Most of us have a comfortable old razor that we can't bear to part with because we like the way it feels in our hands.

Warehouses and distribution centers can get comfortable doing things the same old way too. The fear of complacency was one of the reasons The Gillette Co., Boston, Mass. implemented an integrated transportation and warehouse management system across four North American distribution centers and two production sites.

'In our distribution operations, we often found ourselves asking: Why change when we're comfortable doing what we do?' says Peter Kanowsky, distribution systems manager for Gillette. 'But when we started this project three years ago, we realized the question we ought to be asking is: What has already changed?'

The answer: plenty. Those changes were already negatively affecting Gillette's ability to meet customer demands and control costs.

The number of stock keeping units (SKUs) was exploding, as were customer requirements for compliant packaging, labeling and shipping.

Internally, Gillette had implemented a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) and order management system (SAP, 610-661-3200, www.sap.com). Meanwhile, several supply chain initiatives were on the drawing board.

'The warehouse management system we had been using for 15 years was outdated,' says Kanowsky. 'It was too expensive to support, and too difficult to adapt to changing business requirements.'

Gillette replaced the old system with a multi-dimensional, tightly integrated transportation and warehouse management system (Provia Software, 877-776-8421, www.provia.com).

The T/WMS allowed the consumer products maker of razors, batteries and personal care appliances to standardize technology and order fulfillment processes across regional distribution centers in Ontario, Calif.; Romeoville, Ill.; Devens, Mass.; and Livingston, Ontario, and at production/pack sites in Andover, Mass., and Iowa City, Iowa.

The benefits have included tighter control over SKUs and inventory and better task management on the floor.

'Our inventory is more accurate than it's ever been and our turn rate is much improved since we implemented the system,' says Kanowsky. 'We have a much better understanding of FIFO (first-in/first-out), shelf life and expiration dates, and lot tracking.'

He continues on to say, 'We validate inventory by how often we're plus or minus five cases of what the system says should be there. We used to match at a rate of 80% to 85%. Now, we're in the high 90s. My distribution center managers say that inventory has never been as accurate.'

Additionally, the tight integration between the transportation and warehouse management systems has broken down the barriers between the transportation and distribution departments.

'Historically, transportation and warehousing folks end up in silos, separate from one another,' says Kanowsky. 'One of our key objectives, which we achieved, was to not only break down those silos, but to provide a fully integrated tool to support both processes.'

Gillette prepares for incoming product when the system receives an 'inbound order,' or advance shipment notification.

Pallets arriving from other Gillette facilities are tagged with a license plate bar code label that includes information about the quantity, SKU identification, lot ID, and manufacturing date. Gillette creates a license plate for product arriving from overseas vendors.

Workers at the receiving dock scan the bar code to receive and verify the inventory. The system uses storage rules to determine a putaway location, which is displayed on a lift truck driver's radio frequency (RF) unit (LXE, 770-447-4224, www.lxe.com)

Once the material is stored, the driver scans a check digit while at the putaway location.

'This ensures that tasks are completed accurately,' says Peter Kanowsky. 'The driver must go to the specified location to identify the check digit, as opposed to remotely entering a location ID into his scanner.'

Scanning the check digit also notifies the WMS and ERP systems immediately that the inventory is available to promise. 'One of our goals in implementing this new system was to automate product and task management in real time,' says Kanowsky. 'Our tasks are now driven off of real-time product data like the product location, shelf life and FIFO criteria. All of that information is updated when the product is putaway and drives how commands and tasks will be performed.'

Outbound orders begin when Gillette receives a sales order. The order management system creates a 'delivery,' an order to be filled based on the availability of inventory, transportation resources and customer requirements.

Deliveries are aggregated overnight and then are batched to the T/WMS in the morning.

Orders are first exported to the transportation management system. The system's programming engine determines what will fit on a truck and then determines the lowest cost shipping option.

Once the freight plans are finalized, the WMS creates the optimal plan to fill the orders according to the transportation plan.

Most orders involve full cases picked to a pallet, but repacking was an important consideration. 'We handle a lot of less than case quantity orders,' says Kanowsky. 'We needed a system that could plan all of those repacks and the processes that go along with them automatically.'

All tasks are RF-directed. At the first pick location, the worker scans the check digit to verify location accuracy then picks the material. Value-added services are done at that time. Workers carry portable printers (Zebra, 800-423-0422, www.zebra.com) to print and apply customer compliant labels as cartons are picked. At present, only case-level ASN labels are printed with RF-enabled printers. All other printing activity takes place at fixed printing stations.

Once the items from that location are picked, the materials handler scans the check digit again to confirm the location. The system then identifies the next pick location, or the next task, since task interleaving is a key to optimizing order fulfillment with the new system. 'As a materials handler, I don't need visibility to the overall operation. I just need to know what's my next command and task,' Kanowsky explains. 'So, someone delivering an order to the dock may now get a task to putaway a pallet that's just arrived.'

Completed orders are delivered to a shipping lane. There, a dock checker verifies the order by container and carrier. Once that's done, the pallet is shrink wrapped, labeled and loaded into a trailer.

The shipment's complete data is returned to the order management system. That generates an advance shipment notice to the customer and initiates the invoicing process. At the same time, the transportation management system is posting the information to initiate the freight payment process.

One of the key benefits to the system is real-time reporting of replenishment to materials handlers.

'Our old system did not link the completion of a replenishment of a pick front to a pick command,' says Kanowsky. 'That means we'd have materials handlers standing around until someone told them that the replenishment was complete and they could fill their order.'

The new system anticipates replenishment requirements. For instance, if an order is generated for 15 cases from a pick face with only ten cases in inventory, the system automatically generates a replenishment order. A materials handler waiting for replenishment is notified on the RF device as soon as the area has been filled.

'The amount of time saved because of that one feature alone is tremendous,' Kanowsky says.

In addition to managing orders and inventory at the four North American distribution centers, Gillette also cross-docks product from production facilities in Andover, Mass., and Iowa City, Iowa.

At both facilities, production comes off a manufacturing line and travels to a palletizing line. Finished goods about to be shipped are palletized and tagged with a license plate bar code. The pallets are then delivered to the cross-dock area.

When the tag is scanned in the cross-dock area, the system chooses a putaway location. In this case, it's putting the pallet away to a shipping dock, where it will be staged until there are enough pallets to fill a truck.

Since the production facilities are dealing with full pallets and full truckload shipments, the transportation planning requirements are not nearly as complex.

'We cross docked pallets in the past, but with much more difficulty than we do today,' says Kanowsky.

In addition to improved inventory accuracy and turn rates, Gillette has benefited in several other important ways from the new T/WMS system.

Expanded reporting capabilities have provided in-depth data. 'We can use that information to drive everything from incentive programs for our materials handlers to measure how we're doing at a site, across North America, and across the company,' says Kanowsky.

Task management has not only meant more efficient order fulfillment processes, it has also freed up distribution center employees for more valuable tasks especially in inventory control and inventory management.

That is important since one of the goals of company management is to reduce the number of SKUs in the supply chain.

With inventory, order fulfillment, and transportation processes under control, Gillette is looking down the road for ways to extend the reach of the system beyond the four walls of the facilities.

'Internally, we pursue goals like functional excellence and benchmarking across North America and globally with visibility and performance analysis tools,' says Kanowsky. 'Externally, we continue to look for ways to give visibility into the status of orders and inventory to our customers. Right now, we provide information about when orders shipped. Ultimately, we want to exchange data that we can use to streamline our operations and complement our performance analysis,' he adds.

Click here to read about materials handling at Gillette's South Boston manufacturing facility.