Looking to improve management efficiency, David Luscombe, owner of North Star Pallet, chose a wireless system because he did not want to wait until the end of the day or a shift to download information. “I’m a techno-junkie,” he said. As such, he aims to take advantage of every capability and benefit that high-tech solutions offer.
Each run at North Star is bar-coded. The coding “begins with issuing of a purchase order number to the supplier,” explained David. The employee accepting an incoming load has a Symbol ® terminal – a portable, hand-held computer or wireless terminal – with Innovative Data Systems software. After matching the purchase order number with the load of material and inputting the information, the employee uses the terminal to bar-code the load. The bundle of material is tagged once, not piece by piece.
When the lumber remanufacturing or pallet assembly operations are finished, a similar activity takes place with another wireless terminal running the Innovative Data Systems program. “Then, upon completion, the machinery operator can close the run while tracking how many hours of labor, how many pallets, sizes, and so on,” said David. “All in real time.”
“Every production run gets a code,” said David. If only part of the run is shipped to a customer, the remainder that goes into inventory gets an updated code.
North Star employees were apprehensive about converting to a computerized, automated system of managing and tracking inventory, according to David. However, after 10 days of using the Innovative Data Systems technology, they were “pretty well versed” in it, he said. Employees quickly became acclimated to the system and were won over by it.
If you make your employees accountable,” he noted, “you can offer incentives.” The automated repair line module that North Star has, he explained, is particularly useful because every pallet that is repaired can be tracked back to the repair worker, the date it was repaired, and even the time.
