Based in Surrey, British Columbia, IRLY distributes lumber, hardware, building materials, plumbing, power tools and more to customers throughout BC and Western Canada. IRLY had long been using a paper-based system that largely relied on the company’s lengthy employee tenure, which averaged close to 20 years.

The “tribal knowledge” these long-term employees possessed was invaluable, not only to the company, but to the warehouse’s overall efficiency. However, as technologies advanced and as new employees began to transition in, IRLY looked to implement a full Warehouse Management System (WMS) that would not only fully track all warehouse materials, but provide the technology needed to increase efficiency by 10 percent.

This case study to learn of the WMS technologies, including warehouse automation systems, mobile computers, and industrial bar code printers- that enabled them to:

• Increase productivity by 5-15%
• Reduce training time by half
• Increase transactions per day by nearly 1,000
• And streamline operations and error tracking.