Menzies Distribution Improves Efficiency with Sandpiper and Datalogic

Menzies Distribution is a leading UK provider of added value distribution and marketing services to the newspaper and magazine supply chain. The division handles 4.5 million newspapers and 2.5 million magazines (covering over 3,000 magazine titles) each day, with deliveries to more than 21,500 retail stores, garages and newsagent customers across all corners of the UK including Northern Ireland. Menzies Distribution uses 1,400 vehicles covering 93,000 miles each day and employs over 4,000 employees.

Running a distribution network of this size efficiently demands a heavy reliance on technology.  Each publication has an EAN code and a two digit supplement code that holds important information on the publication issue and needs to be captured on arrival at the Menzies Branch.  This information then needs to be relayed in real time back to Continuum, Menzies own in-house system.

Menzies had been running a legacy narrowband wireless system that had served its purpose over 10 years but had gone end of life.  Older RF handheld terminals were used to scan goods into its 25 warehouses and distribution centres and these were becoming unreliable.  Failure rates and maintenance costs were increasing.  Wireless coverage was patchy in places and access points often had to be moved to gain coverage. 

Matthew Stoner,(Senior Computer Operations Supervisor at Menzies Distribution,) commented The old handheld terminals had very poor battery life and an increasingly high failure rate.  This was costing us a lot of money in maintenance and repair, and also put pressure on our IT Helpdesk.

When Menzies existing supplier said that it was struggling to support the old units Menzies knew that it needed to make changes.  A steering committee was set up to look at the best way of controlling stock.  The committee came up with two options; replace the old terminals with new RF devices to enable the users to take the terminals to the product, or replace them with fixed position scanners that the users would have to take the product to for scanning.

Menzies spoke to Sandpiper, a leading systems integrator of wireless, Auto ID and data capture technologies.   Sandpiper recommended the Datalogic Viper-Net, a rugged handheld terminal that was designed for this environment and would also integrate seamlessly onto the existing Cisco 802.11b wireless network that was already in place in all the depots.  Alternative handheld terminals and fixed scanners were also selected from a different supplier and all three products were piloted to see which was most suitable.

Menzies decided upon the Datalogic Viper-Net as it worked perfectly on the existing Cisco RF network and was rugged and clearly suited to the demands of a fast moving warehouse and distribution environment.  The unit was also preferred by the users because they felt it was more user friendly due to having a larger screen and a better key layout than the other RF option.  There was also a preference for a mobile rather than fixed unit.

Following the decision on hardware, both suppliers were asked to quote and Menzies selected Sandpiper to supply units to each of its 25 hubs. Matthew Stoner comments We chose Sandpiper based on their competitive pricing, and  the amount and quality of support they provided in the pilot stage.  They were extremely helpful and deserved to win the business.

Sandpiper helped Menzies throughout the roll out, providing support for coverage issues caused by large packing machines and attended site throughout the pilot and rollout. As part of the solution, Sandpiper is also providing Next Day Emergency Exchange support, giving Menzies a guaranteed next day replacement unit from a pool of pre-configured terminals should a terminal get damaged or fail for any reason.

Menzies has seen a dramatic reduction in costs since the roll out as Matthew  comments Since changing to the Datalogic Viper-Net we have managed to substantially reduce our maintenance costs, reduce demand on our IT Helpdesk and we have virtually eliminated misreads and errors.

The new handheld terminals from Datalogic are proving to be very reliable, and popular with our warehouse staff, which has also reduced the amount of downtime caused by the high failure rates of the old terminals. 

Matthew feels that the project has been a great success and this is largely down to Sandpiper.  Sandpiper has been extremely professional.  They have been responsive and understanding and made an excellent recommendation with the Datalogic Viper-Net which has a much longer battery life and is far more rugged than our previous terminals.