A South Manchester System i specialist is helping firms get more out of their System 21 software.

IT Impact believes System i is the best platform for business software, but needs more software and hardware suppliers to promote it, and continued investment from users.

Started in September 2004, IT Impact doesn’t sell System i hardware, finding “appropriate business partners to assist us,” says managing director, Gary Pattinson. “Our location system is packaged software that integrates seamlessly with System 21 inventory and order processing modules. Version 4 has been much improved to eliminate unnecessary and undesirable modifications to any of the System 21 programs, reducing the cost of ownership.  

“It provides a finished goods warehouse with a warehouse map, and control of stock via hand-held terminals, and traditional screens. Putaways, moves, replenishments, picking, and cycle counting are all performed in real-time with RF terminals.

“We also provide mailer software, which allows files to be emailed directly from your AS400/iSeries/System i -- in csv format. In most cases they’re opened by MS Excel. This has added value to a number of organisations -- as management and monitoring reports are emailed directly to key staff. Speed of response has also increased as existing and new Query, SQL, or program data extracts can be made available quickly via email.

“Version 3 of the location system has been live for many years in multiple implementations. The mailer is new, but proving popular, with three installations in the past couple of months.”

Customers of the location system include Holland and Barrett, US Nutrition (Met-Rx) and Kruger Tissue. The latter, based in Old Trafford, Manchester, is a manufacturer of paper tissue products, distributed to a large number of UK customers via third-party transport, parcel carriers, or “own” transport. The company has multiple production and distribution sites using System 21 as its ERP system, with its warehouse at Caernarfon, North Wales.

Previously, Kruger was managing two systems -- System 21 and a third-party standalone scanning system. Unfortunately, stock didn’t match fully, and the company required extra procedures and time to keep on top of this. There’s a five-day planning window, where issues with stock allocation, and transport planning have been resolved by developing an additional piece of software.

The order control panel is a planning workbench which manages orders from planned dates to loads, to allocation. Picking and allocation are performed by load, and finally shipments plus documentation are handled. IT Impact provided project management; consultancy and programming, and used N2 Ltd to provide expertise in wireless networks and RF data capture hardware. Kruger runs a 9406 – Model 820 (P10).

Kruger’s objectives were to improve stock accuracy; reduce dual input; use System 21 in a more integrated manner; improve service levels; improve current processes and procedures; replace unsupported RF hardware; use block stack and pallet locations; and operate with real-time stock instead of batch operations.

“Kruger utilises our location system and order control panel to enable location control and management. It’s designed to allow ‘put-away’ into any location that will fit the goods,” says Pattinson.

Each inbound pallet has a label which holds the item code; rotation date; and unique reference (all RF readable). All put-away, replenishment, and picking activities are performed on hand-held terminals, while control and management are performed using traditional screens. Picking is done via pick locations, unless full pallet quantities are ordered, in which case the system suggests to the picker to pick the oldest pallet from a bulk location.

Control is via a warehouse map (with configuration details), which holds item barcode (EAN and UPC), and item/stockroom specific data. The programs and data work seamlessly with System 21 inventory, and don’t increase ongoing bespoke maintenance.

There’s a specific business issue with manufacturing stock just-in-time, and so allocation and picking take place at the last possible moment. IT Impact resolved the issue by developing the order control panel.

“This is the smoothest system implementation I’ve ever done. No interruption to business, and after only a week all warehouse staff were proficient on the new system – three weeks ahead of my expectation,” says Tony Brock, logistics manager, Kruger Tissue.

The company reports that there has been an 80% reduction in warehouse-generated credit notes. Stock is now found in the correct locations, which reduces the time needed to pick. The project has generated future projects/improvements such as production labelling/entry and raw material labelling/control.

Frank Booty, industry reporter