ADS

Source: Manufacturing Digital

Date :5/8/2008 5:37:11 AM

Executive Vice President Bruce Mantz explains how ADS has used innovation and broad service-offerings to become a leader in the distribution sector

Written by Emmet Cole and Produced Pat Harlow

When New Jersey-based Automated Distribution Systems started operations as a third party logistics provider in 1995 in a single, 400,000 square foot warehouse, the company immediately put its innovative roots on display.

“We were pioneering several different technologies,” says Executive Vice President Bruce Mantz, who was hired as the company’s first employee after working with ADS as a consultant. “At that point in time, we were investigating processes that no one else was really doing. For instance, we were one of the first 3PLs to employ pick and put technologies together.”

13 years later, the company has blossomed into multiple sites totaling more than one million square feet in two states with more than 300 employees. ADS has carved a niche for itself in point of sale individual SKU replenishment for footwear, giftware, apparel and other commodities, and works with manufacturers, retailers, wholesalers and distributors.

With an unwavering innovative spirit, a focus on continual modernization and devotion to its employees, ADS continues pioneering the road to the future as a leader among 3PL distribution companies.

“We constantly look at ways to improve all elements of our business and customer service, and invest in better ways to market ourselves in terms of value-added services,” Mantz says. “We treat our customers’ business as if it were our own.”

Capabilities

Companies like ADS are part of a growing trend in the distribution industry. In fact, an Accenture and Northeastern University study shows that 3PL use by the nation’s largest manufacturers has more than doubled in the past ten years, up to 74 percent. Nearly 84 percent of 3PL users reported positive cost containment results. The survey said that “logistics outsourcing continues to transform companies as they focus on core competencies to meet their corporate objectives.”

In response, ADS offers a wide array of services to meet these demands - services like radio frequency-based paper-less physical inventory, “Just in Time” service, public warehousing, ticketing, sorting and storage, and electronic data interchange. The company uses carton and pallet bar codes, boasts sophisticated conveyor and cross docking capabilities, provides expertise in both software systems and modern warehouse equipment, and ensures accuracy through its quality assurance and control.

“You must have the control systems that interface with the warehouse management system (WMS), and then drive the material handling equipment,” Mantz says. “The key to accuracy is first and foremost people, quality equipment and the software you deploy to support the effort.”

Modernization

For ADS to meet the continually evolving needs of the industry, however, it has to be able to implement new systems, equipment and software while simultaneously meeting the heavy demands of its customers.

“The tricky part is that we are a 3PL with many customers who depend on us each and every day to ship their goods” says Mantz, “So we can’t tell them ‘Sorry, we’re going to be closed for the next two months while we install a new control system or new conveyor’. It becomes very challenging to update our control, equipment and WMS and still not skip a beat with customers.”

ADS recently needed to replace its carousel software when the old system began to show some deficiencies. Unable to stop operations for a month, Mantz and his co-workers began coming in on weekends and in the middle of the night. With the help of Minerva Associates, a warehouse management software and controls expertise company, the companies would switch off the old software and test the new system for bugs. Then, on week nights, the crews would come back again to iron out the bugs from the system.

Finally, the company reached a “point of no return,” where it chose to move forward with the new system for full-time, regular operations. Kinks and confusion are the norm for the first few days after such a system switch, Mantz says, but within a week the company was flying again at full speed. And after two to three weeks, with all the major bugs fixed in the testing phase, the crews began to really notice the difference.

“It’s stressful, but it’s also fun when you finally do get the new software up and running and doing the things you want,” Mantz says. “The employees tend to be a little hesitant and cautious, but it’s very rewarding two or three weeks down road when they walk up and say ‘This is really great,’ or when it makes life at work a little easier and faster.”

As result, ADS has receive countless awards, including “Warehouse of the Month” by Modern Materials Handling magazine in 1999, and Warehouse Management’s “Warehouse of the Year” Award in 2002.

Employees

ADS invests heavily in its most critical resource – employees. First and foremost, ADS instills in its employees a strong attitude about safety - and zero-tolerance for non-compliance. But the company also believes strongly in cross-training its warehouse employees in its variety of complex systems. Its clients come from highly cyclical industries, so ADS needs to be able to accommodate peak and valley-induced bottlenecks in different parts of its warehouses.

“You can’t have people who just know how to do one particular task,” Mantz says. “We try to keep them floating around the building, learning different equipment and different systems, because it takes a lot of time to learn the different complex systems we use. We put people who are very experienced in a particular area side by side with new associates, to have the trainer training the trainee.”

Mantz believes this will become especially important, considering the current turbulent economy. But if tough, cyclical times call for flexible, innovative strategies, ADS stands to continue its stable course as a pioneering leader in the 3PL industry.

“Everyone is concerned about the economy,” Mantz says. “Retailers drive distributors and they drive manufacturers, so no matter which way you slice it, when the economy does slow down, it trickles through to just about every aspect of service organizations within the infrastructure. So we’re going to regroup, plan, invest and strategize on how we can better service our customers, attract new ones and make ourselves more cost effective and customer-service oriented. In short, how to continue to grow our company.”

Click here to view the corporate brochure on ADS