Maple City Dispensing, a family-owned business based in Goshen, Indiana, has been in operation since 1984. The company, managed by father-son team Alec and Troy Lehr, has almost 1,000 vending machines and serves 22 markets across eight (now six) routes.
CHALLENGE
While Maple City Dispensing had been using Seed for over four years, they didn’t have a picking system in place for their warehouse. This exposed several inefficiencies that cost them time and money:
- Significant product waste due to overstocking and expiration.
- Inaccurate stocking that led to missed sales opportunities.
- Inefficient picking processes that increased costs and time.
SOLUTION
Alec and Troy wanted a warehouse management solution to help them streamline their picking and pre-kitting process. And they needed it to be cost-effective and easy to use.
That’s why they chose Seed Pick Easy: Cantaloupe’s warehouse picking system designed to save time and costs for operators of all sizes.
RESULTS
Within a month of onboarding onto Seed Pick Easy, Maple City Dispensing has made some transformative changes:
Decreased Picking Time
Once the team started picking with the Seed Pick Easy tablets, they could move significantly faster and at a higher capacity.
According to Troy Lehr, “Going from paper picking to Pick Easy basically cut our picking time in half. Especially with snacks. With paper, we were pretty much just picking one snack machine at a time. But now, we pick at least three machines at once, and that has saved us so much time.”
More Accurate Inventory
Originally, the team was stocking their trucks with whatever product might be needed, with drivers making product decisions on the fly. With Seed Pick Easy, the warehouse team began picking and kitting exactly what was needed for each machine on each route. Not only did this mean more accurate data overall, but it allows for more accountability.
For Alec Lehr, the benefits of Seed Pick Easy have been that “it’s all inclusive of not only the time savings, but the accuracy of what’s in the machines. Obviously, pickers will miss things here and there. Now, we can go back and pinpoint the exact asset and exact time they were picking to see what may have gone wrong.”
Reduced Routes
The most dramatic change for Maple City Dispensing is likely in the number of routes they’re having to run daily.
“Initially, we had eight routes, with one of those being part-time,” said Troy Lehr. “Because of Seed Pick Easy, we’ve now condensed that to six.”
And even with the smaller number of routes, their drivers are spending less time in the field.
“Drivers are probably coming back an hour or so earlier every day,” says Troy Lehr. “So we’ve probably saved on labor costs already in the first month with Seed Pick Easy and pre-kitting.”
“Going from paper picking to Pick Easy basically cut our picking time in half. Especially with snacks.”
Troy Lehr, Manager, Maple City Dispensing
