Case Study: Real-Time Order and Material Synchronization

Background

A Canadian manufacturer of custom-built heavy equipment for construction and landscaping industries utilizes a warehouse equipped with two Vertical Lift Modules (VLMs) managed by the Power Pick Warehouse Management System (WMS). Their primary operational goal was to ensure an automatic and accurate flow of data between Priority, their Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), and Power Pick. This synchronization is critical for custom manufacturing orders and parts fulfillment.

The Challenge: Complex Order and Material Data

The manufacturer’s business involves complex and distinct order types, primarily categorized as Job Assemblies (custom manufacturing orders) and Stock Orders (standard inventory fulfillment), with Power Pick orders often containing a combination of both. 

This complexity, combined with the need to handle a variety of parts, meant their manual and piecemeal processes risked significant data inconsistencies and operational delays. They required a solution to automatically manage the entire lifecycle of an order and its associated materials.

The Solution: Seamless Data Retrieval with ItemPath Data Pull

The ItemPath Data Pull tool was implemented to automatically fetch, transform, and map critical order and material data from the Priority ERP directly into the Power Pick WMS. By configuring multiple dedicated Data Pull integrations, the solution established seamless data retrieval, eliminating manual data entry, reducing potential for human error, and ensuring real-time synchronization across all mission-critical systems.

The solution automated critical data flows, establishing reliable and efficient processes for core warehouse functions:

• Order Creation: New sales and work orders, including the complex Job Assemblies and Stock Orders, are automatically imported and created in Power Pick, making them instantly available for picking and fulfillment.
• Material Creation: A dedicated integration was configured to automatically import and add new materials that were missing from the item master in Power Pick, ensuring all necessary components for manufacturing and sales are accurately tracked.
• Order Deletion and Reallocation: The continuous, automatic data synchronization instantly handles changes made in the ERP. For instance, a change in the ERP that triggers a material reallocation for an active order, or an update that results in an effective order deletion (cancellation), is immediately reflected in Power Pick. This prevents operators from picking parts for cancelled orders and ensures materials are correctly reserved, significantly reducing picking errors.

The Results: Streamlined Operations

By leveraging a cloud-hosted environment and automated data syncing, we eliminated manual errors and ensured high data integrity. From solving intricate order categorization to proactively optimizing server performance, our solution prioritized system stability and responsive support to keep operations running at peak efficiency.