El Dorado makes most of WMS program
By Gary Evans -- Furniture Today, May 26, 2008
Miami Gardens, Fla. — It's sort of like your mobile phone or personal computer: You don't always fully utilize all the things it can do.
That's the case with El Dorado Furniture's 425,000-square-foot distribution center here. With sales running slow, managers are turning to back-end operations to reduce costs. Much of the work has been in the company's distribution center, where expenses have dropped 20% to 30% from last year, according to Jesus Capo, vice president and chief information officer.
"One of the things we've focused on is taking advantage of the systems we have currently in place and ones we thought were being used (but weren't)," Capo said.
Seven years ago, the Florida-based Top 100 chain installed a warehouse management system (WMS) from Wisconsin-based RedPrairie to increase efficiencies. Capo said the company focused on getting the major systems up and running, losing track of some less-visible elements that can make processes even better.
"One of the things we've done in the last five or six months is to go back and say, 'wait a minute, we bought this thing seven years ago and it's changed our way of life. But how can we make it more efficient?' "
One aspect of the project involves "directed put-away" — a process in which the system's software directs exactly where product coming from trucks and containers is to be stored in the gigantic warehouse with 40-foot high ceilings.
"It tells you exactly where to put it," Capo said. "Previously, the guy would put it where he thought it should go. So your warehouse most of the time would seem full when it was half empty because everything wasn't in the right place."
Capo said El Dorado is looking for still more efficiencies out of WMS, particularly with regard to import product flow.
"We're working a lot with cross-docking and trying to do more just-in-time" to minimize inventory," he said. One goal is to take product off an incoming truck and transfer it directly to an ongoing vehicle for same-day delivery, reducing handling and possible damage.
Another issue is getting vendors to use a standard bar code system so that incoming merchandise can be handled more easily. Capo said that vendors are working toward that goal so it's more an "our techies talking to their techies" kind of situation.
El Dorado is part of a steering committee that includes five other furniture retailers— Jordan's, Steinhafels, Slumberland and Miskelly — that meets monthly to maximize ways to utilize the RedPrairie's WMS program more fully.
