Canadian 3PL Adds Wholesaler Capacity

Tibbett & Britten using Delfour solution to manage frozen, refrigerated foods inventory for big box chain

Tibbett & Britten using Delfour solution to manage frozen, refrigerated foods inventory for big box chain

Toronto — February 10, 2004 — Tibbett & Britten Group Americas (TBG) has implemented a new application of its Delfour WarehouseLogic warehouse management system to handle frozen and refrigerated foods inventory for the Canadian operations of a major U.S.-based big box retailer that has entered the market, it was announced today by Perry Brock, TBG vice president of information technology, and Delfour President Joe E. Couto.

TBG and Delfour declined to identify the retailer, but they said the company had opened its first four Canadian stores in the Toronto area in late 2003 and intends to expand into major metropolitan areas across Canada. TBG has operated a Canadian distribution center for the dry goods operations of the company's parent for several years.

Tibbett & Britten Group is one of the world's largest third-party logistics (3PL) providers, with 40 percent of its business done by the Americas group. A WarehouseLogic user for some five years, TBG, with this implementation, is acting in a true wholesaler capacity for the first time, taking actual ownership of inventory from frozen and refrigerated food vendors, subcontracting inventory storage and management to a 3PL logistics provider partner, receiving and fulfilling orders, and billing the individual retail outlets for product shipped.

"This is an entirely new dimension of our business," Brock said. "Heretofore our activities have focused on operating dedicated warehouses for our clients. In this case, we obtained dedicated temperature-controlled refrigerator and freezer space in the Toronto area from a subcontracting 3PL provider, Atlas Cold Storage, which is also a long-time WarehouseLogic user. We have a mirror-image of their inventory data, which enables us to operate as seamlessly as if the product were at our own property."

Delfour said that WarehouseLogic enables organizations to manage billing, receiving, stock locating, storage, order verification, order packing and shipment of products concurrently in complex distribution and fulfillment centers. The solution optimizes fulfillment operations by enabling increased inventory turns and reducing inventory levels, facilitating just-in-time deliveries and improving accuracy and productivity, the solution provider said.

The solution also includes a B2B e-commerce module that enables TBG trading partners to exchange transaction documents computer-to-computer in a hands-free, 24/7 electronic environment. The B2B module can receive and transmit trading partner communications in a variety of document formats, including X12 EDI, XML, XML proprietary versions and database flat files. On receipt, the solution translates the documents into the Delfour flat file format for execution and retranslates return documents into the preferred vendor format.

Documents implemented for the six current EDI-enabled trading partners include purchase orders, advance ship notices, invoices, inventory inquiry/advice, warehouse shipping order, warehouse stock transfer shipment advice, warehouse shipping advice and warehouse inventory adjustment advice.
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