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Heartland Farms / Santee Dairies
AS/RS, WMS & Conveyors Case Study
Improvement of inventory accuracies and faster response times by upgrading to Westfalia’s new state-of-the-art Warehouse Management System
Santee Dairies, Inc., City of Industry, CA, surpasses their growing pains with an innovative
Warehouse Management System (WMS), provided by Westfalia Technologies, Inc. The new
state-of-the-art WMS will grow as Santee’s business continues to expand.
General Background
Santee Dairies provides a full range of fluid milk products including more than 300 purchased
items such as cultured products. Santee Dairies processes 320,000 gallons of fluid milk and juice
products per day and prides itself on filling any size order, right down to the individual unit for
smaller retail stores.
The fluid milk business is an industry where few items are produced in great quantities, and more and more items are added routinely to stay ahead of consumer trends. Hence corporate strategists are always looking for ways to differentiate themselves from the competition. The difference is often shown in service levels, which means the product must be shipped to the customer – when they need it and in the quantity they require.
In 1996 Santee found that its old factory was no longer up to meeting the growing requirements
of its customers and its own service expectations. Santee decided to build a new Distribution
Center, which was space efficient and highly automated. The partner that was chosen to build the
automated storage facility was Westfalia Technologies. Westfalia’s automated Satellite® system
for high density storage, including conveyors for linking production to the new warehouse, was
key for meeting Santee’s technical objectives. The new facility doubled Santee’s storage capacity
while saving valuable floor space. The new automated system was also able to increase the
accuracy of processing the orders of Santee’s daily production of 320,000 gallons of milk.
The requirement for a higher level of service
However, Santee found that they were too dependent on one individual for their software
services. This proved to be too risky for their long-term goals and their software was not meeting
their response time requirements. In addition, the software architecture was outdated and did not
take advantage of more modern programming techniques, such as Component Object Modeling
(COM). A more powerful database and a new order management program was required to
increase the processing speed particularly as it interfaced with communications technologies such
as Radio Frequency Terminals and Pick-to-light units. The wait time, although measured in
seconds, was too long for order selection personnel. Outside purchased products were still being
picked by paper, leading to inaccuracies and lower productivity.
The objective defined by the client was to update all programming tools. The Database needed to
be updated from the old Sybase to SQL Server. Another goal was to increase the accuracy of
processing orders and to reduce the error rate in the distribution cycle. Through the modern
programming techniques of Component Object Modeling (COM), rapid customization and
streamlined database communication became possible. With the new interface of COM and
upgrading the communications methods with PLC controls (RS485 to Ethernet), a paperless
system was implemented. The paperless system provided improved inventory accuracies and
measure shrinkage. Overall the NEW system provided better support and faster response time, as
well as better and easier report writing capabilities.
System Features:
- Satellite system for palletless dairy
- 2,200 unit load positions (630,000 gallons)
- 2 Storage and Retrieval Machines
- Warehouse Management Software
- Input conveying system
- Complete tracking of product throughout distribution operation
Storage and distribution tailored to the requirements of the client
The partner that was chosen to develop the NEW Warehouse Management System was Westfalia
Technologies. Westfalia elected to replace the existing WMS with a completely new one. The
newly developed WMS eliminated all preceding code and started from a fresh code base
employing C++ using COM as the main development environment. This investment has paid off
in quicker development time and use of the most updated development tools, thus reducing cost
and complexity. Central to the new WMS is a completely overhauled User Interface (UI).
The primary design focus was user friendliness, as most WMS operators are not consistent users. This approach is unique, in that structured menus have been eliminated and objects, rather than actions, define the user screens. This approach allows the user to select an object such as “SKUs” and do anything they wish with this object, (i.e. retrieve, edit, change pick location, etc). The system’s Excel style data presentation makes it simple for the user to see and manipulate their data and manipulate it. A powerful filter mechanism allows any data within any window to be sorted by any formula style query (i.e.; <, >, <>, >=, <=, =, contains, etc). It is now possible for the average warehouse clerk to generate complex database queries. All software functionality has the same data presentation and formatting, so once you learn one, the others require no additional learning.
An Allen Bradley Controllogix PLC was used as a communications gateway between all PLC’s required to communicate with the WMS. This PLC is uniquely designed for communications flexibility and allows the WMS to communicate using Ethernet with all other PLCs. In addition, the product tracking was moved from the WMS level to the Controllogix PLC level, eliminating one layer of communications, which simplified this very important function. All Pick-to-Lights were replaced with new units, SmartPicks, capable of storing several orders in advance. This allowed the communications to remain serial, but provided an instantaneous response/illumination time. Radio frequency units were added to pick purchase products and also receive them. A new host interface was written, allowing the WMS to access receiving information from the host computer. In addition, order confirmation data and other useful data are sent real-time to Santee’s Ross system.
Santee also requested that Westfalia follow close guidelines for what is termed “High
Availability”. This term defines a software and hardware architecture ensuring complete
redundancy, for both hardware and software applications. Using our newly developed PLC
communications software, all applications, including those designed to communicate with
hardware such as Storage/Retrieval Machines, and RF communications can be run on any
machine on the network. RAID 5 hard-drive redundancy is standard, and a second server
provides additional fail-over redundancy requested by Santee. There are different levels of “High
Availability”, the highest being a completely self-diagnosed failure and automatic recovery.
These are recommended for applications requiring less than five-minute fail-over routines.
Westfalia is persistent with its concept of providing customized WMS solutions, requiring
specification development, design, coding and implementation. Our staff consists entirely of
programmers, who have the logistical experience necessary to follow a project from start to
finish. This approach is in response to continuous feedback from customers who have been
disappointed with off-the-shelf solutions, sold by sales-people and implemented by “trainers”.
“We see a lot of functions that are neither required or used by corporations and, more
importantly, required ones are nonexistent”, says Westfalia’s President Dan Labell.
Satisfaction with the results
There is a great deal of satisfaction at Santee Dairies, Inc. All-important objectives have been
achieved with the Westfalia Warehouse Management System. Order selection productivity is up,
due to the instantaneous response time of the SmartPick and RF units. Even small delays lasting
only seconds lead to frustration when people are working hard. More information is now more
accessible than ever before, allowing management to create reports and data that are very specific
to certain problems and events. The communications network is extremely reliable and ensures
that product tracking is as close to 100% as possible. Training new people has become a simpler
task, due to the User Interface. Most importantly is the ability for Santee to request changes that
can be implemented quickly, and often remotely. This software is designed to grow as Santee’s
business requirements grow.
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