consultation with those to whom they
would apply. DSC presented the program
as something to be “owned” by each site,
not imposed from without by executive
fiat. RedPrairie advised the company on
the do’s and don’ts of implementing labor
standards, Chamberlain says.
Other advantages of the system include
the ability to run “what-if” scenarios on the
impact of new business or material-han-dling strategies. A DSC site looking to re-slot a pick face, for example, can
determine the amount of labor it needs to
make the change, and the precise savings
that will result. The tool “saves someone
from over-engineering slot moves, or just
moving things without providing benefit,”
says Chamberlain.
DSC took its time installing the soft-
ware. It began with a single site, on the
theory that one success would engender
others. And it made no promises to Red-
Prairie about adopting the tool anywhere
else. Says Chamberlain: “It was a make-or-
break rollout.”
The pilot phase, from fully integrating
the system to ramping up standards, took
“We had great results at our best site. Every-
body looked at each other and said this is a
complete go.”
— Jim Chamberlain of DSC Logistics
about six months, but the company’s cau-
tious approach paid off. “We had great
results at our best site,” Chamberlain says.
“Everybody looked at each other and said
this is a complete go.”
The pilot was wrapped up in the first
quarter of 2006. Rollouts at subsequent
locations took between 10 and 12 weeks,
depending on whether the site in question
was serving one or multiple customers.
DSC aimed for about eight implementa-
tions a year, a schedule Chamberlain calls
“pretty aggressive.” Today, RedPrairie’s
Workforce Management is in place at
some 22 DSC logistics centers in the U.S.,
out of a total of 35.
RedPrairie Corp., www.RedPrairie.com
Resource Link
SPOTLIGHT ON ATCLE
‘By working with ATCLE, we have enjoyed
improved productivity in logistics, as well as in
our test and repair operations. We have achieved
a quality rating of 99.98 percent in forward
and 99.99 percent in reverse operations, while
increasing daily repair capacity by
five times within six months.’
