Apex Asset Management Program Keeps Distribution Running Smoothly

Fulfilling customer orders at Meritor’s 440,000 square-foot distribution facility in Florence, Kentucky is critical. It’s the primary distribution center for Meritor’s global aftermarket business.

Keeping this facility working at full capacity requires hundreds of employees across two shifts, armed with scanners, voice picking equipment, mobile printers and deftly operating an array of material handling trucks. When it was time to upgrade the facility’s warehouse management system (WMS) and its pool of handheld scanners, Meritor knew that finding a better approach to managing its handheld equipment and scanner batteries was critical.

"With scanners and batteries frequently being misplaced or accidentally damaged, we needed a way to contain the cost of managing this valuable equipment and increase employee productivity,” said Steve Ammerman, director of Operations and Industrialization. "We knew that we needed a system to track the scanners and batteries while also building in employee accountability.”

The benefits the Apex devices have brought to Meritor seem to build on one another. Downtime decreases and productivity increases along with equipment utilization rates. By increasing equipment utilization, costs are reduced.