A WAREHOUSE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM SUPPORTS A SURGE IN ONLINE SHOPPING FOR PET AND GARDEN SUPPLIES WHILE IMPROVING INVENTORY ACCURACY, TRACEABILITY, AND WORKFLOW.
AFCO DISTRIBUTION GROWS BUSINESS BY AUTOMATING AND DIGITIZING PROCESSES
STEPHANIE NEIL • EXECUTIVE EDITOR
In 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic forced many employers to shift to remote work, households across the country welcomed pets into their homes and turned to their backyards to work on their gardens.
For AFCO Distribution, an agricultural cooperative known as the “go-to grocery store for animals,” this resulted in a significant uptick in business.
“Our business increased by double digits, and this growth hasn’t stopped since,” said Lloyd Campbell, AFCO’s distribution director of wholesale. “Everybody was at home; everybody
needed a companion. More people were buying dog and pet food…and they had time to work in their gardens. Our business was ripe for pet owners and hobby farmers.”
AFCO, owned by Skagit Farmers Supply, distributes animal feeds, wildlife products, pet food, and supplies along with fencing and livestock equipment. Founded in 1992, the company serves hundreds of retailers across several states from its warehouses in Spokane Valley and Burlington, Wash.
In 2019, before the pandemic, the AFCO team began its search for
LEFT: AFCO Distribution needed a WMS to keep up with post-pandemic growth. AFCO Distribution
a warehouse management system (WMS) to offset manual processes. It initially wanted more visibility into warehouse inventory and to have better traceability for lot-coding issues. Ultimately, however, the decision to adopt a WMS became a critical component in the company’s ability to scale during the COVID crisis while boosting operational efficiency and accuracy.
AFCO finds the right path
In its search for a WMS, the AFCO team’s first priority was compatibility with its existing ERP software. This led to PathGuide Technologies’ Latitude WMS, which offered easy integration and agility.
“There were very limited WMS offerings available that could do what we needed it to do while integrating with our ERP system,” Campbell explained. “AFCO distributes products to our stores while also selling to customers directly out of our distribution warehouses. Without drastically changing our ERP system, not many warehouse management systems would allow us to do the high level of lot traceability and true RF picking that Latitude enables.”
Latitude also allowed AFCO to meet strict FDA regulations when tracing lots from suppliers to customers. It even enabled the distributor to stay on top of product freshness and shelflife compliance to meet legal and customer requirements.
“Additionally, Latitude helped us increase our inventory accuracy by giving us more control over physical stock counts and product quantities on hand. This improved our overall order fulfillment accuracy through the automation it provides, which also enhanced overall customer satisfaction,” Campbell said. “In fact, Latitude’s automation allowed us to fill orders faster and reduce the
number of errors that occurred prior to implementation.”
While the bolt-on solution took about nine months to deploy, the months following implementation went smoothly as operators trained on the system. That was until March 2020, when COVID drastically changed the business.
Pandemic surge raised WMS doubts
When the pandemic hit — and consumer shopping habits changed — AFCO found itself experiencing doubledigit growth almost overnight.
Amid this spike in business, some warehouse employees talked about pausing the use of the WMS and reverting back to using paper and manual methods for their operations because they were more familiar with these practices. However, these methods couldn’t support the increased demand AFCO was experiencing. So, its team embraced the new technology.
In fact, the pandemic forced the AFCO team to maximize its use of Latitude quickly and completely
PathGuide’s handheld terminal running Latitude WMS.
PathGuide Technologies
abandon its reliance on spreadsheets for inventory and route sheets that would’ve slowed its operations.
“During the pandemic, we learned so much more about what PathGuide could offer us and how to use the software to increase operational efficiencies in ways that we hadn’t been using,” said Brad Servatius, AFCO’s warehouse and transportation manager.
AFCO’s digital transformation
Helping AFCO maintain business continuity while meeting rapid growth is an example of the key benefit that Latitude delivered for the company. But that’s not all.
Over the past five years, the Latitude WMS has transformed AFCO’s warehouse operation by empowering the team, improving efficiency and picking accuracy, and supporting an expanding business without increasing employee headcount.
“When it comes to picking, we pick the correct item every time because the Latitude system won’t allow us to mispick,” Campbell said.
AFCO Distribution is a wholesale distribution company serving over 400 feed and pet supply retailers in the Pacific Northwest. AFCO Distribution
In addition, inventory is managed much differently. “Previously, we would print out inventory sheets, go out and physically count, then come in and key in the numbers. We did not have our warehouse set up on RF,” said Campbell.
He explained that Latitude supports radio-frequency (RF) barcode scanning, which makes it easier for workers to find and pick items. Its automated verification also reduces errors by ensuring that the correct items are picked by cross-referencing them with order data.
“Now, being able to do everything on the fly creates significant efficiencies compared to how we used to operate,” Campbell said.
These newly found efficiencies have also enhanced customer relationships through higher levels of trust and confidence in order fulfillment.
“We have our largest accounts doing blind receiving because our accuracy is so good,” said Campbell. “They don’t need to check our goods; they just
receive them into their systems.”
Internally, Latitude provides insight into metrics around picking rates, error rates, and inventory turns, which can be used to track worker performance and adjust workflow processes, or provide training as needed.
The smart warehouse of the future AFCO continues to explore new ways to leverage Latitude WMS, specifically with measuring employee performance and considering more advanced capabilities like voice picking and wearable technology in place of handheld scanning devices.
“For voice picking, you can free up your workers’ hands and also give instructions in their language of choice,” noted Campbell. “With wearable technology, it’s not hard to envision a future where workers use devices like smartwatches or wrist scanners that automatically identify when items are pulled. These devices could sync with the warehouse management system for
live updates on inventory counts and item locations.”
While these are features to explore in the future, the good news is that AFCO has already seen a return on investment (ROI) from the Latitude system.
Campbell said he expected that it would take approximately three years for Latitude WMS to pay for itself and for long-term benefits to be realized. He and the rest of the executive team were pleasantly surprised to see a more expedited ROI.
“We were able to pay for Latitude after the first year,” Campbell said. “We were fortunate to have Latitude already implemented when COVID hit. There is no question in our minds about how much Latitude helped support our business growth during the pandemic, which was a very trying time for a lot of people. Without this technology, I don’t know how our business would’ve kept going. After that first year, it was a nobrainer that implementing Latitude was the right move.” AW