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Aldrich Chemical Company
is a life science and high technology company that specializes
in the production and distribution of organics and inorganics
for chemical synthesis. It is a part of the Sigma-Aldrich
Corporation, a $1 billion plus international company that
offers the research community 85,000 products. Sigma-Aldrich
develops, manufactures and distributes the broadest range
of high quality biochemicals, organic chemicals, chromatography
products and diagnostic reagents available in the world.
The Company’s products are used in life science and
high-tech research and development in government, universities
and industry, in the diagnosis of disease, and as specialty
chemicals for pharmaceutical and other manufacturing purposes
in more than 160 countries.
Sigma-Aldrich Corporation recently received the distinctive
award of “E-Commerce Innovator of the Year”
by Network World, the leader in network knowledge. This
award recognized the company’s endeavors in integrating
its back end order processing system with its cutting
edge Web e-commerce system, dubbed “PipeLine®”.
The American Chemical Society publication, “Chemical
and Engineering News”, released findings from their
market position study which named the Sigma Aldrich PipeLine®
e-commerce system as the preferred solution for buying
chemicals over the Internet. Similar recognition was also
received from “Today’s Chemist at Work”,
and “Vertical Zoom”. The Company’s site
can be found at www.sigma-aldrich.com.
Aldrich Chemical Company’s
Challenge
On a daily basis Aldrich helps thousands of customers
accomplish their goals. Their service-oriented attitude
not only brings people back, but also has made the Company
a pacesetter in customer support. With over 70,000 different
stock keeping units and 100,000 customers in more than
160 countries, Aldrich aims to be the preferred supplier
in the markets it serves by offering accurately filled
orders, a quick turn around time on those orders placed
and innovative, quality products at competitive prices.
Aldrich needed to continue to improve its ability to provide
its customers with exactly what they need, when they need
it and Catalyst Warehouse Management Systems (WMS) helped
accomplish that.
Aldrich Chemical Company’s
Goals
Aldrich is a market-driven organization with a keen awareness
that the ever-rising expectations of customers must not
only be met, but exceeded. By building relationships with
customer groups they are able to understand customers’
current needs. This helps the customers to be successful
in their varied endeavors and develop products they will
need in the future.
So to meet customer’s high expectations, Aldrich’s
goal was to provide same day domestic shipment and maintain
inventory accuracy and lot control to assure quality customer
service. Over 6,000 order lines are processed each day.
Nearly a third of the order lines are sent to international
destinations and Aldrich wanted a quicker turn around
time on these orders. The WMS chosen had to improve inventory
control, provide a quick turn around time on orders received,
and be able to handle segregation of materials by specific
hazard class.
Catalyst’s Solution
Aldrich Chemical Company was running on a mainframe order
entry system of their own design. They had an archaic
legacy WMS that printed everything on paper and did not
require location verification during picking. Aldrich
began to upgrade and automate their supply chain management
with the SAP R/3 solution.
Simultaneous to the upgrade of the WMS, Aldrich moved
to a new larger facility. Catalyst and Aldrich worked
together to streamline the order picking system while
segregating the storage of different types of hazardous
materials. Orders are now picked into as few totes as
possible and transported by conveyor to packing and shipping
areas for a more efficient shipping system while satisfying
unique business rules.
Note
SAP and Catalyst have
entered into a strategic alliance that offers customers
an expanded solution for supply chain execution through
the integration of WMS and SAP R/3. This interface provides
SAP customers who require a high-end WMS with a proven
solution that will reduce the time, risk and cost involved
with integrating SAP R/3 and Catalyst WMS.
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| Technical
Facts at a Glance |
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Items
70,000 SKU’s with 1.5 million units in inventory
and 56,000 stock locations. |
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Facility
Size
320,000 square feet located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. |
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Shipments
The total number of inbound orders average about 800 per
day and the total number of outbound order lines average
about 6,000 per day. |
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WMS
Version
Installed WMS Release 7.0 on a RS/6000 and an
Oracle RDBMS. |
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Configuration
Teklogix RF Terminals; Clippership 3rd Party Software;
Rapistan’s “Rapid Route” Conveyor SAP 4.6C |
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Adobe
Acrobat Reader |
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Installer |
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To properly view the downloadable files
on this page, it is necessary to have a version of Adobe
Acrobat installed onto your computer. If you do not already
have this application, a free version is available for
download above. |
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“We changed our order entry
system, warehouse location and WMS. This allowed us to utilize
multiple call centers, enhance same day shipping performance
and reduce errors. Our efforts will now focus on providing customer
specific requests and maximizing the efficiency of the overall
process.”
Joe Porwoll
Vice President, Aldrich Chemical Company
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