W&H Systems Facilitates Win of Modern Materials Handling Productivity Achievement Award 2012 for Oriental Trading Company

Warehousing/Distribution Category Winner for Improving Fulfillment Operations & Providing Excellent Customer Service. End Quote

(1888PressRelease) April 19, 2012 - Carlstadt, NJ - W&H Systems, Inc., a full-service integrator of conveyor and material handling systems that improve fulfillment operations and achieve maximum warehouse efficiency, announces they were instrumental in helping their customer, Oriental Trading Company, win the prestigious Productivity Achievement Award from Modern Materials Handling magazine. W&H Systems designed and implemented a material handling system that incorporates a warehouse control system, voice picking technology, a high speed unit sortation system, conveyor systems, and a shipping sorter that helped Oriental Trading Company achieve a 45% increase in productivity and a 60% reduction in pick errors.

"We are pleased that Oriental Trading Company, best known for products associated with fun and games, was chosen for the Productivity Achievement award for their new 750,000 sq. ft. distribution center (DC)," said Don Betman, President of W&H Systems. "This state of the art facility picks and packs over 78M units annually with an accuracy of 99.9%, which would be impossible without the sophisticated material handling system we designed and implemented."

With limited space for additional SKUs and pick-to-cart processes, Oriental Trading Company's old facility didn't have the room to add any new SKUs that their merchandising team wanted to bring in to continue to grow the business. With the ingenuity and professionalism of the W&H Systems team, the new DC can support SKU proliferation with a pick zone that can hold up to 50,000 SKUs and minimizes travel distances and pick times.

The Oriental Trading Company's DC went from a paper-driven facility to a highly automated operation using a 250,000 sq. ft. fulfillment area featuring a 3-level mezzanine; voice recognition technology to automate picking; a sophisticated double-density tilt tray sorter that feeds 600 packout stations; transportation conveyor and a secondary sortation system to deliver packages to carrier trailers. W&H Systems' warehouse control system (WCS) controls conveyor and sortation systems, optimizes picking and packing waves, sends pick information to voice picking, and directs the packout operations. The WCS integrates with a warehouse management system that is in charge of inventory management and communication.

Each year, Modern Materials Handling Productivity Achievement Awards honor companies that have been featured in cover stories in the publication. These companies have made outstanding strides in improving operations through materials handling and related information systems. The Oriental Trading Company was chosen in the Warehousing/Distribution category and recognized for their ability to provide outstanding customer service, quickly respond to changing business conditions, deliver orders that meet customer requirements, and improve operations.

About W&H Systems, Inc.

W&H Systems, one of America's most experienced integrators of automated material handling systems, specializes in optimizing the flow of merchandise through warehouses while minimizing labor and maximizing space utilization. Our wide range of equipment utilized in our material handling systems includes conveyor systems, warehouse control systems, high-speed carton and unit sortation, AS/RS, GOH systems, paperless picking and packing systems, other commodity equipment and specially designed equipment which complements our material handling system designs. By providing the "Total Solution" (needs assessment, design, software, equipment, implementation, commissioning and support), W&H insures innovative solutions today, for tomorrow's requirements. W&H has vast experience serving manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers and logistic providers for the consumer goods industries, such as Oriental Trading Company, Dick's Sporting Goods, Burberry USA, Empire Merchants, Recreational Equipment, Inc., Jos. A. Bank Clothiers, Armani Exchange, and Belk's.

For more information, visit www.whsystems.com.

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