TREK BICYCLE

The Journey to Increased Efficiency

Trek is the largest bicycle manufacturer in the United States and second-largest in the world.

Based out of Waterloo, Wisconsin, Trek designs and manufactures high-performance bikes and accessories for mountain, road, triathlon and urban use. Facilities in the United States, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom have created an international company known for its cutting-edge bike technology.

Trek uses Cloud Inventory® and JD Edwards EnterpriseOne.

Challenge

Crowded warehouses. Outdated processes with limited visibility of data. The second-largest bicycle manufacturer in the world needed to mobilize its workforce.

To accommodate continued growth, Trek needed to automate and standardize its warehouse processes — shipping and receiving, directed picks and putaways, and replenishments. The company also needed to use warehouse space more efficiently. Production had decreased as a result of paper-based processes and other inefficiencies.

Finally, Trek wanted to increase workforce efficiency while improving the accuracy of shipping and delivery data. The company needed to place real-time, actionable data into the hands of its employees with easy-to-learn solutions that temporary, seasonal employees could leverage immediately.

“Putting real-time information in the hands of our warehouse personnel improved our productivity by more than 20%,” said Mike Bentheimer, Supply Chain Analyst, Trek

In order to standardize warehouse processes, increase productivity, and optimize use of warehouse space, Trek turned to Cloud Inventory for a complete digital supply chain solution.

Solution

Trek chose to implement Cloud Inventory, which features pre-built, certified integrations with Oracle’s JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Advanced Warehousing. Because Cloud Inventory’s platform is multilingual and integrated from end-to-end, Trek was able to deploy standardized applications worldwide — mobilizing its warehouse processes and supporting local languages across all of its markets.

“In different markets that are not English-speaking, such as Germany and Spain, Cloud Inventory helps us maintain the same processes while speaking the local language,” said Randy Salo, Supply Chain Analyst, Trek.

Results

Trek can now effectively manage its warehouses in real-time. Using Cloud Inventory, Trek combines many smaller tasks into a single process for its pickers—allowing them to fulfill small orders more efficiently. And by sequencing items on their mobile devices, Trek’s employees can complete other processes—such as put-away and replenishment–quicker and easier.

“Our users no longer traffic back-and-forth to batch terminals—they have real feedback, right away,” said Mike Bentheimer, Supply Chain Analyst, Trek. “Putting real-time information in the hands of our warehouse personnel improved our productivity by more than 20%.”

Cloud Inventory helped Trek optimize the use of its warehouse space—quickly locating available bays for put-away and efficiently directing pickers to product as needed. Cloud Inventory’s mobile apps also aligned with the company’s existing processes, helping Trek achieve rapid user acceptance to eliminate analog, paper-based processes, increase data accuracy, and reduce rework.

Trek now has the freedom to manage its warehouses more effectively and relate to its employees internationally—creating large jumps in productivity. By automating its warehouses and minimizing delays between its employees and enterprise software, Trek now has secure, accurate, and timely information. With Cloud Inventory’s help, employees are more productive and customers are more satisfied. Trek has become a mobile enterprise on its journey from analog to digital business.

Industry

Manufacturing & Distribution

ERP: JD Edwards EnterpriseOne

Highlights

• Standardized applications supporting local languages worldwide

• Real-time management of warehouses

• Overall productivity improved by 20%