Forest products port terminal operator Stanton Grove has invested £300,000 in new computer technology following the centralising of administration at its Liverpool head office.
Systems director Neil Stewart said the centralisation, coupled with the need to increase the overall accuracy of electronic manifests, made it necessary to upgrade the IT systems.
He said: “To achieve 100% accuracy we needed to be able to scan the bar codes on forest products coming into the warehouse from the vessels. Previously, we worked to electronic manifests that we could not guarantee were accurate. In addition, it was essential that the scanning process did not slow down the delivery.”
Rubicon Computer Systems Ltd had experience of just-in-time distribution systems in the food industry and was able to adapt this to forest products distribution. It incorporated radio frequency equipment from Psion Teklogix and the system, which is managed from the head office, has been implemented at each of Stanton Grove’s warehouse locations.
Stanton Grove said the result is a quicker turnaround of deliveries and better warehouse management.
The system also enables Stanton Grove to link directly with end users at its delivery locations to allow remote and automatic stock call-offs and viewing of stock levels and delivery schedules.
