Fulfilment and storage
Every pallet, pick and shipment, accounted for
Ahearn & Soper builds the identification and inventory infrastructure that keeps Canadian distribution centres running accurately: ProVision WMS, the printers, scanners and mobile computers around it, and the label itself. One team specifies, integrates, trains and services all of it, so accuracy does not depend on four vendors agreeing.
Où l'argent se perd
Most distribution centres lose the same money in the same few places. Each one starts as a small gap between what happened on the floor and what the system was told about it, and each one is most expensive at the point the order ships.
- Inventory counts that do not match what is actually on the shelf, found at cycle count or, worse, at ship
- Pick errors that turn into returns, chargebacks and lost customer trust
- Labour spent walking, searching and re-checking instead of picking and shipping
- Seasonal volume spikes that expose gaps in a system built for an average day
- No real-time view of what is received, put away or ready to ship until somebody runs a report
Comment nous y répondons
Ahearn & Soper specifies, integrates, trains and services the whole chain: the software that governs the process, the printers and scanners that capture it, the label that has to survive it, and the wireless network underneath. Five parts, one team accountable for how they work together.
ProVision WMS
ProVision WMS governs receiving, put-away, replenishment, picking, packing and shipping as one connected process rather than five steps reconciled by hand. It is built for distribution and wholesale operations that need to add volume without adding headcount in proportion.
Barcode and label printing at every touchpoint
Ahearn & Soper specifies and supplies the printers, ribbons and label stock rated for your throughput and your environment, from receiving labels to shipping labels to shelf and location tags. The test is whether the label applied at receiving still scans clean at shipping.
Mobile computers and handheld scanners
Real-time capture on the floor means the system knows what happened when it happened, not at end of shift data entry. The device is fitted to the task: handheld, wearable, or vehicle mounted.
Automation for volume
Where manual labelling becomes the bottleneck, automated and semi-automatic applicators and conveyor mounted scanning apply and verify labels at line speed. Fixed mount stations catch the error before the pallet leaves the building.
Wireless network design
A warehouse management system is only as reliable as the network carrying its data. Ahearn & Soper designs and validates wireless coverage across the full footprint of a facility, including the dead zones every warehouse finds the hard way.
Les produits adaptés à ce travail
These are the printers, scanners, mobile computers and readers we put into Canadian distribution centres most often. Each is chosen for the job it does on a warehouse floor rather than for its spec sheet, and each is supported by the same team that supplies it.
Zebra ZT620
Premium wide-format printing for the most demanding applications.
Honeywell PC41E-D / PC42E-D Desktop Printer
The entry point. Direct thermal desktop printing, USB only on the PC41E-D or networked on the PC42E-D.
Honeywell RP4f Mobile Printer
The 4 inch RPf. Same ruggedness as the RP2f, wider labels and roughly double the battery.
Zebra MC3400 and MC3450
Key based mobile computer with a 4 inch display and Wi-Fi 6E, with 5G data on the MC3450.
Honeywell CW45 Wearable Computer
Arm-worn 4.7 inch computer that keeps both hands free for the carton.
Honeywell Granit Ultra 2105i Scanner
The current ultra-rugged cordless flagship, with HD, SR, XR and XLR optics to choose from.
Zebra FX9600 Fixed RFID Reader
Industrial fixed reader for high-density dock door and conveyor reads in warehousing and distribution.
Les étiquettes qui conviennent
The label is the part of the system that has to survive handling, temperature and abrasion between the receiving dock and the customer. Getting the stock and ribbon pairing right for your surfaces is what keeps a code scanning at the end of the cycle, not just at the start.
Warehouse labels mostly live indoors at ambient temperature and go onto corrugate, kraft or coated carton. That is the easiest combination to get right, and the easiest to get wrong at volume. Thermal transfer with the correct ribbon pairing is what survives handling and abrasion through a full pick and ship cycle.
Rack and location tags are a different job. They stay in place for years, often on powder coated or textured steel, so they need an adhesive rated for that surface rather than the same stock as the cartons.
Cold storage areas inside an otherwise ambient facility need their own construction, applied cool rather than at room temperature.
Où l'identification intervient dans votre journée
Identification happens at six points between the receiving dock and the outbound trailer. Miss one and the record stops matching the building.
Receiving
The pallet gets its first identity here. Scan against the advance notice and the count is right before anything moves. Skip it and every later count inherits the error.
Put-away
The location is captured at the moment the pallet lands, not written down and keyed in later. Without it, stock exists in the system but nobody can say which aisle.
Replenishment
Moving stock from reserve to the pick face is where most accuracy problems actually start, and where they are least often measured.
Pick
Scan verification at the pick face is the difference between catching a wrong item and shipping it. This is the step the customer feels.
Pack
The carton gets its own identity and its contents are confirmed against the order before the box is sealed.
Ship
The label applied here has to scan for the carrier, not just for you. A code that fails at the dock is a shipment that does not leave.
Les questions qu'on nous pose le plus
These questions come up in almost every warehouse conversation we have. Short answers first, so you can judge quickly whether what you are seeing is a process gap, a technology gap, or both.
Why is our warehouse inventory count always wrong?
Usually because the count and the movement happen at different times. If put-away, replenishment and picking are recorded on paper or keyed at end of shift, the system is describing the building as it was hours ago. Scanning at each handover is what closes that gap.
Is our inventory problem a process issue or a technology issue?
Almost always process first. Technology records what the process does, so a scanner added to an unclear replenishment step just records the confusion faster. Ahearn & Soper measures where accuracy actually breaks down before specifying anything.
Is RFID or barcode scanning the right fix for our inventory accuracy problem?
Barcode where items are handled one at a time, RFID where they move in bulk and stopping to scan each one is the bottleneck. Most distribution centres end up running both, barcode at the pick face and RFID at dock doors.
What are the different types of barcode scanners for warehouses?
Handheld for general picking, wearable ring scanners where both hands are needed, vehicle mounted for forklift work, and fixed mount on conveyor for automated verification. The right choice follows the task and the scan distance, not the price list.
What warehouse management software works with Zebra mobile computers?
ProVision WMS runs on Zebra mobile computers, and Ahearn & Soper supplies and services both. Because one team specifies the software and the hardware, device provisioning and the rollout are a single project rather than two.
How do I build the business case for warehouse automation to my CFO?
Build it on labour recovered and errors avoided rather than on device count. The figures that carry a finance conversation are pick accuracy, lines per hour, and what a chargeback or a return actually costs you. Those come from your own data, and we can help you assemble them.
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