BevOps Fleet Summit 2019

Where the Best share Best Practices

The BevOps Fleet Summit, hosted by Beverage Industry Magazine, is a learning and networking conference built to address challenges and trends in the beverage industry. Topics this year ranged from labor challenges to warehouse expasion, cybersecurity, e-commerce, autonomous vehicles, and more.

A Brief Recap

In light of recent events, Silver Eagle Distributors touched on the topic of Disaster Recovery. Disaster Recovery is a plan of action put in place in the event of a disaster. Disasters can range from natural occurrences such as flooding or fires to equipment failure or power outages. Any incidents that leaves a business non-operational is considered a disaster and having a disaster recovery plan ensures that proper steps are taken to get businesses and their people back up and running as close to normal as possible.

Cory Rellas, CEO of Drizly spoke about e-commerce trends and the opportunities and challenges in the alcohol beverage space. He explained the Drizly platform which allows end users to order alcoholic beverages from their local retailers and have them delivered to their door in 45 minutes. Rellas called on distributors to join Drizly by being a partner of the platform so customers can see distributor inventory, not just what is nearest to them in retail.

Encompass & American Premium Beverage: Leveraging a Smart Conveyor

Encompass representative, Michael Hall, had the opportunity to present alongside Bob Ogden, Director of Operations at American Premium Beverage (APB) on the topic of 'Leveraging a Smart Conveyor'. Together, Bob and Michael walked the audience through a detailed case study on the implentation of tech tools across APB and how they've reduced errors, streamlined processes and delivered a rapid return on investment.

Since implementing the Encompass Warehouse Control System in 2017, APB has noted key savings in multiple areas of their operation. They were able to retrofit their existing 20-year-old outdated conveyor with state-of-the-art controls, adding 10 years of life to the existing equipment. Extending the life of the existing equipment saved APB from intensive warehouse disruption and the cost of a new conveyor.

Key Cost Benefits APB has gained:

• The need for two warehouse positions for merger operator and checker have been eliminated, creating savings of over $100,000 in employee pay and benefits

• Now, it takes less than an hour to onboard new employees

• KPIs are easily tracked for each job in the warehouse

• Picking accuracy has increased from 99.85% to 99.93% (calculated on a unit for unit basis)

• If an order is disputed, APB has the ability to verify that order with camera images, leveraging quality assurance

Overall, the installation of a smart conveyor system has yielded promising results for APB. Take a look at the video below to see how:

Encompass is able to not only deploy new conveyor systems but also integrate with all different types of existing hardware. When integrating with an existing conveyor, we are able to assume controls, make the conveyor more functional while prolonging the life of the system. Encompass realizes that conveyor systems are not a one size fits all package, and each project is as unique as the distributor it serves.

Some challenges of outdated conveyor systems include:

• Limited capabilities

• Short lifespans

• High cost to support the conveyor

Valued benefits of utilizing a smart conveyor system:

• Flexibility for additions and expansions

• Extended lifespans

• Ease of use of both software and hardware

• Significant cost savings

The 2019 BevOps Fleet Summit was a valuable experience for all involved. The Encompass team was honored to be a part of the event and looks forward to the next summit!

If you are interested in learning more, please give us a call at (970)499-8000 or visit the Automation Page on our website.