Tuesday, 5th May 2009: Glanbia plc, the leading international cheese and nutritional ingredients group, has implemented a logistics solution comprising of voice directed and handheld computers from Dublin based IT company Heavey RF in four of its Irish divisions. The new system has shown a significant increase in productivity while bringing accuracy up close to 100%. The deal worth seven figures was fully completed in March 2009.

Heavey RF replaced Glanbia’s manual system with the advanced technologies in two warehousing sites as well as two manufacturing sites, where it is integrated with the company’s SAP system. “The new system is going very well and it has already surpassed our expectations in a short space of time.” said Cormac McCarthy (Transport Development Manager, Glanbia). “A massive amount of information is provided in real-time, which is invaluable as we can see exactly what’s happening and where we need to reposition our resources to ensure 100% customer satisfaction.”

Instead of relying on paper for various warehouse transactions, the staff use speech recognition and handheld terminals to perform their daily assignments and orders. Electronic orders are automatically converted to speech which are directed to the warehouse staff using a secured wireless technology provided by Heavey RF. The capability has made the Glanbia operation more accurate and more productive as its operators move from order to order. Heavey RF provided the Psion Teklogix range of handheld computers and wireless access points and the Vocollect range of voice directed computers. Heavey RF have been authorised partners of both manufacturers for many years.

Glanbia looked at a number of Irish and European providers when it decided to overhaul its system. “We selected Heavey RF because of their superior products, local capabilities and excellent after sales support service. In addition, Heavey RF has an impressive track record with similar solutions with some of the leading names in the retail and wholesaler business. They made a proactive effort to get to know our business and what we were about. They came back to us with suggestions above and beyond the initial brief,” said John Mee (Supply Chain Manager, Glanbia). “This approach was refreshing and assisted us to get the best out of the system”

The new system has improved production planning and also labour planning within Glanbia. All available warehouse resources can be focused on key tasks and workloads can be quickly altered to ensure that Glanbia can respond instantly to its customers evolving demands. “We operate a 24hour shift cycle and can now accurately calculate the number of staff needed per shift to fulfil every order. Before we could only estimate how many operatives were needed, which led to excess workers on some shifts,” said Cormac McCarthy (Glanbia).

Training of staff to the new system was very straightforward and was completed in approximately two days per site. Heavey RF personnel were on site 24/7 during the implementation to cover the continuous shift changes and were able to tweak the system during go-live to ensure everything ran smoothly and efficiently. 24/7 support was also a key component of the selection phase as Glanbia operate around the clock.

“The Glanbia solution was a very significant win for Heavey RF,” said Ronan Clinton (Managing Director, Heavey RF). “ It was an adventurous journey into voice logistics in manufacturing, and a journey which has surpassed our expectations. After just two weeks, planned efficiencies were exceeded. The net result has been an improvement to the overall service levels to Glanbia’s customers as can be seen by a reduction in claims of over 80% at very early stages. This was one of the largest and most complex voice directed systems we have installed to date, and one which we are proud to stand over and support.”