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Changes to Plenco Physical Inventory
The Future has arrived!
Top: Tony Lee, Todd Gehri and Dino Castillo setting
scanners up for Physical Inventory. Bottom: Scanning in
action, Chris Cadotte shows us how it’s done.
P
erhaps it’s not as exciting as “Breaking News” from
CNN, but the Physical Inventory process using
hand-held scanners has arrived at Plenco, as
Wayne
Pakkebier
(Production Control) predicted a year ago in
PlastiScope21’s
in-depth article on the subject.
Wayne looked forward to the day when volunteers would
use hand-held scanners rather than clipboards and paper
tickets, but that day came sooner than expected.
When our story ran in 2014, Wayne was unsure how
much time complete automation would take, but he thought
it might be a couple years at least. Only a year later,
Plenco’s tedious but important task of inventory has been
automated.
Hand-held scanners, 30 in all, were the biggest change
volunteers noticed in 2015. Seventeen teams of two people
and 11 coordinators scanned 2,400 audit tags in record time;
most teams wrapped up before 10:00 am on the day of
inventory.
Andrea Voss
(Accounting) told
PlastiScope21
,
“Days, maybe even weeks, were saved in time and effort,
both up front preparation and on the backside following
inventory.”
Todd Gehri
(Engineering) worked with Plenco’s IT
department to customize an already existing cycle count
program to meet specific Physical Inventory needs.
Lessons learned testing the software at BMC were applied
to creating and troubleshooting the software.
In preparation for the use of a computerized inventory
reporting system, Plenco’s IT department worked with
electricians to run conduit, wiring and Wi-Fi systems
throughout the plant. Despite Todd’s fears of power outages
or server connectivity glitches, no technical problems
occurred during Physical Inventory.
The entire team responsible for organizing Plenco’s
annual exercise agreed they couldn’t be happier with the
new system. Andrea said, “Many of the volunteers had no
prior scanning experience, but they were all good sports,
and we received no negative feedback from them. The end
results look awesome!”
In addition to the people who show up on inventory day,
the team thanks all those who prepared and organized for
inventory weeks ahead of time.
The scanners allowed for real-time results
almost immediately, making catching and
correcting any mistake easier. Errors were few
because of safeguards put in place to ensure
ease of use for the volunteers and accuracy for
the team reviewing and processing the data
collected.
“Now the fear factor is gone. It was a very
positive experience, and we are always looking
for new volunteers,” Wayne said. If you would
like to be one of these new volunteers and take
a scanner for a spin, mark your 2016 calendar
for the first Saturday in November.
11
Hand-Held Scanners Replace Paper Tickets
For Plenco’s Annual Physical Inventory