Hershey Creamery

The company distributes to more than 30,000 retail, educational and healthcare accounts, such as grocery and convenience stores, but focuses mainly on direct-store delivery. In 1997, in order to optimize material flow, reduce logistics costs and labor requirements, Hershey Creamery sought Westfalia Technologies, Inc. to design and build a warehousing system for their new ice cream distribution center located in Middletown, PA.

The Savanna.NET® WES combines a tightly integrated WMS and warehouse control system (WCS) into a single application to help Hershey direct, control and optimize internal material flow and order picking. The Savanna.NET® WES simplifies and controls the entire warehousing process, while reducing the complexity of using several different “function-specific” applications. As a result, Hershey can more efficiently utilize warehouse space and equipment, increase order accuracy, improve customer service, reduce the risk of lost or damaged product, and raise throughput and productivity.

In addition, Westfalia replaced Hershey Creamery’s old wireless communications system on the facility’s storage and retrieval machines (S/RMs) with optical data couplers.

RESULTS

The Savanna.NET® WES provides a more robust processing system for the facility’s operations and takes advantage of the many features of the new communications hardware. Moreover, the infrared communications architecture performs at least twice as fast and is more reliable than the previous, wireless solution. As a result, the company has increased efficiency throughout the operation.

“At Westfalia, we pride ourselves in delivering quality automated warehouse solutions that stand the test of time. The system at Hershey Creamery is a testament to this commitment. After 20 years in existence they are able to continue to increase efficiency throughout the facility without major changes to the existing automated equipment,” said Dave Williams, director of software and solutions delivery, Westfalia Technologies, Inc.