Latitude Brings a Winning Smile to Atlanta Dental Supply
WMS from PathGuide a Competitive Sales Advantage
February 2008
Overview
Atlanta Dental Supply, headquartered in Duluth, Georgia with offices in Alabama,
Florida and South Carolina, is a premier provider of dental supplies to more than 5,000
dentists in the Southeast. Since it was founded in 1868, Atlanta Dental Supply has always
held a core commitment to excellent service, with a mission to build relationships that are
both lasting and rewarding through the precise delivery of product, service and
technology solutions to the dental profession.
Within its 55,000 square foot distribution center, the company picks 38,000 to 42,000
order lines per month. With more than 14,000 items in stock, from the most advanced
surgical equipment to toothbrushes, pick accuracy and correct order fulfillment was a
past challenge.
In 2003 the company invested in the Latitude Warehouse Management System (WMS)
from PathGuide Technologies as part of a strategy to increase pick accuracy and overall
warehouse efficiency. Latitude is a software suite that automates warehousing and
distribution to provide real-time online information about inventory. Latitude automates
all operations from receiving and order picking, to manifesting and truck route/stop
management. It integrates seamlessly with all major ERP business systems such as
Microsoft Dynamics, Activant, J.D. Edwards and Oracle.
Since using Latitude, Atlanta Dental Supply says the greatest benefit has been the
increased satisfaction of its sales representatives – a by-product of having a more
accurate and efficient warehouse. Atlanta Dental Supply, a privately held company,
competes with multi-billion dollar corporations and so its sales reps, and the relationship
they hold with customers, are critical to Atlanta Dental Supply’s success. In an industry
that is highly competitive, retention of sales reps is a key challenge.
“Simply put, when you have errors in the warehouse you have unhappy customers and
then you have unhappy sales reps - that’s when you’re at risk of losing both,” said John
Hanna, Director of Operations at Atlanta Dental Supply. “Order accuracy with Latitude is
a key competitive advantage that helps us go up against the big guys and win.”
Latitude a Window for Continual Improvement
When Latitude was first deployed, Hanna and his crew were pleased to find how easy the
system was to use. Under the old paper-based system, new warehouse pickers needed six
months to a year before they were fully effective in their job. Today, that training time
has been radically reduced. “Now with Latitude a new employee can literally be effective
in one day, and after 3-4 weeks they are completely up to speed. With the handheld
terminal, the process of finding the right product is so much easier – it’s hard to make
mistakes now.”
Since using Latitude, picking errors have been reduced by at least 33%, and the system is
used daily to give Hanna and his team the data they need to continually refine warehouse
operations.
“We review each error that happens and research it to understand the problem,”
continued Hanna. “Whether it’s a technical glitch or an employee just having a bad day,
Latitude helps us identify and fix errors to ensure the highest level of quality and
accuracy possible. Since using Latitude our warehouse employees are also more
accountable and we can monitor mistakes to help them improve. Before we couldn’t
review operational details at the individual employee level.”
Latitude allows Hanna to identify even the most granular improvements. For example,
Hanna recently added more label printers in the receiving department. With three people
working in receiving sharing one label printer, the workers were traveling back and forth
a fair distance between the boxes and label printers. By adding more printers, travel time
was reduced, and workers are able to process more items in less time.
“Before, we couldn’t leverage our system to this extent to make improvements at such a
granular level,” said Hanna. “We really couldn’t imagine operating without Latitude.”
Product Integrity and Compliance
Like any company in the healthcare industry, Atlanta Dental Supply must follow strict
state and federal regulations designed to ensure the security and integrity of products as
they move through the supply chain. As part of its compliance effort, Atlanta Dental
Supply worked closely with PathGuide on the development of a custom drug pedigree
application (a government mandate designed to prevent product tampering and
counterfeiting by providing a solid chain of custody for pharmaceutical products).
A pedigree is a statement of origin that identifies each prior sale, purchase, or trade of a
drug, including the date of those transactions and the names and addresses of all parties to
them. A pedigree may be in paper (hard copy) or electronic form and must include the
addresses and lot numbers of the drug or product.
Now with Latitude, Atlanta Dental Supply knows the exact location of products for any
pedigree in its system as a result of lot capture at both inbound receipt and at outbound
sales order picking. The ability to exchange pedigrees electronically also makes it easier
for partners to do business with Atlanta Dental Supply and improves customer trust in the
validity of the products. Since Latitude matches physical products to pedigrees, the return
process is also easier to manage.
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Atlanta Dental Supply also relies on Latitude’s lot tracking, warehouse functionality that
is considered to be a must-have for food, pharmaceutical, and chemical industries where
quality is critical. With Latitude, individual products can be easily tracked because lot
numbers are recorded when received into inventory. From the moment an item with a lot
number is shipped, the lot tracking module will track the lot, customer, invoice number,
invoice date, and amount of the invoice. As orders are shipped, lot numbers are assigned
to each sales order so that the database knows which lots were shipped on which orders.
“Before Latitude, we did not have a good way to track lots, which also made rotating
products with expiration dates a huge challenge,” said Hanna. “Expired product would
sometimes go out to a customer, who would then reject the product. It was an added
frustration for our sales reps that we were very eager to eliminate.”
A Smiling Future
Since automating the warehouse, business for Atlanta Dental Supply continues to grow
steadily by about 10% each year, and volume of units shipped have grown 46% while
staff increases have been less than 10%.
As part of the company’s plan for continued growth, Hanna and his warehouse team will
rely on Latitude. New features in Latitude such as slotting (a module that assesses
strategic placement of product within the warehouse) is currently being considered as
well as other custom applications.
“We work with many ERP-related vendors and PathGuide’s support is by far the best –
they are deliberate, supportive, and go the extra mile to make a project successful,” said
Hanna. “Many companies are great at talking, but PathGuide is great at listening and
follow-through – they deliver on their promises. Whenever I need a custom app for our
ERP system, I first go to PathGuide because if they can do it, I know it will be the easiest
and most affordable way to get it done right.”
About PathGuide Technologies
PathGuide Technologies, Inc., a privately held company founded in 1989, is a leading
provider of warehouse management solutions for small to midsized wholesalers and
industrial distributors across North America. PathGuide’s software and services help
suppliers increase productivity and order accuracy, improve customer service and lower
labor costs, ultimately driving greater profitability. To learn how distributors of all sizes
can benefit from improved warehouse management, visit www.pathguide.com.
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PathGuide is a registered trademark of PathGuide Technologies Inc. in the United States.
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