In the transportation and distribution industry, knowing where your products are in the warehouse and out on the road is key to running a profitable business with excellent customer satisfaction. For Erdner Bros., Inc., an East Coast Regional carrier out of Swedesboro, New Jersey, it’s no different.
Utilizing a fleet of 50 tractors and over 200 trailers, Erdner hauls over 12,000 deliveries per year along the eastern U.S. seaboard in addition to managing 5 warehouses and drop yards. To keep the warehouses organized and to move product efficiently, an accurate data recording and tracking system is required. Until recently, Erdner was operating less efficiently than they preferred.
Customer Challenge
To perform various job functions including shipping, receiving and inventory management, Erdner utilized paper spreadsheets which were then manually entered into a PC at the end of the day. Complications from this process arose, including illegible handwriting, transposing errors, loss of data, and the overall time consumption.
To enable growth of the company and drive consistency across all warehouse locations, Erdner sought a mobile computing solution to help centralize the data that’s collected throughout the warehouse in real-time.
MobileDemand Solution
In their search for a rugged mobile computing platform, Erdner came across MobileDemand and the xTablet Flex rugged Windows tablets. They chose the Flex series devices for indoor warehouse use, expunging the outdated pen and paper data collection processes.
The xTablet Flex devices are enterprise-ready, cloud-based tablets that are lightweight and affordable. These are Windows Professional tablets made rugged by adding a protective case, screen protector and carrying straps for easy handling throughout the facilities.
Results
For Erdner, they favor the robust, full Windows operating system to complete operations which now include inventory control, cycle counting, shelf-life management, communications, shipping, receiving and more. Using standard Windows software along with self-developed apps, Erdner now has greater visibility into their warehouses.
Since deploying the xTablet Flex rugged tablets, Erdner has seen significant improvements to product traceability, data visibility, communications with the client and overall efficiency of the warehouse.
“The MobileDemand tablets have become paramount to end user enablement, increasing positive client perception, and proving to be a ‘worry free’ point of confidence as we design and see our strategic growth plans move forward.”