Thomas & Howard Company, Inc. is a privately owned food distributor headquartered in Columbia, S. C., and has been around for more than 100 years. With annual sales in excess of $300 million, the company provides full-line, full-service distribution to convenience stores and restaurants, primarily in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee. The company operates three facilities in South Carolina.

The adoption of ExpressCube was triggered by a WMS upgrade. As part of that changeover, there was a requirement to gather cube dimensions, weights and UPC codes for all items held in inventory in their three facilities. It was determined that ExpressCube was the easiest and most efficient way to perform the automatic cubing, weighing and scanning of these items.

“I searched out the easiest and most efficient way to do automatic cubing, weighing and scanning of these items,” said Gary Selter, director of operations at Thomas & Howard Company. “I’m a retired military guy so I always try to get the best bang for my buck, you might say. Through investigation and getting quotes—just good stewardship really—I came across ExpressCube. It has similar features to competitive products for significantly less money.”

To integrate ExpressCube with Thomas and Howard’s new WMS system, the company set up a separate workstation for the ExpressCube device. It assembled quickly and data transfer was simple. Data from the ExpressCube was downloaded using the device’s proprietary SizeIt software. The files were then converted from ExpressCube’s ASCII file into the WMS file. The company’s IT resource supervised the conversion.  

Windows XP personal computers running SizeIt software can control an ExpressCube countertop device through the USB port. The SizeIt software allows the user to operate all functions on the countertop device using a mouse. The screen changes to provide easy programming of preset DIM factors and operational option settings. The SizeIt software also has drivers to allow third-party computer programs to control and read the data results.

Once the entire inventory has been cubed, the workstation was left intact for use as a stand-alone mobile station. Instead of having to use a tape measure or a scale, the ExpressCube will scan the item and download the information to the database in the WMS system.

The company does not have a lot of rotation on products so the ExpressCube is used as needed on the inbound side, which is where the device provides the greatest ROI. “We avoid charge backs from DIM overcharges. This is good for our customer service and cost control,” said Selter. “We see improved warehouse productivity, dramatic improvements and better management of stock levels. The analytic data gathered by the WMS system coming from ExpressCube and other input tools will ultimately allow better buying decisions and profitability analysis for both customers and products.”

The WMS system will use the dimensioning data and other inputs to determine how much space is available and where they can put certain pallets in the warehouse. There will be no significant impact to their operation.

Pharmaceutical Distribution