Sandpiper Deliver New RF Solution For St. Regis New Warehouse and Engineering Stores

St Regis, part of DS Smith Plc, is the UKs largest manufacturer and recycler of paper.  In order to provide additional storage capacity for 20,000 tonnes of finished product, as part of its strategy to deliver from stock to improve customer service levels, a new build warehouse development was completed that provides an additional 13,300 sq.m. of warehouse space.

Sandpiper was selected to review the current processes and recommend a new RF system for the inventory management used by St Regis engineering stores operation and for the new warehouse.  Having no internal RF expertise within its IT group, St Regis required Sandpiper to perform a full analysis of its current system and to provide recommendations of equipment, installation and support on how to go live with the new solution.  Due to operations being 24/7, it was crucial that the manufacturing machinery was only down (off-line) when scheduled by the internal production team.

The hardware solution supplied by Sandpiper comprised of Intermec rugged hand held computers running Citrix ICA client software, bar code printers and vehicle mounted terminals. Real-time communication, with the Matrix system was achieved using Intermec 802.11b spread spectrum wireless technology, this provides a) the necessary coverage b) system performance and c) in-built future migration path that will allow St. Regis to take advantage of future technology advancements.

Once the new RF system was installed Sandpiper assisted St Regis with the implementation and were on hand to deal with any teething problems should they have arisen. Sandpiper was of great assistance during our go live project and kept the shut down of each machine to a minimum allowing us to keep our level of production consistent with customer demands. Sandpipers Professional Services Team also helped us with other technical issues which were outside of their remit, stated Martin Baker, St Regis Divisional Logistics Manager.

The improved reliability of the new RF System has enabled St Regis to roll-out and replicate the solutions to several other sites to date. This project has enabled St Regis to maintain its position as market leader and sets the standard in innovation and customer service with the paper industry.