VSE Accelerates Supply Chain Management

Challenge

VSE Corporation was experiencing major growth as they began competing for larger contracts. With scalability becoming a critical priority, their manual processes in day-to-day inventory management for vehicle overhauls were preventing them from continuing to grow without drastically increasing the size of their workforce. Furthermore, their employees were managing MRO inventory on spreadsheets as well as using similar manual processes for purchase order receiving, cycle counting, and inventory transfers – an inefficient process leaving multiple opportunities for error.

RFgen really blew our socks off. You could scan something and data would appear in Costpoint—live and in real-time.

Cathy Henry, Director of IT Operations

VSE Corporation

Solution

RFgen recommended and guided the integration of barcode scanning into inventory management processes to reduce the manual data entry burden for employees at the receiving dock, the warehouse, and on the shop floor.

“Our employees just want to fix trucks,” recalled Cathy Henry, Director of IT Operations at VSE. “They don’t want to mess with computers. That’s why it was really critical to have an automated solution that included barcode scanning. We want to be able to scan something as it was received on the loading dock and have that item automatically loaded into inventory at a specific rack, shelf, and bin. By doing this, we can grow the business without having to add a lot of staff. We need to scale up.”

Henry’s top priority for an automated data collection solution was seamless integration to Deltek Costpoint. Henry implemented RFgen Mobile Foundations—the only Deltek-recommended mobile solution for providing real-time, bi-directional information exchange between Costpoint and barcode scanners, handheld devices, RFID devices, and PLCs for the aerospace and defense industry.

Our employees just want to fix trucks. They don’t want to mess with computers. That’s why it was really critical to have an automated solution that included barcode scanning.

Cathy Henry, Director of IT Operations

VSE Corporation

Results

VSE deployed RFgen and made drastic improvements in their warehouse and MRO operations.

Benefits and results include:

Automated data collection and implemented mobile barcode scanning capabilities
Seamless real-time ERP integration with Deltek Costpoint and Costpoint Inventory Module
Significantly increased inventory management control, efficiency, and visibility
Achieved 100% part traceability to comply with DoD contracts and ensure 100% billing accuracy
Fast, easy mass inventory transfer functionality between bins, racks, sections, or locations

Endless Efficiency Gains Through Automation

Employees found the barcode scanners simple and easy to use. Eliminating the need for manual, spreadsheet-based data entry significantly reduced the time it takes for employees to perform each task. The VSE team has also expanded the scope of implementation with several additional features as they realized the many capabilities of their new Costpoint-RFgen environment.

It was also important to us to choose a partner who had "been there, done that" and could provide a live, successful system quickly.

Cathy Henry, Director of IT Operations

VSE Corporation

Headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, VSE Corporation is a diversified defense contractor employing over 2,700 people. As a preferred strategic partner to the U.S. Department of Defense, VSE extends the service life of military land, sea and air vehicles by providing sustainment services, consisting of supply chain management (SCM) and maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO).

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