TECSYS Revolutionizes Warehouse Management with EliteSeries 8

TECSYS Inc. (TSX: TCS), an industry-leading supply chain management software company has announced a major leap forward in warehouse management with the introduction of its exclusive EliteSeries 8 Visual Logistics; a new technological innovation that will enable customers to significantly streamline putaway, picking and packing and achieve the highest in order accuracy and fill rate known to date.

A new vision has arrived; “A Visual Logistics Paradigm” founded on advanced, web-based technology that delivers visual instructions to workers directly on their RF gun or handheld computer and visually communicates exactly “what, when, where, why and how” activities they can execute activities in the optimum time. With TECSYS’ EliteSeries Visual Logistics, workers are empowered to access critical information to make faster decisions and accelerate their workflows, particularly in environments where literacy is an issue. It also improves training and retention of logistics process with its intuitive, natural language; real-life visual modeling that enables high-volume distribution organizations to increase throughput and revenue growth.

“With the EliteSeries WMS Visual Logistics, workers are instructed visually, and can instantaneously associate an image with what they need to do. This is a major leap forward and a revolutionary way to enable workers to perform even more complex tasks, faster, with less mental fatigue and errors. The results are sustainable, high levels of productivity and accuracy throughout the shift like never seen before. Like the old saying – “a picture is worth a thousand words,” commented Robert Colosino, Vice President, Marketing & Business Development, TECSYS Inc.

• With TECSYS’ Visual Logistics paradigm, workers will be able to do the job quicker with increased accuracy and confidence, such as:
• Locate an aisle, a tote, a case, a box and/or a part more quickly and accurately.
• Clearly and unmistakably identify products, their unique attributes, types, sizes, quantities, and shapes.
• Recognize safe limits and ranges such as lot number, expiry dates and more.
• Have access to critical product information, specifications, user instructions and alerts.
• Clearly identify a source of danger for such materials as hazardous materials, active ingredients and the like. •Be able to learn on-the-go how to put a kit together, or the right and the wrong    way to perform a task.

TECSYS’ EliteSeries Visual Paradigm:

The fundamental business case for Visual Logistics is based on the ability to increase throughput in the warehouse. The more products that can be picked, packed and shipped accurately and in the least amount of time will definitely equate in lower labor cost and improved bottom line for distribution operations. Having accurate, relevant information immediately accessible and understandable by workers delivers better results and enables them to act immediately, make faster decision and complete logistics cycles much faster. In essence warehouse operations will be able to do more with less.

“Without TECSYS’ WMS, we would have not been able to handle the load. We would have had to add people. The idea is, with TECSYS’ WMS we do more with less. At one point we had 47 people, today we are handling the load with 28, even after increasing the number of products in our inventory by almost 20%,” commented Rick Hoose, General Parts Manager, Cleveland Brothers.

Visual communications have, in some form, been deployed in the manufacturing sector enabling organizations to achieve significant benefits such as:

• Increased throughput by 15%
• Reduced material handling by 70%
• Decreased annual physical inventory time by 50%
• Decreased defects by 96%

“Studies have indicated that the brain processes images 60,000 times faster than words,” stated John Reichert, WMS Product Manager at TECSYS. People are capable of matching two images much more quickly compared to matching textual instructions to objects. For example, road signs are a real-life example of visually communicating complex instructions and what to expect ahead. Imagine the textual instructions for what’s ahead for “right curve, left curve then right curve!” Could anyone react in time if it was textual?”

Furthermore, a new generation of visually-driven computer users has entered the workforce, they demand ease-of-use, they are intolerant to inefficiency and have much higher expectations from the tools they use. Today’s generation is accustomed to visually-driven user interface found in computers, handheld devices and cellular phones. They expect tools to be interactive; “visual” tools that can be used to get productive work done.

Key advantages of visually communicating include:

• A universal and better understood, acceptable language.
• Multi-language; one visual represents all languages.
• Provides specific instructions as to where, which and what item to pick or putaway.
• Provides detail what it looks like, a picture or illustration of the product and/or its location.
• Simplifies any complex content such hazardous material, compliance labels or parts of labels.
• Enhances the message with visual effects and color to direct attention or provide instruction compared to the tedious, long, complex and hard to understand written instructions.
• Significantly shortens the learning curve with intuitive real-life image instructions.

Highly Scalable:

The EliteSeries is flexible, adaptable and highly scalable to the size, need and complexity of business. It’s not a tier-one system attempting to manage paper-based or small distribution operations with the high cost of a tier-one application, nor a tier-three system attempting to manage global distribution operations without the power and robustness of a scalable system. TECSYS’ EliteSeries allows distribution organizations to deploy the system across a variety of operations; from paper-based to the most sophisticated automated distribution operations with material handling equipment while meeting organization’s growing needs. If one distribution facility is nearing capacity, scaling it is as simple as adding another instance of the service. The EliteSeries also allows organizations to scale their applications horizontally, providing considerable cost savings. It extends the reach of information within an enterprise, giving more people access to critical information for sensing the pulse of the business and for planning and reporting.

Web/Internet-based:

As a zero footprint, the EliteSeries can be accessed from any browser-based device, from anywhere at any time. The system is intelligent, extensible and as easy to use as a browser. The EliteSeries is adaptable to users’ environment, and is sensitive to each individual’s personal needs. As workers use the system more and more, the EliteSeries intelligent technology quickly tailors itself to each individual preferences and way of working, and presents that information exactly how they like to see it.

“With TECSYS we have a reliable IT infrastructure that can be tapped anytime, from anywhere, securely. The system is always available; it is like “googling” into a supply chain network of applications, giving us and our healthcare customers the peace of mind and visibility of what is happening, where and when,” commented Richard Beeny, Chief Executive Officer, LifeScience Logistics, LLC.

With the EliteSeries:

• Executives are able to determine where the risks are and where the opportunities lie.
• Customers may be able to access views to track their own orders, as well as check on inventory levels and reconcile     outstanding credits or invoices.
• Vendors are able to see how their inventory is moving within the warehouse.
• Sales representatives are equipped with real-time information and always able to answer questions on product, stock and pricing.
• Customer service reps are able to deal with critical shipments, from tracking to status of orders.

Beyond the four walls of the warehouse:

While logistics operations within the four walls of the warehouse are extremely important, distribution business is heavily reliant on customer interaction, on-time delivery and customer service and satisfaction.

TECSYS’ integrated suite of supply chain execution applications are warehouse-centric and its warehouse management application is complemented by distribution management, transportation management and business intelligence solutions that enable customers to seamlessly execute order-to-cash and purchase-to-pay processes without barriers.

“With TECSYS’ EliteSeries integrated DMS, WMS and TMS, we have integrated information for everything; we don’t have to wait for transfer of information and we don’t have to deal with incompatible files or technology between systems or interfaces. Orders are picked and packed at night and invoiced automatically; no waiting 24 hours or more to complete the cycle, it is done right away,” stated Gaétan Joly, VP Finance, WALTER Surface Technologies.

Solutions and general info: info@tecsys.com