Introduction – Growing on Tradition
Freund’s Fish is a well-known presence in Brooklyn, they offer a wide variety of fresh kosher seafood to clientele throughout the Tri-state area and beyond. First opened by Shea Freund in 1949, it is still a family run business today, with a focus on quality and service. While they still offer fresh fish from their original location in Brooklyn, they have also grown over the years, and evolved with the market. Today they have a variety of offerings which include:

• Freund’s Fish market – the original store offering kosher fresh fish
• Freund’s Sushi and Grill – offering fresh sushi as well as a variety of other ready-made fish and deli products
• Freund’s Frozen Fish – a line of frozen products which are stocked at a number of grocery stores
• Wholesale products – this includes sushi products as well as sauces, seasonings and marinades

All of these business areas however are still serviced through a central warehouse. With an extensive product range, strict product control conditions, and different business areas having different product requirements, Freund’s Fish needed a warehouse management system that would help streamline operations.

Problem – A Data Bottleneck
While the business continued to grow, Freund’s Fish found that the systems and processes they were using were not adequately scaling with them. All activity in the warehouse was being tracked through a simple application combined with spreadsheets. The system was all run through one device, which created an extreme bottleneck, as employees on the floor had to constantly pass on information that needed to be entered. The warehouse workers also felt no agency over what they were doing as they had to constantly check back to a central point for their next tasks. The process was very inefficient, and it became very easy for the work to overtake the processing, so that data capture was constantly falling behind. If it was not possible to capture all the transactions on a particular day due to time constraints, they would immediately fall behind.

The extremely manual nature of the data capture system was also putting a lot of pressure on a single person. That bottleneck was in turn slowing down the entire operation and inhibiting growth.

The manual data capture also meant there was no validation or verification during the actual picking and packing processes. This made the workers more prone to mistakes, which could compound over time to create inaccurate stock levels and product losses. Because there was no live validation, they would only get a clear view of how things were going when they ran a report at the end of the week. There was no way to pull up a live view of the inventory or share data with people who might need it.

Solution – Clearing the Chokepoint
After struggling with these problems for a while Freund’s Fish decided to look for a solution and reached out to GraniteWMS partner, PCWare Business Solutions. After an initial meeting it was clear that it could solve a lot of the problems Freund’s was experiencing. The customizable nature of GraniteWMS means it could be adjusted to fit the needs of the business while alleviating the bottleneck by enabling tracking of all processes through barcode scanning.

GraniteWMS is a simple and easy to use application used to run and monitor all warehouse processes, such as picking and packing, as well as track and manage stock levels and inventory. GraniteWMS uses barcode scanning as the key functionality for all processes. Every item in the warehouse will have a unique barcode that identifies the item, as well as additional information such as batch number, expiry date, location, etc. This means every time a warehouse worker interacts with an item a record is automatically generated. To ensure that the solution was deployed effectively at Freund’s Fish the GraniteWMS team spent time on the ground during the transition and go-live doing the implementation and set up.

With GraniteWMS’s expert consultation, Freund’s Fish not only updated their warehouse management system, but also implemented improved business processes. The GraniteWMS team ensured that the warehouse was running according to best practice. This included tasks such as revamping the pallet system and reorganizing how the racks were numbered.

Outcome – Increased Efficiency Enables Growth
Since implementing GraniteWMS Freund’s has seen a noticeable improvement in the efficiency, productivity, and visibility for all warehouse processes. By removing the data capturing bottleneck, providing real-time visibility, and implementing warehousing industry best practice, GraniteWMS has had a significant positive impact on Freund’s Fish’s business.

According to Freund’s Fish it has been noticeably easier for everyone to have a complete system in place, empowering workers to complete tasks more efficiently with fewer mistakes. Workers on the warehouse floor don’t need constant input as everything is there for them on the scanner, so they are no longer going back and forth relaying information.

”ג נג צן , עציעל ט אא טאלריטע אגרפאם.זרסוינדופ ךיא ן ינג ןעע נפארמאציע עגן דער לאט ןא ערהאוס“.פועיקזי
– Sholy, Warehouse manager

Being able to track batch and lot numbers more easily has also made things easier from a health department and reporting perspective. For a product such as seafood, keeping track of information such as cold chain and expiry dates is obviously very important, and GraniteWMS makes accessing this information easier, and more actionable. For example, if there is something wrong with a batch it is much easier to find and pull all the affected items. Finally, by removing the data bottleneck Freund’s Fish has also been able to grow in a way they were not previously capable of, as it has allowed them to take more orders and process them more efficiently.

“Shrage is one of my favorite customers. He stretches the capability of the system but at the same time, he really understands how it works and puts in the effort to ensure that it works properly. Software alone does not solve business problems – the people matter too.” – Craig Collins, CEO, GraniteWMS

Contact GraniteWMS:
info@granitewms.com
www.granitewms.com