“It [LRS Paging System] exceeded our expectations and shaved an average of 20 minutes per truck. We normally process 4500 trucks per week. That comes out to 1500 man hours a week saved.”
Costa Solutions is a proven expert in the warehouse and food service industry providing 24/7 managed labor service and customized solutions for inbound, outbound warehouse and production services. Costa Solutions offers effective solutions designed to increase efficiency, improve performance and save our customers time and money. Costa Solutions saw an opportunity to increase their productivity and efficiency by getting trucks in and out more quickly.
Costa Solutions sought a simple way to communicate with truck drivers. IT Director Darrin Gannaway said after trucks arrive, the driver leaves while the truck is being unloaded and reloaded with new product. “When the truck is ready to go, we needed to contact the driver and previously we didn’t have a good way to do that. Then we started looking for systems we could utilize and came across LRS’ Paging System (NPU),” said Gannaway.
When the truck driver docks the truck, he or she is given a pager and is notified when the truck is ready. Before paging systems, Gannaway said time was lost searching for drivers, and therefore slowing down the turnaround time to get more trucks in and out. Truck turnaround can take anywhere from one-to-two hours.
Once Costa Solutions installed the LRS Paging System, Gannaway said the company’s goal is to decrease turnaround time for trucks by 10 minutes, which included tracking down drivers. Now, drivers are given an LRS pager to be alerted when their trucks are ready and have the freedom to relax in the breakroom or take a nap without fear of missing an alert. “Just finding the driver was a challenge, but with the LRS Pagers and with how alarming the paging system was, we haven’t had any instances where the truckers missed a notification,” said Gannaway.
After setting metrics and goals in place with NPU, the changes exceeded Gannaway’s expectations. “To our surprise, it exceeded our expectation and shaved an average of 20 minutes per truck. We normally process 4500 trucks per week,” said Gannaway. “That comes to 1500 man hours a week saved.” Getting trucks in and out of the loading docks provided Costa Solutions the ability to get product to their customers more quickly.
Each week, Costa Solutions is given a set schedule for incoming trucks. The increase in efficiency helped Costa Solutions staff appropriately during the day and cut down on overtime costs and overnight labor. With the time saved, Gannaway said employees are able to focus on job functions outside of loading and unloading trucks. Employees are able to take safety briefing training more frequently, and better manage administrative work. Overall, Gannaway said the time saved helped Costa Solutions improve the quality of the work environment by focusing on the staff.
Costa Solutions sees an average of 4500 truckers per week. With the use of NetPage Unlimited, it was able to shaved 20 minutes off each truck service. Costa Solutions saw a savings of 1500 man hours per week.
Costa Solutions is a 24 hour operation and with quicker service turnaround, they were able to properly staff throughout the day and minimize overtime and late night labor costs.
Drivers have the freedom to relax in the wait area with peace of mind they will be notified when needed.
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