CASE STUDY
Wireless Warehouse Initiative Transforms Materials Management Operations
and Improves Delivery Speed by 66%
Industry: Industrial Machinery for the Oil & Gas and Power Generation Markets
Services Provided: Project Management, Project Scheduling, Vendor Management
Company: A provider of highly efficient turbine-driven gas compression, oil pumping
and power generation packages for onshore and offshore applications worldwide
Challenge: With increasing logistics and labour costs threatening to seriously impact
profit margins, the company’s supply chain sectors in North America saw a need for
improved material management to meet rising demands for order accuracy while
increasing productivity and reducing costs.
The major challenges they faced were overhead control issues such as inaccurate
inventory counts, shipping errors, receiving errors, and a need to improve delivery
speeds. Analysis concluded that improvements would best be achieved by substituting
technology for potentially error-prone human activities such as receiving, put away,
picking, shipping and inventory counting. Providing an automated means for data to
be conveyed directly from the warehouse floor into SAP’s Supply Chain Management
(SCM) software rather than via a manual counting and recording process would
improve accuracy, reduce overhead costs, and provide real-time supply chain visibility.
Solution:
The organization decided to take advantage of radio frequency (RF) automation and
SAP integration within the warehouse to achieve optimum supply chain efficiency and
productivity. Midway through the project, it became apparent to the company that they
did not have the appropriate level of project management capacity available in-house.
They called upon PM Solutions to provide a senior-level project manager to lead the
“North America Program Team” in the implementation of a warehouse RF solution for
the final third of the project duration.
PM Solutions’ project manager immediately assumed responsibility for developing and
managing the overall project plan, which consisted of three distinct components:
➢ Install shop floor wireless network
➢ Build, configure, and connect Radio Frequency devices
➢ Incorporate RF-associated SAP changes PM Solutions’ project manager
performed the roles of project manager and system integrator, being
responsible for overseeing requirements gathering, systems design,
procurement and installation of the necessary hardware and software, and
coordinating user acceptance testing.
1) Explain importance of ERP applications in supply chain management process.
2) Elaborate a ‘Project Management process’ is very important in any IT
environment.
Wireless Warehouse Initiative Transforms Materials Management Operations
and Improves Delivery Speed by 66%
Industry: Industrial Machinery for the Oil & Gas and Power Generation Markets
Services Provided: Project Management, Project Scheduling, Vendor Management
Company: A provider of highly efficient turbine-driven gas compression, oil pumping
and power generation packages for onshore and offshore applications worldwide
Challenge: With increasing logistics and labour costs threatening to seriously impact
profit margins, the company’s supply chain sectors in North America saw a need for
improved material management to meet rising demands for order accuracy while
increasing productivity and reducing costs.
The major challenges they faced were overhead control issues such as inaccurate
inventory counts, shipping errors, receiving errors, and a need to improve delivery
speeds. Analysis concluded that improvements would best be achieved by substituting
technology for potentially error-prone human activities such as receiving, put away,
picking, shipping and inventory counting. Providing an automated means for data to
be conveyed directly from the warehouse floor into SAP’s Supply Chain Management
(SCM) software rather than via a manual counting and recording process would
improve accuracy, reduce overhead costs, and provide real-time supply chain visibility.
Solution:
The organization decided to take advantage of radio frequency (RF) automation and
SAP integration within the warehouse to achieve optimum supply chain efficiency and
productivity. Midway through the project, it became apparent to the company that they
did not have the appropriate level of project management capacity available in-house.
They called upon PM Solutions to provide a senior-level project manager to lead the
“North America Program Team” in the implementation of a warehouse RF solution for
the final third of the project duration.
PM Solutions’ project manager immediately assumed responsibility for developing and
managing the overall project plan, which consisted of three distinct components:
➢ Install shop floor wireless network
➢ Build, configure, and connect Radio Frequency devices
➢ Incorporate RF-associated SAP changes PM Solutions’ project manager
performed the roles of project manager and system integrator, being
responsible for overseeing requirements gathering, systems design,
procurement and installation of the necessary hardware and software, and
coordinating user acceptance testing.
1) Explain importance of ERP applications in supply chain management process.
2) Elaborate a ‘Project Management process’ is very important in any IT
environment.
