Spicing Up the Stock Room

That's the case for Border Foods, the world's largest producer of green chili peppers and the largest U.S. processor of jalapeno peppers. As a seasonal producer, Border must contract for enough chilies to meet year-ahead demand -- and allow for the vagaries of weather that impact the bountifulness of the crop.

"This year the green chili pack was 20 percent short," says David Ockleshaw, CEO, Border Foods. "So it's extremely important to put it into the right inventory." Green chili peppers are packaged in several ways: whole, sliced, diced or prepared for food service use. Border sells peppers and Mexican food products into many of the biggest names in the retail, food service and industrial markets, processing the seasonal harvest for year-round sales. Prior to 2005, that processing and subsequent warehousing occurred in largely manual environments, supported by spreadsheet-based planning. So when Ockleshaw and VP of operations, Steve Nielsen, joined Farmers Branch, Texas-based Border Foods in January 2005, both agreed that among system needs, improved visibility was at the top of the heap. "We needed much better visibility and accuracy, and improved inventory management and customer service," Ockleshaw says.

The question was, could they get a solution in place in time for the 2005 chili pack, which runs from July to November? The answer depended upon finding the right solution that could also be fast-tracked to be up in time for the pack. In addition to rapid rollout, requirements included the ability to integrate with Border Foods' J.D. Edwards (now Oracle) ERP system, installed 18 months prior. Border Foods would start with a warehouse management system for finished goods, then add additional modules to address raw materials and increase visibility into the data it produced.

"We were looking for an ROI of over 100 percent in the first year. We were hoping for a significant reduction in the amount of inventory we had to carry," says Ockleshaw.

By mid-March, Border had chosen RedPrairie's Discrete 2004.2.3 warehouse management solution and LENS visibility solution, and implementation was quickly underway to reach the July 1 deadline.

Send the A-Team

Border Food's next step was a critical one in successfully attaining its ambitious rollout schedule, says Ockleshaw. "We put the A-Team into it, which meant the B-Team was running the business -- and they came through, so now we have two A-teams."

Top executives from each part of the company were dedicated to the project, including the company's top inventory manager. That not only put the best minds on the project, but it assured complete buy-in from key company executives.

Together with the developer, the team had the back end ready in time for the pick. The next step was to tag more than 25,000 pallets in Border's 300,000-square-foot site in Deming, New Mexico, the first facility to go on the new system.

Over the July 4th weekend, Border's entire sales team volunteered for the job, working in 110-degree heat inside the warehouse and ultimately attaining more than 99 percent inventory accuracy. That effort not only got the job done, but ensured that salespeople gained detailed knowledge of how the system works, improving their productivity moving forward.

It took a few days for workers to adjust to the new processes, which included RF-enabled picking. During that time, "we really struggled to get loads complete," says Ockleshaw. "The system is very rigid -- that's desirable, but it makes it more difficult." Date codes, for example, were converted from days to months. "Otherwise it's too difficult to ship by rotation," he notes.

Within a week, the plant was back up to its 20 to 50 truckloads per day shipment schedule. At its second plant in Las Cruces, New Mexico, inventory is being tagged as it comes off the line, so the transition requires a less gargantuan retagging effort. That implementation is currently underway. The Payoff While it's still early, Border is already seeing payoff from its rapid-implementation gamble. "Our case fill has gone up markedly, into the high nineties," says Ockleshaw. "Now we can get our inventories into balance to meet customer needs." Lot traceability is now faster since inventory is completely automated.

Border packages much of its pick into unlabeled cans, or brights, in order to private label the product to meet future retailer orders. Using LENS, inventory and sales managers can now get an accurate picture of the availability of that inventory for a particular customer throughout the year.

Once the Las Cruces plant is deployed, Border is considering implementation in its forward warehouses, as well as in its materials -- items such as cans, packaging materials and boxes. Additional plans will include more extended visibility and broader integration with the ERP platform for work orders and bills of materials.

"In this kind of seasonal business, if you can manage your inventories you're well ahead of the curve," says Ockleshaw. "Inventory is such a critical part, because the relationship to produce is not linear. In our business you can't always make what you want. You make what nature gives you."