A $4 million upgrade of its IT system will enable Costa Logistics, one of Australia's leading providers of third party logistics services, to take advantage of a host of enhancements to the Manhattan WMS software package, and thus offer an improved service to its clients.
The upgrades include an advanced capability to anticipate stock fluctuations, plan labour proactively and exchange data electronically with client business systems.
"One of the greatest challenges for logistics providers today is being able to respond to increasing pressure from customers for flexible solutions to meet fluctuations in consumer demand,’’ says Costa Logistics Chief Executive Tim Bolam.
"Costa Logistics decided to upgrade its existing Manhattan solution to take advantage of some of the greatly improved functionality and labour-saving modifications of the latest version of the WMiS platform.’’
Mr Bolam says the first stage of the upgrade has been successfully implemented at the company's Derrimut headquarters in Melbourne which will be followed by its Jandakot facility in Perth then by the Eastern Creek Distribution Centre in Sydney.
"We needed to upgrade to an integrated platform with a full e-business capability to provide real time stock visibility for our customers,’’ Mr Bolam says.
"The Manhattan system met our functionality requirements and fits in with our existing architecture and can communicate easily with many of our customers' existing networks.
"The EDI communication will facilitate two-way integration with our customers to be able to receive advance visibility of inbound stock, plan the resources to handle it as well as pick the product and dispatch it all to a tight timetable.
"With this advanced capability we will be able to deliver even higher service levels and greater customer satisfaction."
To deliver the project on time and to budget, a dedicated Manhattan roll out team was formed. This is led by Costa's Solutions Delivery General Manager Anthony Jackson, supported by Michael Ristevski, Logistics System Manager for Costa Logistics.
Together with key personnel from each site, their main objective will be to deliver a seamless rollout to all sites and ensure a harmonised approach to WMS activities is continued across the Costa Logistics network.
"This investment represents our commitment to providing our customers with an exceptional level of service underpinned by a streamlined and efficient set of processes," Bolam says. "It's a significant development in our growth as a company."