The Thursday meeting of the Carmi Rotary Club was held at a different site than usual, as the Rotarians met at Carmi Wholesale Distributors on Lexington Avenue.
After a great pizza lunch provided by Godfather’s/Hucks, the Rotarians were given a demonstration of the new order picking system being implemented at CWD. Warehouse manager Jackie Allison and assistant manager Michael Dauby were on hand to walk the Rotarians through the new system, which they say brought the operations at the Huck’s warehouse from the 1980’s to the 21st century in one upgrade!
Michael handled the demonstration of the new equipment, which gives each “picker” a wrist-bound computer and a laser finger pointer. He showed the club members how pickers go to assigned slots to select products for the Huck’s stores, and are then able to scan the bar code on the item to verify they are grabbing the right item and getting the correct quantity. If an item is picked incorrectly, a loud buzzer sounds, alerting the picker that they have an incorrect item.
Once the picker is done with a particular store, the totes and boxes are taken to the loading area, where the loading crew uses the same type of equipment to verify the order before it is loaded in to the truck. Once the truck driver makes the delivery to the store, a third scan is used to verify the right product is being delivered to the correct store. Jackie and Michael pointed out that mis-picks and shortages have gone down dramatically since this system was put in place.
After the demonstration, the two CWD managers took the Rotarians on a guided tour of the warehouse. The group toured the dry grocery area as well as the cooler/freezer sections, where temperatures hover at a “crisp” negative twenty degrees. Needless to say, the Rotarians didn’t spend a lot of time in that area.
In club business, the Rotarians discussed the recent trivia contest which turned out to be the biggest event the club had hosted in the past 13 years of the competition.
Due to the off-site meeting, there was no 50/50 drawing or phantom for the day.
The Carmi Rotary club meets every Thursday at noon at the First United Methodist Church on Main Street in Carmi. Anyone wishing to learn more about this civic organization is welcome to attend a meeting or speak with any Carmi Rotarian.
