The Challenge:

A heavy-duty truck manufacturer came to a third-party logistics provider (3PL) with a unique challenge. Faced with upcoming changes to tail-pipe-emissions regulations, the auto company was under the gun to complete manufacturing of a fleet of semi-trucks before time ran out on the old federal standards.

With the clock ticking, company had 17,000 massive truck engines, each of them already assembled, mounted to a stand and bolted to a pallet, that needed to be swiftly warehoused. Soon after, the engines had to be shipped to their respective destinations, on time and in the correct sequence, for installation into semi-trucks.

The operational demands were unusually complex:

• Each engine was tied to a specific, fixed job number.
• Engines arrived in batches but were later requested for delivery in different batches and sequences.
• Outbound shipments had to be reverse-sequenced to feed them directly into the manufacturer’s production line in the desired order.
• Given the engines’ considerable size, storage would quickly overflow across multiple warehouse sections.

Above all, the 3PL needed work with speed and precision.

The Constraints:

Compounding the challenge was a remarkably condensed timeline. The project had to be designed, built, and executed in under five months. And at the outset, several external variables remained unresolved:

• The warehouse was newly occupied and still lacking in basic infrastructure, such as Wi-Fi.
• The available hardware was minimal.
• The operation needed to run with a very small staff.

The 3PL’s leadership had a simple request for Codeworks: To deliver a software solution that could operate with a single-button press.

The Solution:

SC Codeworks partnered closely with the 3PL to design a custom workflow using the SC Codeworks’ proprietary warehouse management system, or WMS: Codeworks Enterprise.

Rather than applying a standard process onto an atypical operation, the SC Codeworks team mapped the full lifecycle of each engine, including how it would be:

• Identified and labeled
• Received and recorded
• Stored across multiple warehouse sections

And how:

• Forecasts would be translated into outbound orders
• Engines would be picked, sequenced, and loaded for shipment.

Codeworks made the critical design decision to treat engines not as generic inventory items, but as job-based assets. Each engine was stored and tracked by job number, with serial numbers and descriptions managed through supporting records. This allowed the system to allocate inventory precisely according to production demand.

Using Enterprise, the Codeworks team built an automated forecasting and order-generation process. With a single menu selection, the system:

• Reviewed upcoming production forecasts
• Automatically built outbound orders
• Optimized each load to the maximum number of engines per trailer
• Generated pick sheets in the precise reverse sequence required for dock-to-line delivery.

The entire operation ran on a minimal setup —a mini laptop, mobile hotspot, and USB barcode scanner—yet still delivered robust functionality.

The Results:

Despite the compressed timeline and infrastructure challenges, the solution performed precisely as required.

• Engines were accurately received, tracked, and shipped
• Reverse sequencing eliminated extra handling at the manufacturing plant, saving time and money
• The process required only two warehouse personnel
• Orders were generated and released with a single button push
• The system scaled seamlessly as inventory overflowed into additional warehouse sections

The Impact:

By leveraging Enterprise’s flexibility and power, the 3PL was able to offer its customer a solution for an operational challenge brought on by a sudden regulatory change.

The project demonstrated how a thoughtfully programmed WMS can:

• Simplify highly complex logistics workflows
• Operate reliably even with limited infrastructure
• Reduce labor requirements while increasing accuracy
• Support time-critical manufacturing operations without disruption.

What began as a high-risk, high-pressure initiative was transformed into a controlled, repeatable process— driven by data, automation, and a single button press.