The 1.3 million square foot facility was built following the merger of Solo Cup and Sweetheart, two of the best-known names in the plastic, foam and paper dinnerware products industries. The facility was designed to store 2.4 million cases and drive throughput of up to 17.2 million cases a year.

“Between the two companies, we had three channels of distribution and five facilities in the Southeast United States,” says Tom Pasqualini, Solo Cup’s executive vice president of operations and supply chain. “We consolidated all of that into this one new facility.”

In addition, Solo created a new order management process known as “one face to the customer,” adds Bob Rouse, director of distribution for Solo. “The idea is that, regardless of the product the customer is buying or the division they’re buying from, we do it with one order on one truck and one invoice,” Rouse explains.

That meant replacing three separate order management systems with one that can process orders for all three distribution channels. To manage those orders, the facility relies on a combination of high and low tech systems.

On the one hand, palletized inventory is stored the old-fashioned way—on the floor or on single-deep pallet racks. Read "How Solo Cup maximizes throughput," for more about how product flows through the system.

On the other hand, there are six automatic guided vehicles (AGVs) (Dematic, 877-725-7500), each moving up to 16 pallets at a time from the receiving dock to single-deep pallet rack and floor storage zones. The flow of materials and operator tasks is managed and automated by a best-of-breed warehouse management system (WMS).

The end result is more efficient operations for Solo Cup and a better customer experience. “We have always done more than just store product in our distribution centers,” says Rouse. “But now with our one order, one truck and one invoice strategy, it’s a much better value proposition than it was before.”

• It serves as a finished goods warehouse and distribution center for products manufactured at plants in Augusta and Conyers, Ga., as well as finished goods from Solo’s other 18 manufacturing plants that aren’t produced locally.

  Those products are distributed to customers in the Southeast and are often crossdocked. In those instances, velocity of movement through the facility is paramount.

• Solo also employs a buffer strategy, holding finished goods from plants in Augusta and Conyers, Ga., that might be needed down the road at another regional distribution center.

	Low tech: Because Solo Cup receives and ships full pallets, the facility primarily uses floor storage augmented by rack storage for products that don’t easily stack.
	High tech: Solo Cup relies on a WMS and wireless data collection to track the location of the thousands of pallets stored in the 1.3 million square foot facility.
	While AGVs are usually found in manufacturing plants, Solo Cup uses automatic guided vehicles to deliver a load of 16 pallets at a time from the receiving dock to storage areas located throughout the vast facility.
	Once the AGV arrives at a storage area, lift trucks assigned to that area are directed by the warehouse management system to unload and store the pallets. The drivers then load the AGV with pallets from that area that will be shipped that day.

“Rather than anticipate the demand at the other distribution centers, we ship all of the finished goods to Social Circle and hold them there as a buffer,” says Rouse. “Then, when the demand comes in from another distribution center, we ship them just what they need.” In those instances, products may be warehoused for longer periods of time.

The facility was designed to handle both scenarios. For instance, dock doors were placed on two sides of the building to facilitate crossdocking. “We have a fair amount of product that comes in and goes out the same day,” says Rouse, “and we store hot items that will ship soon near the dock doors.”

The building was also laid out in zones, managed by the warehouse management system. “Using the WMS, we can zone storage by products, by product lines, by customers or any other method we choose to provide the least amount of travel time to improve productivity,” says Rouse.

For instance, some large fast food restaurant customers are served from the facility. “Their products don’t mix with the other product lines,” explains Rouse. “In a building this size, we can create a zone for those customers near a dock door, store their product on the floor, and move it with a lift truck. That’s faster than trucking it to more remote areas and retrieving it.”

Buffer inventory may be stored on the floor or in pallet racks deeper in the facility.

“We are fairly conventional in terms of storage,” says Rouse. “But we also have the AGVs, a WMS, radio frequency communication and automatic data collection. Where technology made sense, it was employed.”

What’s more, the WMS operates in real time. “We’re doing real-time picking and real-time receiving,” says Rouse. “That information goes from our WMS right up to corporate headquarters for real-time visibility of our inventory.”

The goal in combining automation with traditional processes was to drive more productivity with less overhead. The AGVs are a good example of that strategy.

“In the older buildings, which were also pretty big, we had lift truck drivers moving one or two pallets at a time from the dock to a storage location,” says Rouse. “Now, rather than 16 lift trucks traveling the whole length of the building to put away 16 pallets, one AGV can move 16 pallets at a time.”

The AGVs not only cut down on the distance traveled by the lift trucks, they also create a safer working environment.

In all, the facility is served by six AGVs—each tugging four carts. The self-guided vehicles are kept on track by magnets in the facility floor.

Finally, Solo installed a new high-rise battery changing and self-watering system to reduce the cost of maintaining its lift truck fleet. “We can change out a dead battery in about 3 minutes with this system,” says Rouse. “It used to take 5 to 10 minutes a battery with the old system.”

With 65 lift trucks operating on three shifts, Rouse says, the saved time adds up quickly.

At the end of the day, says Rouse, the strategy has paid off. “The proof is in the pudding,” he says. “We’ve not only consolidated several building into one, we’ve been able to grow the business with no addition to our head count.”