Coach House - Customer Story

In 2004 Coach House relocated from their traditional mill facility in Colne, Lancashire to a larger, ultra modern warehouse in nearby Altham. Having contemplated the installation of a warehouse management system for some time, the relocation and a need to have more control over the management of the larger facility became the catalyst for the Dexterity WMS implementation.

Coach House have now been running the Dexterity WMS, which is integrated into Sage Line 100 for around 4 years. Dexterity allows them to satisfy the demands of over 3,000 customers worldwide with over 14,000 product lines. Coach House have seen significant improvements in pick accuracy, savings in labour costs and have full traceability of the whole ordering and dispatch process.

"The Dexterity WMS has enabled us to expand the business to a level that we could not have reached without its implementation." says Marilyn Burgoyne, IT Manager at Coach House. "The WMS means that our operation is really efficient and completely transparent. The equipment is easy to use so training new staff is incredibly quick."

In addition to the Dexterity WMS, Barcode-IT have created a custom written Showroom Sales System, which allows clients to wander through an Aladdin's cave of giftwares and furniture.  Each customer has a mobile terminal and can scan barcodes on showroom products for instant information on pricing, number in stock, future availability, etc. This data is customised for each client showing discounts, purchases made so far and a running total of items and value. The mobile terminals are in real time communication with Dexterity WMS using WiFi.

Dexterity WMS Application Overview

The Coach House warehouse management solution is a comprehensive end-to-end solution, managing all processes from customer ordering to despatch. The WMS implemented at Coach House needed to link into their existing Sage Line 100 accounts package and as a Sage integration partner, Barcode-IT were able to provide this comprehensive solution.

In the warehouse Dexterity WMS manages goods in, putaway, stock movement, stock taking, order picking (complete with pick to box function) and finally despatch procedures. The warehouse at Coach House has over 1000 locations, therefore it was imperative that stock could be found quickly and efficiently, so that deliveries are picked and dispatched as soon as possible.

These processes are carried out using around 70 Datalogic Falcon mobile terminals connected to the Coach House WiFi network. Data is sent directly to Dexterity, allowing information to be obtained in real-time and giving full traceability of the warehouse, so that any shipping queries, etc. can be solved effortlessly. 20 Zebra QL420 Mobile Printers are used in conjunction with the Falcons to allow box labels to be printed on the spot where necessary.

Additionally Dexterity WMS allows the transport manager to implement route planning and route picking, meaning that goods can be picked and the delivery vans loaded in a specific order dependent on the route to make life easier for the delivery driver. This feature is particularly important for Coach House, who have their own fleet of around 25 delivery vehicles for customer deliveries.

How It Started

Coach House were referred to Barcode-IT by their existing Sage Line 100 provider in early 2004. Following a visit to another Barcode-IT customer site to view a working WMS, Coach House chose Barcode-IT to implement their initial Warehouse Management System and between 2006 and 2008 a customer self selection Showroom System and a Exhibition System.