PetFood Experts Reduces Labor Spend and Improves Service Levels across 6 Distribution Centers

Overview

Headquartered inRhode Island with thirteen distribution centers throughout the U.S, Pet FoodExperts has grown to be a leading distributor of pet food and supplies,partnering with 6,500 specialty retailers in 39 states.

The Challenge

As Pet Food Experts’ distributionnetwork scales to meet their customer promise of high fill-rates and on-timedelivery, order volumes in each location grew more variable which made laborplanning and staffing more complex.

“For most of our locations, volume isdisproportionately higher in the 1^st half of the week” reflects PaulMcCarron, Chief Operating Officer.

‍Pet Food Experts’ Leadership Team sought a flexible staffing solution thatwould allow labor to be optimally planned and managed in line with fluctuationsin order volumes.

The Solution

They needed asolution that could work alongside their WMS, HR System, and spreadsheets andbe easily configured to each site and department. The solution also needed tobe intuitive for Recruiting Teams, Operations Leaders, and Managers at the sitelevel.

Results  

Since teaming upwith Jetson, Pet Food Experts was able to reduce labor spend by over $600thousand annually, decreased overtime by over 30% per week, and achieved other bottom-linebenefits.

“In our Monday staffing meetings every conversation begins and ends withthe data in Jetson,” said McCarron.

Here are someways Pet Food Experts has unlocked labor efficiencies and improved servicelevels across their distribution network:

1. Aligned Staffing Levels with OrderVolumes  

The Pet FoodExperts Team maintained a staffing plan for each location in spreadsheets whichneeded to be manually updated based on changes in order volumes, turnover, andabsences.

“Before Jetson, staffing was akin to a kindergarten soccer game where wewere chasing the soccer ball around the field” reflects McCarron.  

Jetson takes theguesswork and number crunching out of labor planning for Pet Food Experts, withautomated staffing targets that update in line with order volumes and changesin staffing levels at each location so that teams can work off an accurate and upto date picture of labor needs.

2. Empowered Managers with OvertimeVisibility and Decision Support  

Tracking overtime was retroactive andmanual for operations teams at Pet Food Experts.

“We were exporting data manually fromour payroll provider into a spreadsheet and doing calculations each day tofigure out what was going on with overtime” reflects Martin Kell, Sr. OperationsManager.

Jetson provides managers a real-timeview of overtime hours with intelligence to support optimal coverage decisions.

“We’ve reduced unnecessary spend byadjusting our schedules based on the insights from Jetson’s Overtime Tracker,”said Kell.

3. Incorporated Productivity into theirStaffing Approach

By integratingwith Pet Food Experts’ picking system, Jetson pulls in productivity data foreach location and work area to yield precise staffing targets. Working offproductivity gives teams an opportunity to complete more orders with fewerlabor hours than they thought possible.

“The tool has allowed leadership to challenge their headcount needs andproductivity assumptions with all the data and historicals to back it up”reflects McCarron.

4.SimplifiedHoliday Planning

Holiday closures have a big impact onPet Food Expert’s order volume the week before, the week of, and the weekafter. Scheduling labor over the holidays was a tedious and complex exercisefor Operations Teams at the sites and often resulted in more overtime thanplanned.

Leveraging the planning capabilities inJetson, “we’ve been able to generate an optimal labor plan in half the timethat accurately reflects closures or shortened schedules while avoidingunneccesary overtime!” explains McCarron.

5. Mitigated Coverage Gaps with Predictive Attendance

Call-outs and absences createvariability in coverage and overtime across the Pet Food Experts distributionnetwork which drives labor costs. Jetson helps each location build a moreresilient staffing plan by seamlessly integrating historical call-outs andattendance data into each week's labor plan.

“We’ve been able to put math behind ourlabor assumptions for call-outs and absences using historical data” explainsBrian Wyrostek, VP Business Intelligence.

6. Gave Teams a Single Source of Truthfor Current and Future Staffing Needs

Jetson haseliminated unnecessary meetings and back and forth between teams at Pet FoodExperts, allowing Operations Leaders to focus on meeting their delivery promiseinstead of wrangling spreadsheets.

“Jetson has become a central hub for all ourlabor and planning data, creating a standard across the network that lets eachlocation plan and manage their labor the same way” reflects Wyrostek.