The System of Choice for Canada’s Largest Confectioner

Excerpted from an article by Richard Rix in Materials Management & Distribution
magazine, November 2000

When Trebor Allan expanded its primary warehousing facility in Stoney Creek, Ontario, in the year 2000 to accommodate the Cadbury Chocolate Canada line of product, the RF Pathways WMS assured ongoing operational success. It maintained full control of a changing inventory profile and directed day-to-day operations throughout. As well, the system’s adaptability and user-friendliness in decision making has been a big help to personnel coming from two different corporate cultures.

Even before the expansion, RF Pathways had achieved some dramatic improvements for Trebor Allan in such areas as inventory accuracy.

“Two years back we implemented RF Pathways with the objective of 95 percent inventory accuracy, and now it’s better than 99 percent,” says Gerry Calce, national distribution manager for the merged operation. “Because of the system’s ability to locate stock, our order-picking accuracy and FI/FO (first-in/first-out) have improved immensely too.”

RF Pathways is a Windows NT-based system. It facilitates putaway, picking, product movement and replenishment, while allowing for inventory and cycle counting in real
time. It’s a standard, off-the-shelf product that was readily configured to the confectioner’s requirements. At Trebor Allan it works with 23 Symbol Spectrum-24 access points, and they run in conjunction with 30 Symbol PTD 6840 long-range scanners with a range of up to 33 feet (10 metres).