Pcdata supplies bulk despatch solution
A key aspect of business for famous bread brand Hovis is bulk deliveries, where the orders are sent directly to the customer’s DC.
Pcdata’s Distrib Dock Manager was introduced to streamline the bulk despatch operation.
A pilot was carried out at a DC in the London area. Following its success, the system was rolled out to every relevant Hovis site. Dock manager is a bulk assembly solution that automatically registers and controls truck loading for outbound inter-company shipments. Combined with the batch tracking system embedded in the Distrib system load manifests are generated automatically and accurately.
With Distrib Dock Manager, bulk shipments improved in terms of the number of products, time of delivery and communication. The systems are fully integrated with the customers’ ERP systems.
Every pallet in bulk deliveries is provided with a shipping label and a serial shipping container code (SSCC). With this shipping label Hovis is aware of the content of the pallet, the destination, the production date and customer specific details. Shipping labels are automatically validated and registered. For each stack label, content of the stack is registered so that Hovis has full visibility of available product at any time during the day.
Distrib Dock Manager also makes sure that the correct article is placed in the correct truck. The shipping notifications are sent to the customer, so they know in advance which shipments are in transit.
