Our client is a Fortune 500 integrated communications company that provides multichannel marketing, business communications, printing and distribution services to its customers through a network of facilities across the country. If that sounds kinda complicated, it’s because it kinda is, which is why they called King Solutions for help.

The challenge
Large-scale printing and distribution companies need lots of raw materials… and lots of space to house all those raw materials… and lots of systems to track everything they’re doing. The problem for our client was that they were using three separate warehouses to house their materials — each of which had their own inventory system and data entry process — that weren’t always in sync with one another. The redundancy of storing and tracking the same raw materials across three warehouses slowed down their day-to-day operations and prevented them from having a single, global view of their inventory. Not good for a company of their size and scale.

The King solution
So, we introduced this simple formula: 1 > 3. That math may not work in a high school algebra class, but it made perfect sense for our client. We needed to consolidate multiple warehouses under a single roof and integrate a new custom inventory management system, STAT. Oh, and did we mention that we needed to do all of this with no disruption to their current business?

First, we consolidated all of their materials from three separate facilities into a single, accessible location. Next, we dove into their raw inventory system to create a better solution — a custom solution, just for them. Then, from this new centralized location, the King team designed and implemented the following process for production, handling, and tracking of required materials:

Raw materials are routed to King for a future production run.
We identify the product according to our client’s inventory request, then prints and applies individual product/barcode labels.
The raw materials are scanned into inventory and become visible to our client.
When raw materials are requested, the inventory is again scanned so that the client knows which product is on its way and how much inventory is left on hand.This process operates like clockwork 24/7/365, allowing our client flexibility to change their production schedules while accurately managing raw material inventory levels.

See, just like 1 > 3, a custom logistics program > an off-the-shelf solution for this client.

The results
After materials consolidation and systems implementation, our client’s inventory management and warehousing operations are humming along like never before. We don’t typically like to brag about ourselves, but we did kinda hit the nail on the head with this one. A few of the, ahem, many benefits our client has realized from this effort include:

A faster and more reliable process for obtaining production materials.
Significantly less space for housing raw materials, thus consuming a much smaller footprint.
A reduction in physical inventory time due to inventory being stored in a single location and tracked with reliable software.
Greater flexibility in production and scheduling, giving them more flexibility when job changes occur.
Confidence knowing that King will deliver the correct raw materials when they are needed.

Ready to talk solutions for your business? So are we. Contact us today.