Abingdon Flooring started trading on 31st October 2003 as a result of the management buyout of Carpets International. As part of the acquisition the company's IBM AS/400 based computer system including the warehouse management functionality and handheld scanners was adopted at the Crumlin site. The handheld computers and wireless infrastructure used 'Narrow Band' radio technology, and suffered from poor reliability and battery life.
Alliance Flooring Distribution in Kidderminster was subsequently acquired in April 2005 taking the combined stock capacity of both companies' to nearly a million square meters of carpet.
As the Alliance Flooring warehouse operation was purely paper based, it was considered that it would make sense to implement new barcode scanning and wireless mobile computers at this site first. An approach was made to Sandpiper Corporation to recommend a real time rugged mobile computing solution to meet the needs of both the Alliance and Abingdon warehouses.
Based on the operational and systems criteria defined; reliability, systems compatibility, ergonomics, 8 hour battery life, ruggedness and scanning performance, the Datalogic Viper was selected and commissioned in January 2006. Sandpiper's FocusID solution meant that no capital approval was required, and the costs over the three years would be known and fixed.
In July 2006, driven by the unreliability and escalating repair costs of the legacy system, Abingdon Flooring decided to engage Sandpiper to deploy the new system at the Crumlin site which coincided with the start of the project to physically extend the warehouse.
Sandpiper Corporation delivered both systems under its unique "FocusID" All Inclusive Managed Service. The handheld computers, wireless infrastructure, professional implementation services, support and maintenance are all included in a fixed monthly cost per device. FocusID enables the client to change the number of devices in use and therefore the cost to the operation on a month by month basis in line with business demands.
This was particularly beneficial to Abingdon Flooring as it was unsure how many devices were actually in use due to a proportion of the population being out of commission while being repaired, and also as Sandpiper could provide a fixed price before the warehouse extension was built.
FocusID also provides companies with an effective and viable option to outsource the ownership, deployment, management and support of AutoID systems to Sandpiper thereby freeing up valuable time for IT and operational resources to concentrate on core business objectives.
Financially, it will provide management with a mechanism for more accurate forward planning and expenditure forecast budgeting as a result of fixed, known costs for the duration of the contract. By factoring in any expected demand variance, accurate costs month by month can be planned and catered for, in advance.
About Sandpiper Corporation:
Sandpiper Corporation Limited provides complete Mobile Computing solutions encompassing AutoID, Wireless wide and local area technologies delivering tangible benefits to its Transport and Logistics clients. Applications include: Proof of Delivery/Collection, Warehouse Management, Field Sales and Service Management. "FocusID" all-inclusive rental service available.
Sandpiper Corporation Ltd
Tel: 0845 456 6671
Fax: 0845 456 6672
Email: suzannet@sandpiper.co.uk
Web: www.sandpiper-corp.co.uk