National Food Distributor

"Multiple Benefits of Visitor Management "

By the numbers:

2008 Revenues: $37.5 Billion

Number of EasyLobby Systems: 12

Background and Initial Implementation

This industry-leading national distributor of food and related products has deployed EasyLobby Visitor Management at its corporate headquarters and at 3 of its distribution centers around the country.

Primary reasons for the installation of EasyLobby at its food distribution centers were:

• To better manage and document the entry and departure of all trucks and business visitors entering each facility; knowing exactly who was entering the facilities and when they checked-in and checked-out.
• To more easily and cost-effectively comply with FDA regulations on the protection of the nation’s food supply under the Bioterrorism Rule, section 306.

According to the company’s head of facilities and technology for the Northeast, “We initially installed EasyLobby because one of our senior executives was impressed with how they were using EasyLobby at corporate to professionally manage their visitors. We decided to put this system in place at several of our distribution centers.”

Deployment at Distribution Centers

EasyLobby was initially deployed at the Northeast Distribution Center in early 2005. 

“The ability to manage and track the drivers, and to document when and how long their drop-offs and pickups take, is hugely valuable toward improving the utilization and efficiency of our operations.  Today all inbound and outbound drivers are tracked and badged by EasyLobby – we make sure everyone gets checked-in and checked-out, and our operations are more efficient because of it.”

Integrating Logistics With EasyLobby

To streamline the processing of trucks entering the distribution centers, a real-time feed from their Logistics system to the EasyLobby database was implemented. Since the Logistics system already contains data on which trucking companies are scheduled to arrive, and what cargo they carried under which PO numbers, the EasyLobby system quickly and easily fills out the FDA data requirement by capturing the driver information from an automated license scan at the gate on arrival (name, photo, etc.) and storing the time of check-in and check-out.

When each truck arrives at a distribution center, the guard locates the record by matching a PO number, the driver’s license is scanned into the existing record, and a barcoded badge is printed from the EasyLobby system letting the driver know which dock/door to load/unload from.

Enhancing Compliance

An even more powerful reason to enhance visitor management was created in late 2004 when the FDA issued their Final Rule on the Establishment and Maintenance of Records to Enhance the Security of the U.S. Food Supply under the Bioterrorism Act.  By requiring ‘persons who manufacture, process, pack, transport, distribute, receive, hold, or import food to establish and maintain records’, the FDA specifically requires food distributors to maintain data on every driver responsible for transporting food products in and out of any warehousing and distribution facility.

The EasyLobby deployment is a “tremendous help in that it tracks all of this information and makes it easily and readily accessible.”

At one of the larger distribution centers for this customer (92 doors), EasyLobby processes about 300 trucks per day at multiple gates.  In addition, more than 350 business visitors and contractors per day are badged by EasyLobby.  All of this data is kept in a single, centrally-located and secure database.

Benefits

“After analyzing all the benefits from EasyLobby, we felt the cost was justified,” according to the company.  “FDA Compliance is an obvious benefit.  However, there is also definite payback in terms of higher efficiency, as well as improved reporting, tracking and analytics of our operational metrics.”

One of the most notable cost improvements from the EasyLobby deployment was a reduction in detention fees charged by third-party shippers. In the past, the facility was incurring significant detention fees charged by suppliers and shippers for delayed drivers.  With EasyLobby, the distribution centers can now challenge those fees with exact data on what time each driver arrived and left the facility.

Future Plans

As the use of EasyLobby expands, the ability of the company to track and analyze specific data on dock operations will allow them to continue to manage their operations, rates and costs more effectively.