Brokers Logistics, Ltd. (Brokers) is a third-party logistics, or 3PL, company based in El Paso, Texas. Family run for over six decades, they boast multiple facilities along the U.S. and Mexico border. Accordingly, they are experts in international trade protocols, in addition to traditional logistical services such as warehousing, transportation and cross-dock and transloading services.

They hold a particular specialty in storing high value product, as well as kitting, light assembly, refurbishment and repackaging within their ambient and climate-controlled facilities.

The challenge:

• For one e-commerce client, Brokers processed over 750 orders daily. Under the customer requirements, this requires staff manually commit each line for each of the 750 orders.
• The company also printed out the picking sheets and packing lists for each order from three different system locations. This required that an employee navigate between these locations and print the documents, then they had to spend one to two hours daily manually going over all the orders between the two lists, one by one, to ensure that they matched.
• All told, each order required four touch points in the ordering system. This included the need to manually key into the computer information such as a change to the ship date or the freight coverage code, or adding special charges.
• These tasks added up to 3,000 touch points a day.
• If that wasn’t enough, there was the need for customer specific pack list and to adhere to labeling requirements—yet another by-hand burden.
• All this manual paperwork was onerous and inefficient and drove substantial overtime each week.

The SC Codeworks Solution:

Recognizing that direct observation was key to understanding the challenges, the Codeworks team conducted an on-site assessment. By embedding with Brokers associates for several days, they gained a comprehensive and detailed understanding of the existing workflows and their underlying purpose. This meticulous analysis, encompassing each process step and its rationale, enabled Codeworks to develop a precisely tailored and highly efficient solution. This collaborative, hands-on approach also built a strong foundation of trust, ensuring the seamless implementation and launch of the improved process.

Brokers is a current user of Codeworks’ Warehouse Management System, or WMS—the fully-integrated Codeworks Enterprise.

Codeworks enhanced operational efficiency by leveraging the existing WMS functionality and implementing custom programming to automate critical processes, including:

• Automated label and order-list printing workflows
• Automated commit scheme processes, including the automatic application of freight codes and specialty charges

This rapid implementation resulted in the new processes being fully operational within two days.

“The process changes streamlined our operations, made us far more efficient and provided a tidy return on investment,” said the WMS Administrator at Brokers.

The Benefit:

• Codeworks' on-site process review enabled Brokers Logistics to achieve a significant efficiency gain, realizing a weekly labor savings of 250 hours, effectively eliminating over 40 hours of overtime.
• With the implementation of the updated process, an associate reported a noticeable positive change in her daily work experience. The labeling tasks, which had previously caused discomfort and required frequent breaks, were no longer a source of concern.
• According to Brokers Logistics VP Meredith Wright, “The Codeworks team’s willingness to travel and immerse themselves into our on-site process to find a solution is the key to making this project a success."