Software system gives new facility a competitive edge

Liberty Cold, located in Bolingbrook, Ill., is a new division of West Liberty Foods. After considering a project to convert a dry warehouse space into a freezer, the company instead opened a new 175,000-square-foot refrigerated warehouse and distribution center in February 2016. By configuring its warehouse management system (WMS) for the new facility, the company has been able to deliver flexibility for clients and proactively address the variability in their demand.

The software project was under a very tight schedule, beginning in late 2015 and going live in late January 2016. Following Liberty Cold’s acquisition of another company, it was able to leverage an existing software license for the new facility, which consists of 20,000 pallet positions in a multi-temperature space. After partnering with a consulting company (Open Sky Group), the company integrated the WMS (JDA,).

Tim Cox, vice president of Liberty Cold, says he had some experience with enterprise resource planning (ERP) software and system integration, and was looking for a solution that allowed Liberty Cold to integrate with other software packages and execute seamlessly.

“Our goal is to leverage technology in our systems and buildings to bring value to clients and help identify opportunities in their supply chains,” he says. “This has been my passion since I began in the industry more than 15 years ago.”

The new facility and software system are able to onboard new 3PL customers quickly. Liberty Cold’s integration partners were even able to perform a special one-off integration that enabled the company to take on a big customer that does LTL consolidation. After developing an integrated way to receive product into the system, print, tag and putaway product, the facility now handles 2,400 pallets of volume weekly for that customer.

“Without that help and this system, it would have been a lot of extra steps for us. It would have been night and day,” Cox says. “I don’t know if would have been possible at all.”
The new system also offers business intelligence and analytics to Liberty Cold’s customers using a portal where they can get information about inventory. Cox is now using the system to look for trends and seasonality so they can move toward a predictive staffing model. “We’re considering adding some labor management system capabilities, since labor is our biggest controllable cost. It’s gone very well so far, and there’s still room to grow.”