1. A smooth transition
Mark Pulliam, Vice President of Distribution
As many of you know, we have just finished the largest warehouse change in the history of our
company. On February 28, we switched over from the Eskay warehouse management system
(WMS) to HighJump. This new program touches nearly everything in our warehouse, and
changes how we go about everything we do. We spent eight months looking for a suitable
vendor to replace our outdated Eskay system. After looking at every software vendor available,
we chose HighJump’s system which is based in Minneapolis.
Many things were considered in our decision: space, inventory, equipment and people.
Optimizing distribution operations requires effective management. Thus, selecting the
right warehouse management system is imperative to keep inventory moving along and assure
that customer shipments stay on schedule. We thought HighJump provided the means to ensure
fast, accurate fulfillment through directed, optimized workflow.
The HighJump WMS manages some of the most highly-regulated and complex distribution
environments in the world. MBS is probably one of those. HighJump software gives companies a
foundation of best practices for inventory management, receiving, put-away/flow-through, order
processing, replenishment, pick/pack, loading and shipping. It also provides the ability to build
company-specific business processes.
In January 2014, we signed a contract with HighJump, and the work began. Countless hours
were spent by MBS and HighJump to create this complex solution. Once completed, we tested
everything behind the scenes trying to break it and to run out any "bugs.”
The "go-live" date was Saturday, February 28. There were 70 employees who volunteered to
come in to help run all the processes. On that day, we found a few issues that were fixed before
the real day on Monday when all employees came back to work. Within the first day, we had
around 50 issues (bugs) on our punch list. Daily meetings have now reduced those down to just a
few low-priority items. There are some things on our wish list that we'll be working on in the
coming months. The most amazing thing here is that there was not any down time during the
implementation.
This transition has been a howling success thanks to many dedicated MBS employees. Josh
Hendrix, director of warehouse operations and Roland Bullock, manager wholesale logistics, led
the way here at MBS. Dave Easton, vice president of MIS, and Rick McDannold, director
systems engineering, along with their staff, have done an outstanding job. The supervisors and
warehouse employees have embraced this new system, and have been eager to learn how to
change the way they do their jobs. Everyone who worked so hard on this makes me proud of the
commitment and dedication of these outstanding partners.
