Pickers and the information systems at Heinon Tukku Oy´s wholesale warehouse in Espoo talk to each other, and the customers get exactly what they order - without errors.

The Challenge

Heinon Tukku Oy´s wholesale warehouse in Espoo is a versatile production facility. It provides HoReCa clients almost anything needed in a restaurant. Anything from carrots to goose liver is available - the purchase order delivery times vary, naturally.

The extensive selection covers perishables like fruits and vegetables as well as frozen foods and semi finished products. Fish for example can be filleted according to client´s needs. According to Jani Vainio who is in charge of Heino Tukku wholesale delivery operations, success in this business requires extensive offering, near 100% availability and highly skilled personnel. He emphasizes the meaning of flexible operations and price/quality performance.
Well-functioning in-house import function is an essential success factor for Heinon Tukku.

- We are a co-owner of Tuko Logistics, and in addition to that we import products ourselves. All the goods from abroad are received here in Espoo.

The Solution

With personnel of 160 the Espoo warehouse has a turnover of 110 million Euros. During weekdays the wholesale warehouse operates round the clock. A weekend operation is managed by the dayshift. On Saturdays and Sundays lots of deliveries are received and products are picked in preparation for the next weeks deliveries.

Vainio explains that dry goods, frozen foods, meat and vegetables and also fruits are picked with the voice-directed picking solution delivered by Optiscan. According to him Tuko´s positive experience was an important criterion when the decision to acquire the system was made. Their own experience has also been very positive.

The Benefits

- The accuracy and the quality of the picking have improved and the process has become clearer. Voice-directed work focuses the pickers to do right things in the right order while picking with paper lists enabled individual decisions, states Vainio.

Voice-directed work, according to Vainio, has made training easier, which has speeded up the education of new employees. The amount of occupational accidents has decreased by several percents, and the carbon footprint has improved due to smaller amount of waste paper.

When internal processes run smoothly, it also has an effect on customer relations. Vainio emphasizes that customer feedback has been positive. There are fewer claims now that customers get exactly what they have ordered.

- We weren´t too bad before, but now we can keep the schedules even better. There are less errors and the efficiency has improved.

According to Vainio the co-operation with Optiscan has been easy and flexible once a common vocabulary was reached. He considers communication and the common language as well as the understanding of the other systems used by Heinon Tukku to be essential for the success of the project.