Australian automotive parts and accessories group, Auto One has improved its retail and supply chain processes with the help of Honeywell technology, decreasing product picking time across its operations by 30%.

“Stock-take within our stores was previously labour intensive and prone to human error due to the manual and paper-based processes,” Auto One franchise operations manager, Adam Townsend said.

“Our legacy warehouse scanners also didn’t integrate with our warehouse systems. As a result, order picking was done by printing and scanning packing slips, which was open to inefficiencies.”

To resolve efficiency issues with its legacy systems Auto One worked with integration partner Sonar Technologies to deploy the Honeywell CK65 mobile computer across its operations.

“The CK65 system plays an important role at both our DCs and stores, by systematically listing and locating all Auto One products for order picking and organising inventory. The CK65 is used to receive orders, put away stock, pick and dispatch purchased orders, and complete DC and in-store inventory stock-take,” Townsend said.

Retail processes have been enhanced with the new mobile computers, which improve speed and accuracy of product audits.

“The use of Honeywell devices across our retail operations has allowed Auto One to reduce stock-take time by 50%. This is compared with the previous legacy system we had in place, which resulted in store closures and after-hours work being required to complete stock-take tasks.”

The integration of the Honeywell CK65 into Auto One’s order picking processes has increased the accuracy of product identification via barcode scanning when compared to the old devices, which would not read poor quality barcodes, requiring staff to enter them manually.

“Our retail warehouse has seen a 35% increase in accuracy in relation to workflows such as order picking, which means we now have an overall picking accuracy of 99%. This is largely due to the CK65’s ability to read damaged or poor-quality barcodes that our old system simply could not.”

The Honeywell CK65 has also been integrated with Auto One’s B2B portal for its customers and ensures stock availability information inside the portal is updated in real-time.