Seaquist Closures, a designer and manufacturer of dispensing closures and systems (e.g., a valve dispensing system for a bottle of grape jelly), markets its products to the personal care, household, food, and beverage industries. It operates 21 facilities in 19 countries. To maintain an optimal level of operational efficiency at its Mukwonago, Wis., warehouse, 15 forklifts were equipped with rugged mobile computers. In recent years, the forklift operators at the Mukwonago warehouse spent valuable time during the day driving the floor and searching for product to fulfill orders. The wasted time searching the floor was the result of both inaccurate and missing paperwork regarding outbound shipments. In addition to the wasted time searching for product, an operator also needed to thumb through an excessive amount of paperwork (e.g., shipping documents). To address the burden of carrying paperwork around on forklifts, Seaquist installed the mobile computers to display the content of the paperwork, providing an immediate gain in efficiency. However, until recently, the rugged mobile computing technology did not interface to Seaquist's WMS. Integrating the rugged mobile computers with the company's SAP WMS resolved the aforementioned pain points.
Source: Integrated Solutions, http://www.integratedsolutionsmag.com