Data Systems International

Trek Bicycle Corporation

World-class Manufacturer Uses dcLINK^® To Standardize Warehouse Processes Worldwide And Increase Productivity

When Trek Bicycle Corporation — a company known for its high-performance, cutting edge bike technology — needed to streamline warehouse tasks and eliminate distribution center errors, it turned to a company known for its own cutting edge technology: Data Systems International.

Trek is the largest bicycle manufacturer in the United States and the second largest in the world. The company, a leader in state-of-the-art carbon fiber bicycle frames, designs and manufactures high-performance bikes for mountain, road, triathlon, and urban use, as well as related aftermarket products.

Trek also knows a little something about picking winners. With victories in eight of the last nine Tour de France races, six straight 24-hour World Solo Mountain Bike Championships and countless other professional wins, Trek enjoys a rich tradition of victory in the world's premier cycling events.

Challenge

To accommodate the continued growth spurred by its quality products and worldclass honors, Trek needed to automate warehouse processes such as shipping and receiving, directed picks and put-aways, and replenishments. It also needed to use warehouse space more efficiently.

Trek also wanted to enable workers to be more productive and more accurate in their work, and to improve the accuracy of shipping and delivery data. The company also needed its solution to be easy to learn and use, so that temporary seasonal employees could be productive immediately upon reporting for duty.

Solution

DSI implemented the dcLINK^® data collection suite integrated with Oracle's JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Advanced Warehousing and operating on wearable, wireless data collection devices from Motorola. This integration enabled Trek to deploy standardized transactions for picks, ship/confirms, cycle counting, receiving, issues, moves, directed put-aways, and replenishments.

Results

"With dcLINK, we can do a lot of advanced things that most of the industry and our competitors don't do," said Joe Siefkes, Chief Financial Officer, Trek. These include:

Standardized warehouse processes worldwide, using the local language. Trek adapted dcLINK to the company's existing business processes, standardized those processes in all of its warehouses worldwide, and enabled localized language support on the data collection devices. Trek now uses dcLINK in the company's three U.S. facilities, as well as those in The Netherlands, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom. dcLINK helps Trek keep their processes consistent in varying cultures, regulations, and languages.

"In different markets that are not English speaking, such as Germany and Spain, dcLINK helps us maintain the same processes and scripts while speaking the local language," said Randy Salo, Supply Chain Analyst, Trek.

Increased worker productivity by more than 20%. Using dcLINK, Trek combines many small tasks into single tasks for their pickers. This allowed pickers to pick small orders very efficiently. Trek also wanted to optimize travel for picking, put-away, and replenishment by sequencing items on the handheld. They direct put-away so product is always in the closest picking bay and replenishment is simplified.

"Our users no longer traffic back-and-forth to batch terminals — they have real feedback, right away. Putting real-time information in the hands of our warehouse personnel improved our productivity by more than 20%," said Mike Bentheimer, Supply Chain Analyst, Trek.

Made more efficient use of warehouse space. Due to Trek's volume of business and the physical bulk of their products, the company's warehouses were often very full. dcLINK helped Trek optimize the use of its warehouse space, quickly locating available bays for put-way and efficiently directing pickers to the products as needed.

Achieved rapid user acceptance and effectiveness. dcLINK is easy to learn and use, which enables Trek's new and seasonal employees to be productive immediately upon reporting for duty.

Gained ability to track user productivity. An unexpected benefit Trek gained from the use of dcLINK is the ability to track user productivity. "dcLINK gives us immense capabilities. We can track how many bikes and parts a user picks an hour as well as how many replenishments and moves are done — it's just been outstanding," said Tom Spoke, JD Edwards Analyst, Trek.

Eliminated paper processes and increased data accuracy. dcLINK eliminated the batch processing and paper-based processes that Trek had been using in its warehouses. In doing so, the company increased the accuracy of shipment and delivery data so that orders are filled quickly and accurately.

Track work-in-process on the shop floor. Trek also uses dcLINK to track work-in-process for Project One, the company's custom-built bike program. "We can see what the status of each bike is and where it has moved to," said David Schleicher, Trek's Project One Group Leader. This visibility is helping Trek manage lead time and more accurately predict when they can deliver a custom bike order.

Positioned for change and continued growth. As Trek proceeds with plans to upgrade from JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Xe to 8.11, dcLINK will help them make that transition transparent to users in the warehouse. The data collection solution can also be rolled out quickly and effectively anytime, anyplace the company may require.