Modern Materials Handling - November 2012

MODERN system reportSupplysame-day shippingIn the age of the Internet, whereprice comparisons are a mouse clickaway, customer service offeringshave become a competitive weaponfor many direct-to-consumer businesses.Just look at how Amazonchanged the game by offering freeshipping.While it may not receive as muchattention, the ability to deliver oncustomer service is a competitiveweapon in the business-to-businessspace as well. In fact, same-dayshipping has been a cornerstone ofMSC Industrial Supply Company’sapproach to beating the competitionfor years.Based in Melville, N.Y., the distributorof industrial supplies todurable goods manufacturers builtits market-leading position witha simple promise, explains DougJones, executive vice president ofglobal supply chain operations:“We’ll ship your order the same dayyou place it or send you a cash-backguarantee.”Jones, who has to sign those cashbackchecks, says the service guaran-tee is a reflection of the company’scommitment to meeting the needsof its customers. A few years ago,however, the combination of rapidgrowth and changes in the way customersplace their orders threatenedMSC’s model.“Nothing was broken,” Jones says.“But as we looked ahead, we couldsee that we needed to revamp ourprocesses to ensure that MSC’s distributioncapabilities would remaina competitive weapon for years tocome.”Working with a systems integrator(Fortna, fortna.com), MSC transitionedfrom a paper-based, pickand-passorder fulfillment processto an RF-driven process that picksall of the lines for an order simul-taneously and then consolidatesthem before sending them throughan automated packing station.The new solution included:• A wave-planning software applicationdeveloped by MSC to prioritizeorders according to variablessuch as ship time;• High-speed belt conveyor andnarrow-belt sortation to routecartons through the facility;mmh.com MODERN MATERIALS HANDLING / N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 2 19