New projects do not always go smoothly, and even previously successful operations can fail if asked to take on a new mission, or after loss of key personnel.  Our staff brings to bear their relevant experience to diagnose the root cause of issues, recommend needed changes and even implement those changes with your approval.  We can often field an experienced team on very short notice to tackle your warehouse, crossdock and distribution center issues before they get worse and endanger the rest of your supply chain. 

TriPoint Interactive can provide a complete suite of consulting services to support a re-engineering of current operations or introduction of new initiatives; for example:

• Provision of interim management Our staff members have managed operations in transition periods while key personnel or outsourced partners were replaced.  For a major home improvement retailer, we managed a key vendor management and fulfillment operation during the transition period while a new outsource partner was brought in.

• The planning and startup of operations, (project planning, process development, hiring personnel, developing objectives and metrics, or implementing a new technology).
  
  TPI team members have experience managing large project startups in tight timeframes.  For example, a “big box” distribution center was brought online in only 45 days from the client’s “go” decision, including facility acquisition, hiring and training staff, rack installation, leasehold improvements, establishing metrics and installation of the required warehouse management system.
  
  Major new projects can strain current staff beyond their ability to manage the current business and simultaneously manage a major implementation.  Our staff is experienced with operational startups, whether opening a new 500,000 sq. ft. warehouse, consolidation of operations, or implementation of a critical systems initiative.

• Recommend and implement improvements for operations not meeting expectations: TPI team members were called in to review major warehouse inventory issues at a Third Party Logistics company’s operation for a high tech client.  Our team successfully mapped the process and identified improper handling of Work-In-Process in a major kitting operation as the root cause.  Our recommendations eliminated the inventory issue and significantly improved other processes in the warehouse. 

  In another case, a new, complex material handling design was not performing to expectations in pre-installation testing.  Our team performed an overall evaluation of material flows, with sensitivity testing, and discovered the design was inappropriate due to business changes, even if the effort was made to get it to work correctly.  The design was scrapped and a more flexible process implemented with a major reduction in investment, a reduction in maintenance personnel and a major improvement in the flexibility of the operations.

• Warehouse Management System and Labor Management System selection and implementations. We can field a team of experienced warehouse operators to assist you in moving through the steps to a successful new system installation or upgrade.   Our people have experienced the process many times as managers in their own operations and we can help to work through those nasty little surprises that can hobble any systems selection and implementation project.

• Material handling opportunity assessment and redesign. Even operations with sophisticated software and equipment may not meet more recent standards for reliability and productivity; especially if business requirements have drifted with time from those originally used to justify the original installation.  Our Industrial Engineers can review your situation and recommend improvements with the a favorable payback based on their most recent knowledge of the material handling market and technology.

TriPoint Interactive was retained by a leading distributor of clothing, incentive award programs, and protective equipment. The company specializes in a variety of customization services for its customers, including monogramming, direct embroidery, patch application, and garment sizing. The company ships worldwide.

The operation faced training, process, information architecture and material handling design issues that jeopardized customer relationships.  We worked with the client’s internal team to analyze root causes, establish process documentation, install metrics, reconfigure the information technology infrastructure and address the most critical material handling issues to restore confidence in operations. 

Within 8 weeks, the joint client and TriPoint Interactive teams were able to significantly improve key supply chain performance metrics without jeopardizing service levels, illustrated by continued sales growth.

• Average order to ship days reduced 25%
• Receiving to putaway days reduced 27%
• Labor overtime hours reduced 30%

According to the Chief Operating Officer, “I would recommend the TriPoint team to anyone. They had a fine group of experienced people onsite with short notice and worked the long days and weekends necessary to get the job done. I believe in hitting problem situations early, with the right level of resources. I can call on the TriPoint people when I need them to get us through a warehouse move, acquisition or whatever other major resource gap needs to be covered.”