Case study
Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery
Washington’s most acclaimed winery attains greater efficiency and reliability with RFgen for JD Edwards.
Results
- Increased the volume of shipping processes, dramatically improving productivity.
- Gained traceability from the warehouse to outbound staging areas.
- Reduced seasonal staffing through automation.
Challenge
Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery is one of the few premium wineries in the world with two state-of-the-art wineries, one exclusively devoted to white wines in Woodinville, WA and the other exclusively devoted to red wines, Canoe Ridge Estate Winery in Eastern Washington.
Chateau Ste. Michelle needed to eliminate manual recording and improve the overall efficiency, accuracy, and timeliness of their bottling production process. They hoped to follow this with the same efficiencies and benefits for the winery’s Pick and Ship processes.
Results
- Increased the volume of shipping processes, dramatically improving productivity.
- Gained traceability from the warehouse to outbound staging areas.
- Reduced seasonal staffing through automation.
Solution
To overcome the obstacles with their bottling production and shipping processes, Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery sought out a software partner that was flexible and customizable.
Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery wanted to use a Pallet ID system to identify and track each pallet throughout its production facility,” stated Paul Hanson, RFgen Software lead consultant for the Chateau Ste. Michelle partnership. “The solution started with placing a barcode on each pallet for easy scanning and tracking from the initial selection of the ingredients, through the multiple steps of the bottling process on the shop floor, until it finally ships.”
“We were able to customize the client’s License Plating Suite using our RFgen solution”, Hanson added. “The complexity of our customization increased when the winery decided to split their picking areas. Chateau Ste. Michelle had different tiers or rows of pallets and they would store partial pallets in the forward pick zones. We were able to split up that picking process, which was a huge improvement for their operations.” The customized RFgen application looks at the items that comprise an order, builds a Pick List, tells the pickers to go to a certain location in the warehouse, and shows them the lot numbers they should pick. Since transactions are updated in real-time, users are easily directed to the right location for picking using an optimized route.
Results
The flawless deployment of RFgen’s software has not only given Chateau Ste. Michelle real-time visibility of their warehouses and their facilities, but it has also been customized to meet their exact business needs.
Benefits included:
- Increased the volume of shipping processes, dramatically improving productivity.
- Gained traceability from the warehouse to outbound staging areas.
- Reduced seasonal staffing through automation.
The huge benefit RFgen has given us is the ability to increase production with the same amount of resources.
Michael Dever
Applications Manager, Chateau Ste. Michelle WineryBoosting Efficiency Through Optimization
Michael Dever, Chateau Ste. Michelle’s Applications Manager for financial and production systems is incredibly satisfied with the flexibility of the RFgen solution for their bottling production process. “We’ve been successfully using the RFgen solution in production for a while now, and we’re very happy that it’s doing what we need it to do,” said Dever. “It’s very flexible, so we’ve deployed it to four bottling lines, including our mobile bottling lines, with tremendous success.”
We’ve been successfully using the RFgen solution in production for a while now, and we’re very happy that it’s doing what we need it to do. It’s very flexible, so we’ve deployed it to four bottling lines, including our mobile bottling lines, with tremendous success.
Michael Dever
Applications Manager, Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery
Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery is Washington State’s oldest and most acclaimed winery. One of the most popular tourist attractions in the Puget Sound area, the winery features its signature wines, tours, and tastings at their historic chateau and grounds.