CASE STUDY

HICKORY HARDWARE™

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Please note: Intelligrated acquired the North and South American operations of FKI Logistex® in June 2009.

When five well-known brands of decorative and

functional hardware were brought together under

one corporate roof in 2006, the management of the

newly formed Hickory Hardware faced a challenge:

how to bring key functional operations of the merged

companies together under one physical roof without

sacrificing order fulfillment efficiency.

The key components of the system include a high

speed IntelliSort® sliding shoe sorter in the Receiving

area and also in the Shipping area. The Breakpack

sorter is a dual sided high speed IntelliSort®. A high

speed IntelliMerge® is located in the Receiving area

and the Shipping area. The merges and single sided

sorters are capable of running 630 feet per minute

and are designed to sustain a throughput rate of 180

cartons per minute based on a 24” average length case.

The dual sided sorter is capable of running 550 feet per

minute and is designed to sustain a throughput rate of

100 cartons per minute.

From the light- and voice-directed picking areas,

cartons are conveyed to the induction and shipping

area, comprised of a sawtooth merge and an

Playing a New Tune in Nashville

Faced with zinc prices that had almost tripled in

one year, brass and copper prices that had nearly

doubled, and aluminum prices that had soared by over

60 percent, Hickory Hardware determined that an

efficient, centralized distribution center would enable

the company to reduce operating costs and avoid

having to pass a major portion of its commodity cost

increases to its customers.

Combining and automating the manual shipping

and receiving operations of five formerly separate

entities is a highly ambitious undertaking. Doing so

without disrupting the flow of orders to a large and

geographically dispersed customer base requires

flawless planning and execution, confidence in the

material handling equipment and systems to be

installed, and a healthy dose of optimism.

BackgroundSystem Overview

Fortunately for Hickory Hardware, each of those

requisites was in place when the company leased a

303,000 square foot facility in Nashville, Tennessee.

Housing both its corporate operations and a 270,000

square foot distribution center (DC), the centralized

location provides convenient access via interstate

highways to the company’s North American supply

chain and customer base.

Successfully consolidating the distribution operations of five separate hardware manufacturing companies proved to be a larger challenge than Hickory Hardware had originally anticipated. A highly efficient, automated material handling system from Intelligrated helped the new brand quickly establish a strong market position through responsive order fulfillment.

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Intelligrated high-speed sliding shoe sorter.

The DC’s shipping system includes two dedicated

lines (one for UPS and one for FedEx/Export) and five

manual palletizing after-sort lines. Each aftersort

line has 12 dynamic pallet locations for consolidating

product into orders. As each order is completed the

position is dynamically re-assigned by the warehouse

management system. Pallets are either manually

shrink-wrapped in place or taken via forklift to an

automatic stretch wrapper.

Unlike a typical DC, the Hickory Hardware facility

also features kitting and assembly areas. Kitting is

used primarily for Hickory Hardware’s OEM storm

door products. The kitting area has a transfer line

for picking parts such as screws, brackets, mounting

tabs, etc., that are grouped together for hardware

assemblies. Items are picked into cartons and released

with the carton flaps open and in the up position for

documentation insertion, dunnage fill and carton

sealing in the pack-out and seal area. The cartons

out of this area can be diverted to the Value Added

Services area for custom labeling or price ticketing,

as needed.

The DC’s assembly area is comprised of fabrication

equipment relocated from the Faultless Caster DC in

Portland, Tennessee. Casters are assembled from parts

located in reserve storage, brought to the assembly

The DC’s shipping system includes two dedicated lines (one for UPS and one for FedEx/Export) and five manual palletizing aftersort lines.

Although Hickory Hardware’s new DC is now living up

to the company’s and its customers’ expectations, the

first few months of operations posed unanticipated

challenges.

“We underestimated the challenge of converting

people who have always worked in manual

environments to a highly automated environment,”

says John Westendorf, president of Hickory Hardware.

“You have to trust the automation. When problems

arise you need to solve the problem with the

automation,” he adds. “Our people would regularly

fall back on trying to solve the problems with manual

workarounds. We had to stay very close to it and break

the old ways.”

Overcoming its employees’ resistance to automation

wasn’t the only problem that Hickory Hardware

encountered. Software conversion and interfacing

difficulties initially prevented Hickory Hardware’s

order-taking software from communicating with the

Overcoming Obstacles

areas via forklift and conveyor replenishment, and

assembled and packed in cartons for release onto the

center belt takeaway conveyor. Completed packaged

cartons are placed on the takeaway conveyor with the

flaps open and in the up position.

The DC includes an assembly area, where parts are assembled and packed in cartons for release onto the center belt takeaway conveyor.

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7901 Innovation Way, Mason, Ohio 45040 + 1 866.936.7300

info@intelligrated.com www.intelligrated.com

Light- and Voice-Directed Picking Systems Optimize EfficiencyMeeting and exceeding customer delivery expectations is essential when a company aspires to become an industry leader. With the goal of doing exactly that, Hickory Hardware was determined that its new DC deliver a minimum 98 percent fill rate and provide a two-day turnaround on all orders.

To help Hickory Hardware achieve its ambitious objectives, Intelligrated incorporated its Real Time Solutions® (RTS) order fulfillment system into its solution. The paperless, pick-to-light and pick-to-voice order fulfillment systems for picking and putting operations features highly visible modular pick-to-light hardware, proven and easy-to-use planning, execution, and monitoring tools, and a full range of reporting and management capabilities.

The integrated monitoring and management tools give supervisors a real-time view of the picking operation, which allows them to monitor the overall picking performance of individual employees and to redeploy order pickers as necessary to optimize fulfillment efficiency. By helping to eliminate human error and wasted motion during order picking, the system not only increases order accuracy and productivity, but significantly reduces labor costs, as well.

“Intelligrated’s Real Time Solutions pick-to-light and voice, combined with their 24-volt pick-and-pass zones, minimize the training required and produce high efficiency and accuracy,” says Hickory Hardware’s president, John Westendorf.

order-routing software, resulting in a backlog of

product orders that threatened to inconvenience some

of Hickory Hardware’s largest and most important

customers.

But, once the software issues had been resolved, the

shipping personnel had learned to accept and trust

automation, and the DC was performing according to

everyone’s expectations, Hickory Hardware was able

to quickly work off the order backlog. Since December

2007, the system has worked so efficiently that the

company has been able to ship many orders with a

100-percent fill rate.

Currently carrying about 5,000 active SKUs in 40,000 storage locations, Hickory

Hardware averages approximately 800 orders/3,500 parcels per day, with those

numbers peaking occasionally at 1,500 orders/10,000 parcels per day. According

to Westendorf, although the company is shipping at higher volumes than ever,

centralizing and automating distribution has allowed Hickory Hardware to reduce the

number of DC personnel from 122 to 74, lowering the distribution payroll by about $2

million and resulting in an overhead cost savings of $3 million.

Now Hickory Hardware is leveraging its exceptional delivery capabilities and the

strength of its products’ reputation for quality to firmly establish itself as a major player

in the decorative and functional hardware markets

Judging by the reaction of Hickory Hardware’s customers, the new distribution center

is helping the company cement its reputation as a customer-focused organization.

“We receive a lot e-mails from customers saying how happy they are with our service,”

Westendorf concludes.

Hickory Hardware has reduced the number of DC personnel from 122 to 74, resulting in an overhead cost savings of $3 million.

Five Become OneIn 2006, five hardware companies — Keeler Brass, Belwith International,

Faultless Caster, Madico, and Wright Products — were combined to form Hickory

Hardware. The new company’s corporate headquarters and fully automated

distribution center featuring Intelligrated Real Time Solutions light- and

voice-directed picking systems are located in Nashville, Tennessee, providing

centralized access to the company’s far-flung North American customer base.

Hickory Hardware designs, manufactures and markets decorative, functional

and industrial hardware to the retail, distribution and OEM markets. For more

information, visit www.HickoryHardware.com.

• Systems Integration

• Sortation Systems

• Conveyor Systems

• Palletizing Solutions

• Software & Controls

• Order Fulfillment Systems

• 24x7 Technical Support

• Design & Build

Intelligrated Products and Services

Intelligrated Service & Support

The in-house Customer Service and Support (CSS) program

offered by Intelligrated backs all of our products. Services

available include:

• IN-24x7® technical support hotline

• Spare parts logistics

• Field service

• Equipment and system audits

• Upgrades and modifications

• Full service and maintenance contracts

• Preventive maintenance

• Customer training

CSS is available 24x7 to provide all of the services needed

to keep your equipment running at peak efficiency.

Whether it’s on-site support or troubleshooting via

our hotline, Intelligrated has the most comprehensive

customer support program in the industry.

Service and Parts Hotline

Phone + 1 877.315.3400

www.ontimeparts.com

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7901 Innovation Way, Mason, Ohio 45040 + 1 866.936.7300

info@intelligrated.com www.intelligrated.com

For more information, contact:

Headquarters in Mason, Ohio

About Intelligrated

Intelligrated is a leading American-owned, single-point

provider of automated material handling solutions with

operations in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Headquartered

in Cincinnati, Intelligrated designs, manufactures and

installs complete material handling automation solutions,

including IntelliSort® line sortation systems, Crisplant®

tilt-tray and cross-belt sortation systems, conveyor systems,

Alvey® palletizers and robotics, Real Time Solutions®

order fulfillment systems, warehouse control software

and advanced machine controls—all supported by 24x7

Customer Service and Support.

Serving the warehousing, distribution, consumer product

manufacturing, postal and parcel markets, Intelligrated

collaborates closely with its clients to develop productivity

solutions and responds to their needs throughout the life

of their material handling systems.