The Problem: a “Free-for-All” at Encore’s Warehouse Docks

Recently appointed to her role as Logistics and Warehousing Manager at Encore Glass in 2022, Stephanie Wallis was taking a fresh look at the way the nearly 50-year old company had been doing things. A couple aspects of its receiving operations stood out: the appointment scheduling and driver check-in systems. 

“Our Excel spreadsheet that we booked our appointments on was really in need of some attention,” she said. “There was no true control. We didn't really understand even what our receiving hours were, or how many concurrent appointments we could run at a time … we would just blindly accept appointments. It was a free-for-all.” 

This lack of control and unpredictability caused stress, inefficiency, and miscommunications for Encore’s warehouse staff.

With Conduit: Predictability, Prioritization, and Planning

In short order, Encore Glass had fully transitioned its appointment booking to Conduit’s software. “[Conduit] took over our Excel spreadsheet really quickly…. As soon as we got it off the ground, everyone just hit the ground running.” 

Conduit brought the structure and predictability that Encore needed to run its inbound operations smoothly. Encore used to be surprised to discover that products due to be shipped out had arrived damaged. With Conduit, Encore gained the time they needed to avoid those last-minute disruptions. 

“Our ability to really give appointments, even just setting the load length [and] dwell time [...] ensures that the product is clean [and] good before it gets put away in inventory … It just really helped us to set that structure.”

Today, Encore has greater visibility into what is coming to their facility than before and the information they need to prioritize when things don’t go as planned. “There's still trucks that show up out of sorts. But we're able to say, ‘Yeah, you didn't check in first,’ or ‘you didn't check in on time. You're late. I've got to service this [truck] first.’ So it really gives us the power to do that.”

Encore can now better forecast, plan, and save money with smarter staffing decisions. Thanks to Conduit, Stephanie said, “We now know the max number of appointments we can allow during normal conditions. And then we can tailor the [staffing] schedule accordingly, if we need to amp it up or reduce it down.”

Improving Business Partners’ Performance with Conduit

Conduit’s impact has extended beyond Encore’s warehouse: Stephanie believes it improved the way its external partners operate, too. “[Conduit] really forced [Encore’s vendors] to examine their processes and how they've abused our appointment system in the past, or altogether didn't use appointments. They kind of just showed up on their own free will. And so forcing that change upon them was good for us both. They've done a lot of self-discovery this year as well due to the Conduit implementation.” 

For vendors and carriers that aren’t as keen on self-improvement, Conduit gives Stephanie the data she needs to hold them accountable to high performance. 

“We're able to share our data with our vendors in a scorecard view… that's been really helpful. It's something I'm publishing to vendors that have a bit of a habit of showing up as they please. And they can really take a look at it, and we can work together on solutions to make that overall better.“

Benefits of Cross-team Purchase Order Visibility

Conduit has helped Encore take their logistics operations to the next level, including in some unexpected ways. Stephanie noted that, using Conduit, their management of Purchase Orders (POs) has improved so that Encore is caught off guard less often when goods received don’t match expectations. 

“We've come a long way in terms of our POs,” Stephanie said. “I think Conduit actually forced our hand with that, too, because we've had instances where we receive goods, but it doesn't fulfill the entire PO quantity. So we only came to realize that once it's production day.” 

“Now, everyone can see what's coming in total and know that there's a discrepancy or deviation before it's too late.”

Moreover, Conduit broke down information silos that existed between teams at Encore regarding purchase orders, facilitating collaboration to solve problems. “The receiving team isn't the team managing the POs, [so] there's a natural disconnect” between that team and others, Stephanie said. “I wouldn't expect receiving to be able to call up our vendor contact and give them a description of the issue at hand. [Conduit] really allows us to triage when necessary and just dive in head-first together.”

Encore and Conduit: Growing Together

Encore Glass has been a key partner whose feedback has been invaluable for creating the product that exists today. Conduit has in turn made it easy for Encore to expand its own business. Today Encore is doubling its warehouse capacity, and Stephanie and her team appreciate how Conduit has made it easy for them to scale. 

“The inventory control team yesterday said to me, ‘It's a really good thing that we've got Conduit,’” Stephanie said. “We don't have to worry about the receiving schedule because we have that locked in, and it was really simple to build that new location.”

Conduit and You

How can you know if it’s time to modernize your warehouse dock operations with Conduit? Stephanie suggests staying in touch with your “boots-on-the-ground” warehouse staff. In her words, it can be “as simple as asking your crew, how do they feel about the receiving process? … Ultimately they're the ones that are having to react to the chaos and the confusion of not knowing what's coming in at a given time.” 

Based on her experience, though, Stephanie easily recommends Conduit to others. “There's definitely some other companies that come to mind that could benefit from it,” she said. “It’s been wonderful.”