• Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Supplier Directory
  • SCB YouTube
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • Logout
  • My Profile
  • LOGISTICS
    • Air Cargo
    • All Logistics
    • Express/Small Shipments
    • Facility Location Planning
    • Freight Forwarding/Customs Brokerage
    • Global Gateways
    • Global Logistics
    • Last Mile Delivery
    • Logistics Outsourcing
    • LTL/Truckload Services
    • Ocean Transportation
    • Rail & Intermodal
    • Reverse Logistics
    • Service Parts Management
    • Transportation & Distribution
  • TECHNOLOGY
    • All Technology
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Cloud & On-Demand Systems
    • Data Management (Big Data/IoT/Blockchain)
    • ERP & Enterprise Systems
    • Forecasting & Demand Planning
    • Global Trade Management
    • Inventory Planning/ Optimization
    • Product Lifecycle Management
    • Sales & Operations Planning
    • SC Finance & Revenue Management
    • SC Planning & Optimization
    • Sourcing/Procurement/SRM
    • Supply Chain Visibility
    • Transportation Management
  • GENERAL SCM
    • Business Strategy Alignment
    • Education & Professional Development
    • Global Supply Chain Management
    • Global Trade & Economics
    • HR & Labor Management
    • Quality & Metrics
    • Regulation & Compliance
    • SC Security & Risk Mgmt
    • Supply Chains in Crisis
    • Sustainability & Corporate Social Responsibility
  • WAREHOUSING
    • All Warehouse Services
    • Conveyors & Sortation
    • Lift Trucks & AGVs
    • Order Fulfillment
    • Packaging
    • RFID, Barcode, Mobility & Voice
    • Robotics
    • Warehouse Management Systems
  • INDUSTRIES
    • Aerospace & Defense
    • Apparel
    • Automotive
    • Chemicals & Energy
    • Consumer Packaged Goods
    • E-Commerce/Omni-Channel
    • Food & Beverage
    • Healthcare
    • High-Tech/Electronics
    • Industrial Manufacturing
    • Pharmaceutical/Biotech
    • Retail
  • THINK TANK
  • WEBINARS
    • On-Demand Webinars
    • Upcoming Webinars
    • Webinar Library
  • PODCASTS
  • VIDEOS
  • WHITEPAPERS
Home » Order Up: Cookware Company Looks to Cloud to Streamline Fulfillment
Case Study

Order Up: Cookware Company Looks to Cloud to Streamline Fulfillment

Order Up: Cookware Company Looks to Cloud to Streamline Fulfillment
November 12, 2019
SupplyChainBrain

Finding its venerable cast-iron skillets to be newly trendy, Lodge Manufacturing lacked the production capacity to meet surging demand. Along with construction of an additional foundry and new distribution center, it turned to Supply Chain Coach for a ground-up approach to order handling.

As Amazon.com Inc. and other online retailers increasingly prioritize their marketplaces and encourage vendors to sell directly to consumers, many manufacturers and distributors have been forced to quickly shift their order fulfillment strategies.

According to Bloomberg, more than half of all products sold on Amazon in 2018 came from marketplace merchants, and the e-commerce giant isn’t alone. Walmart Inc., Target Corp. and Best Buy Co. are all copying the marketplace model to increase online sales.

Pushed by this trend, as well as a growing popularity among millennial shoppers, one of America's oldest cookware companies began to reenvision its fulfillment operations.

Cookware Meets Cloud

Tennessee-based Lodge Manufacturing was riding a new wave of enthusiasm for its cast-iron skillets. By 2018, the company was turning down orders due to insufficient production capacity. After building a second foundry and new distribution center for the increased volume, the 123-year-old manufacturer realized its enterprise resource planning (ERP) software and paper-based picking operations could no longer keep up. 

“We needed to embrace a modern WMS,” says Sam Touchstone, Lodge’s senior vice president of finance and administration. For the new DC, which would combine operations of three older sites into one, a total redesign of Lodge’s fulfillment process was needed, too. 

Lodge wanted not only to accelerate fulfillment to match marketplace competitors, but also to gain the ability to allocate cost at the item level. By adopting a data-driven approach, Lodge could position itself to achieve the lowest possible cost to serve, Touchstone says. 

With help from Tom French, founder of Supply Chain Coach, three steps emerged:

  1. Transition away from people-oriented processes and ad-hoc decision making, while maintaining company culture.
  2. Improve DC flow and cut fulfillment time without increasing headcount.
  3. Expand the aisle” by designing internal drop-ship fulfillment capability for additional retailers. 

French analyzed a year’s worth of Lodge’s picking and freight data to reimagine from the ground up. The company’s product line encompasses 600 SKUs, and its workers move more than a million pounds of iron each week. 

“It’s not easy to discern signal from noise in that volume of order data,” he says.

Among other insights, the data suggested a need for multiple pick zones, such as single case to pallet, multiple case to pallet, consolidating mixed pallets, and more. By aggregating similar orders, and excluding atypical ones, French created a composite picture of streamlined picking zones.

A new workflow reimagined fulfillment tasks “in parallel” rather than “sequentially,” whereby DC employees receive instructions on an iPhone or iPad attached to their picking carts, requiring minimal training.

Lodge ultimately implemented mobe3, a cloud-based warehouse management system by software company EVS, which could integrate with the manufacturer’s ERP and transportation management system (TMS) to streamline fulfillment.

Prior to implementation, Lodge was using an earlier version of mobe3 in the foundry.

Separate Systems, Integrated Handoffs

After a three-month design phase and just three days of implementation, Lodge’s picking speed increased from 37 picks per hour to 90, and later 100, picks per hour. Soon after, fulfillment time dropped from 10 days to three.

Guided by WMS software, warehouse staff weas able to optimize pallets each day, which helped cut shipping costs by 25%.

A key to success, Touchstone says, was opting to disconnect Lodge’s WMS, TMS and ERP systems. When software systems are all connected, the processing speed of each can become painfully slow. But by "disconnecting and integrating," each can operate separately and efficiently while passing only essential information to the others.

With a more resilient system and reliable data now in hand, Lodge was able to accommodate surges in orders, report accurate fulfillment costs, and free up staff for more valuable work. Real cost data associated with manufacturing and processing allowed Lodge to determine profit by customer and individual item, which helped management to prioritize production and make other decisions to emphasize its most profitable SKUs.

Says French: “Manufacturers and distributors must address the inefficiencies in their fulfillment operations — or succumb to competitors.”

    RELATED CONTENT

    RELATED VIDEOS

    SupplyChainBrain

    Australian Unions Call Off Strikes Against Chevron

    More from this author

    Subscribe to our Daily Newsletter!

    Timely, incisive articles delivered directly to your inbox.

    Popular Stories

    • A TOY TRUCK CARRIES A GIANT BOX WITH A RED RIBBON IN A BOW

      Three Trends to Watch During Peak Season 2023

      Apparel
    • On Demand Webinar_SAP.png

      Optimize your Logistics Pinch Points to Build a Risk Resilient & Sustainable Supply Chain

      Webinars
    • A GIANT CONTAINER VESSEL SPORTING THE LETTERING OF YANG MING PLIES THE SEAS

      Yang Ming Accused of Profiteering During Pandemic by Bed Bath & Beyond

      Ocean Transportation
    • WORKERS STAND AT PICKING STATIONS IN A BUSY WAREHOUSE FULL OF PLASTIC BINS AND PACKAGES

      Amazon to Hire 250,000 Logistics Workers for Holidays, Boost Hourly Wages

      Global Trade & Economics
    • A TRUCK DRIVER IN THE CAB OF A TRUCK HOLDS HIS FACE IN HIS HANDSg

      Strangling the Flow: The Impacts of Overbearing Regulations on California’s Logistics Sector

      Last Mile Delivery

    Digital Edition

    Scb august 2023 lg

    2023 100 Great Supply Chain Partners

    VIEW THE LATEST ISSUE

    Case Studies

    • JLL Finds Perfect Warehouse Location, Leading to $15M Grant for Startup

    • Robots Speed Fulfillment to Help Apparel Company Scale for Growth

    • New Revenue for Cloud-Based TMS that Embeds Orderful’s Modern EDI Platform

    • Convenience Store Client Maximizes Profit and Improves Customer Service

    • A Digitally Native Footwear Brand Finds Rapid Fulfillment

    Visit Our Sponsors

    Antuit Zebra Anvyl AutoStore
    BEUMER Group Blue Ridge Global Brother
    CHEP Cleo Coenterprise
    Data Capture E2open Enveyo
    Eva Air ForwardX Robotics Frayt
    GAINSystems Generix Geodis
    GEP Global Supply Chain Marketing Summit GreyOrange
    Here Holman Logistics Infor
    Inmar Kinaxis Lexis Nexis
    Locus Robotics Logility LogistiVIEW
    Lucas Systems MCA Connect MPO
    Old Dominion OneRail Overhaul
    PartnerLinQ (Visionet) Port of Virginia Ryder E-commerce by Whiplash
    Saddle Creek Logistics SAP Shyft
    Sourcemap SPS Commerce Tecsys
    TGW Systems Thomson Reuters Veho
    Verusen Walmart Workshop
    • More From SCB
      • Featured Content
      • Video Library
      • Think Tank Blog
      • SupplyChainBrain Podcast
      • Whitepapers
      • On-Demand Webinars
      • Upcoming Webinars
    • Digital Offerings
      • Digital Issue
      • Subscribe
      • Manage Your Subscription
      • Newsletters
    • Resources
      • Events Calendar
      • SCB's Great Supply Chain Partners
      • Supplier Directory
      • Case Study Showcase
      • Supply Chain Innovation Awards
      • 100 Great Partners Form
    • SCB Corporate
      • Advertise on SCB.COM
      • About Us
      • Privacy Policy
      • Contact Us
      • Data Sharing Opt-Out

    All content copyright ©2023 Keller International Publishing Corp All rights reserved. No reproduction, transmission or display is permitted without the written permissions of Keller International Publishing Corp

    Design, CMS, Hosting & Web Development :: ePublishing