One of South Africa`s largest suppliers of fresh and frozen chicken as well as value added products, to the retail market, County Fair, commissioned Psion Teklogix to assist with the streamlining of County Fair`s cold chain.
Gerrit Visser, County Fair Deputy Managing Director, explains that a material handling system was required to cope with larger volumes demanded by the retail industry. "When we restructured our warehouse, it became evident that our existing manual material handling system also needed an upgrade as it simply could no longer cope with larger volumes", says Gerrit.
County Fair briefed service providers to supply equipment capable of interfacing with the existing materials handling system originally developed by the company, and suitable for coping with harsh temperature fluctuations in a freezer environment.
Although County Fair`s original system was developed for use with non-Teklogix kit, Psion Teklogix equipment came up trumps with a kit that gave County Fair the opportunity to deploy the original application in a more flexible, real-time, interactive environment using standard TCP/IP technology rather than having to use their own "home-grown" application interface to handle multiple on-line users.
SSC`s Ian Stuart, who, along with Willie van der Merwe of County Fair, was involved in the development and implementation of the applications, explains: "We converted the application to run under a development tool called DEFINE that runs under terminal emulation on the Teklogix. Another big "plus" for County Fair is the networking capability of the Psion Teklogix range of equipment in supporting narrow-band terminals in a TCP/IP environment".
Ian also modified the DEFINE tool to support the "small" screen of the Psion Teklogix hand-held terminals and, since then, DEFINE has been enhanced by the authors, DEFINITIVE Software of Australia, to incorporate the modifications into standard DEFINE product. Ian summarises, "The Teklogix kit enabled us to utilise a set of networking and development tools that we were not able to use on the original equipment".
County Fair Cold Storage Division Manager, Ajay Kalan, defines the system: "From no tracking system and a large number of errors, we now operate rapidly and virtually error free with quick turn around times utilising one Psion Teklogix base station and seven 7030 hand held terminals in our bulk store (frozen chickens and chicken pieces) as well as in our picking store for value added items such as Chicken Cordon Bleu, etc. These terminals have an impressive battery life and cope with our three shift system".
The robust hand-held terminals perfectly match the freezer environment, moving effortlessly between temperature fluctuations of between 1 and -30 degrees Celsius without screens misting over. Speed and accuracy are essential ingredients in this environment as forklift operators and pickers cannot spend more than approximately half and hour in this below freezing environment.
The Psion Teklogix base station copes easily with the density of walls as well as frozen chickens and we experience no dead spots.
The company utilises three battery operated open 3-wheeler forklifts as well as two closed and one open battery operated reach truck with special cradles to accommodate the Psion Teklogix 7030 hand held terminals.
County Fair`s Lukas van Zyl, Manager: Fresh Distribution, is equally impressed with Psion Teklogix`s equipment. "The base station operates interference-free despite the high density insulation and steel and concrete obstructions in my division, where orders for whole chickens and chicken pieces are assembled".
Gerrit comments on the training requirements: "Both the system and the terminals are user friendly and all our training was completed within one month. Although there was some initial resistance, employees soon realised that the new system empowered them to work smarter, faster and more accurately". Teething problems were speedily resolved and the system has been operating problem-free since installation nearly two years ago. County Fair has already achieved measurable benefits e.g. minimum down-time, maximum accuracy, minimum loss and rapid and accurate stock taking with more aggressive scanners.
Psion Teklogix`s commitment to product and service excellence enables County Fair to maintain the cold chain without interruption, from receiving to bulk store, from bulk store to loading bay and on to refrigerated vehicles and finally to the retail outlets.
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