically and quickly and this alone represents a major savings of personnel time.”
For the present, the Scancode system is doing everything asked of it, but Dyer isn’t finished yet…he’s looking at a way to make it even more productive. “I would like to see Scancode in the middle of the process rather than at the end of it,” he says. “By placing Scancode between the business management software and the Nova WMS system, every step of the process could be executed as soon as the order is complete: packing slips and bills of lading would arrive at the dock simultaneously with the product – picked, packed and ready to go. We would know how the merchandise is going to travel as soon as it hits the floor.”