Peco Foods Nails Freezer DC Startup with EVS' mobe3 WMS on time and on budget
NUMBER OF LOCATIONS
8 Processing Locations
NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES
5,000 - 10,000
EVS SOLUTION
mobe3 WMS Cloud
“We were able to integrate mobe3 with our current system with NO IMPACT to our day-to-day business.”
-Jordan Townsend, Plant Manager
Implementing a new-to-the-company warehouse management system (WMS) from EVS, LLC in its first-ever distribution freezer allowed one of the largest poultry producers in the country to open the renovated plant on time and begin tracking new key performance indicators smoothly and efficiently.
When Peco Foods, Inc. committed a substantial investment into a recently acquired cold-storage warehouse in West Point, Miss., Plant Manager Jordan Townsend knew the company would need a state-of-the-art WMS for the new facility. He recognized that integrating the dramatically renovated building with other plants and a par-fry facility now under construction would require more functionality than Peco had with its legacy system.
“I knew we had to start looking for a new WMS for this plant that we could use from day one,” says Townsend. The situation required a powerful, but configurable, program that could integrate with a popular food processing enterprise resource planning system used in the company’s other locations.
Checking the boxes
Townsend and team compiled a 10-point checklist of must-haves. High at the top was the ability to integrate with the current system in a way that would allow the company to trace product in the distribution pipeline in case of a product recall. “First-in, first-out” capability was also important, since many customers required products ordered to have a 120-day shelf life once they received it. In addition, candidates needed to be able to have sales, quality assurance, safety, and operations applications.
Townsend also sought a solution with a proven track record. “We wanted to go with a company that’s discovered all the hurdles, is already successful, and has good rapport in the market,” he says. Most importantly, he adds, his new WMS provider needed to have software that’s easy to use.
After determining which software providers could check all 10 boxes, Townsend’s team met with suppliers either in person at Peco headquarters in Tuscaloosa, Ala., or at the Mississippi distribution freezer. After narrowing the list of possibilities down to two, the Peco team went on the road to talk with users at their locations.
Customer enthusiasm for EVS’s iOS-based mobe3 solution made that option a standout, but from Townsend’s perspective, there was still a hitch: mobe3 is cloud-based. He liked having his resources on-site so he could make sure they were working, backed-up, and protected. Once EVS showed how and why cloud-based solutions offered not only enhanced security but cost-savings, no on-site maintenance, and other advantages, too, mobe3 moved to the top of the list.
“We wanted to go with a company that’s discovered all the hurdles, is already successful, and has good rapport in the market.”
Flexibility was essential
Knowing that a plug-and-play product couldn’t do the job, mobe3’s flexibility was another reason Townsend liked the mobe3 solution. “Some of the WMS suppliers tell you what you need. We wanted to tell them what we needed,” he says.
The importance of this flexibility was evident during phase one of the mobe3 implementation, when the team made changes daily.
“Sometimes we went back and made changes to our changes,” Townsend says. “We knew that with certain suppliers, making a change is very complicated. You don’t always have someone you can reach out to like we did with our mobe3 consultants who pick up the phone at all hours and get right on it.”
It’s the kind of partnership that EVS looks for in clients, too.
“We do our best work when we have relationships like the kind we have with the Peco team,” says Kris Windlinx, vice president of product at EVS.
[EVS] have also been developing Microsoft Power BI dashboards showcasing key metrics including recently released labor efficiency.
Integrate with other systems? “No problem”
Townsend was particularly concerned about the challenges involved with integration a new WMS with the current on-premise manufacturing system and their home-grown ERP system. EVS’ response was “No problem”.
“That’s one of the things we do best,” says Windlinx. “Peco’s legacy system, which is really good with automation, uses a proprietary flat file format that presented a few challenges, but our team worked through it.”
“We will put the mobe3 app on their phones so that instead of leafing through pages and pages of reports, they’ll be able to access inventory information, initiate product recalls, and make data-based decisions by tapping a few icons.”
Townsend and colleagues also appreciate mobe3’s easy-to-use iOS interface. Team members familiar with the iPhones® and iPads® they’d be using were enthusiastic about working with that technology at the facility. The flip-phone users? Not so much. But that changed quickly. “It’s been fun watching them realize that new-to-them technology doesn’t have to be difficult,” Townsend says with a smile, adding that many have now switched to iPhones for personal use as well.
One year in, a success
The Peco/EVS team has spent its first year in the West Point facility fine-tuning operational efficiency applications such as the guard shack module, truck loading and unloading, and labor use. They’ve also been developing Microsoft Power BI dashboards showcasing key metrics that include recently released labor efficiency. In the near future, when sales, quality assurance, and corporate team users begin using the system, the company’s current paper-based information system will become obsolete.
“We planned to open the plant and ship a truck on June 10th, and we opened the plant and shipped the truck on June 10th. I don’t know how many times you hit your target date. It couldn’t have been more successful than it was.”
“We will put the mobe3 app on their phones so that instead of leafing through pages and pages of reports, they’ll be able to access inventory information, initiate product recalls, and make data-based decisions by tapping a few icons,” Townsend says.
He’s as enthusiastic about the process he’s been through as he is about what’s to come for Peco and mobe3.
“We were able to integrate mobe3 with our current system with no impact to our day-to-day business. We planned to open the plant and ship a truck on June 10th, and we opened the plant and shipped the truck on June 10th. I don’t know how many times you hit your target date. It couldn’t have been more successful than it was.”
