WMS supports current and future facilities

Sheetz, one of the fastest-growing, family-owned convenience stores in the world, operates more than 470 locations across six states in the Mid-Atlantic region and employs 15,000 people. After outgrowing its legacy warehouse management system (WMS), the company implemented a configurable WMS capable of flexible growth.

The company has a single campus with two shipping facilities: a distribution center that handles the company’s full product line and a commissary in which fresh goods are baked and prepared. Products from the DC are shipped out three times per week, while items from the commissary leave seven days per week.

The company had outgrown its legacy WMS, which was no longer supported by its supplier. The company implemented a smaller WMS, but the resulting operational performance fell short. Ideally, the new system would use existing hardware, require minimal training for the 200 DC employees and serve shipping, warehousing and manufacturing needs. Sheetz worked with a supply chain and logistics consulting firm (St. Onge, stonge.com) to help with the search process.

After a search and selection process that included a trial period in which finalists processed real data from the company, Sheetz chose a WMS (HighJump, highjump.com) that provides a directed, optimized workflow for receiving, put-away/flow-through, inventory management, replenishment and more. Built on an open architecture, the solution is highly adaptable.

“We based our choice on its ability to configure to our needs and react to our changing processes. This was very important to us,” says Eric Foose, software services manager. “This was the only solution that actually showed us how we could do it ourselves. Our IT team couldn’t believe it.”

The team configured the system to reflect aspects of the previous WMS, saving significant training time and cost. Foose notes improved efficiency and accuracy, including an increase in pick rates, a more streamlined process to return excess ingredients to inventory and fewer steps in the production receiving process. The company now has an improved process for end-of-day inventory adjustments, the ability to assign ingredients to a specific day production batch, and improved visibility into transaction history.

Sheetz is constructing a campus in Burlington, N.C., that will include a DC and commissary to serve area stores in 2014. The company is planning to configure the new location as part of its existing centralized WMS deployment and will be executing the rollout with its own in-house team.