A Foodservice Distributor Acquires a Taste for TRG’s Solutions
CUSTOMER SINCE: 2015
DESCRIPTION: Leading U.S. Foodservice Distributor
INITIAL INQUIRY: Equipment Upgrade
SERVICES:
PRODUCTS:
The Problem
For nearly a century, one of the largest foodservice distributors in the U.S. has been a one-stop-shop for quality products to meet its customers’ kitchen needs — serving restaurants, schools, hotels, casinos and healthcare facilities. The company’s success and longevity is no fluke; by continuously innovating and adopting new technologies, the food distributor has ensured that its customers receive high-quality, safe products, on time, with every order.
In 2015, the food distributor recognized the need to upgrade its picking, delivering and invoicing equipment and manual processes to help meet rising demand, lower inaccuracies and improve overall operational efficiency. The company reached out to TRG to help procure and deploy new barcode scanners, mobile computers, tablets and printers.
While this initial investment in upgraded equipment was successful and achieved its desired results, the company soon realized it needed to further its investment. It did this through add-on services to fully streamline operations and eliminate small obstacles that were causing major problems and significant delays.
The Solution
The company’s partnership with us has been critical to streamlining its operations in a few key ways. First, we took over the food distribution company’s break-fix program. Before our overhaul, the company’s provider moved incredibly slowly, often taking up to 10 days to repair or replace a broken device and return it to the facility. The replacement equipment was often not correctly configured to join the fleet out-of-the-box, adding further delays and inefficiencies to the company’s operations.
We were able to cut the turnaround time in half (in some cases, to less than 24 hours). For units that were out-of-warranty or covered under our in-warranty repair authorizations, we performed the repair ourselves. If the item was in-warranty or we were not authorized, we managed the logistics to and from the OEM. We also provided spares pool management – maintaining and managing a pool of ready-to-ship devices from our state-of-the-art facilities. These efforts paid huge dividends - providing immediate and drastic improvements in productivity during times of equipment malfunction.
The food distribution company also asked us to further aid device uptime by improving wireless network performance. When scanners and printers would lose connectivity, end-users thought the devices were malfunctioning. However it often wasn’t the devices themselves causing headaches; it was warehouse network connectivity. To remedy this, the food distributor tasked us with diagnosing and upgrading wireless functionality at several of its facilities. We completed site surveys at several locations to diagnose network problems and then implemented corrective actions. The food distributor has since experienced significantly less network downtime, leading to the benefits of improved device uptime and overall productivity.
Building upon this success, the company then tasked us with improving and managing its mobile device management (MDM) platform. Our MDM support is comprehensive, providing device staging, help desk service, device and application updates and diagnostic services. By leveraging our capabilities and expertise, the foodservice distributor has seen improved device reliability, increased device and employee uptime and more efficient workflows.
Most recently, we began supplying the company with labels, receipt paper and other consumables. The company engaged our services to improve their lead times -- the previous supplier often experienced shipping delays of two or more months -- and to reduce costs. TRG has been successful in reaching those goals, dropping lead times to less than a week and providing dramatic cost savings.
Overall, the food distribution company enjoys peace of mind knowing that should an issue arise, we are ready at the helm to respond quickly. This is best illustrated in an incident that occurred at one of the company’s warehouses on the Friday of a holiday weekend during the COVID-19 pandemic. One of their facilities began having networking issues, and we immediately overnighted a tablet equipped with proprietary software that identified, gathered and diagnosed the issue. One of our representatives arrived to walk the tablet throughout the facility, allowing the software to take readings and send them back to us in real-time. In this way, we successfully resolved the issues over the weekend, ensuring the facility was problem-free as operations resumed early the following week.
The Result
Our relationship with the foodservice distributor has been steadily evolving since its inception in 2015. From a simple equipment and device upgrade to a range of managed services, we have quickly become more than just a vendor - we’ve become a trusted advisor, treating the company’s business as our own. We do this through an unparalleled commitment to servicing our customers and an unmatched ability to innovate and solve problems any time, anywhere.
Are you unhappy with your current managed mobility service provider? Contact TRG today to learn how we can help.
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About TRG
TRG is a global managed solutions provider focused on mobility, point of sale and payments. With facilities across the United States, Canada and Europe, we provide the most comprehensive suite of lifecycle management services – from warehouse to boardroom and deployment to retirement. Our mission is to Make Technology Simple, helping customers accelerate projects, drive application success, improve employee/customer experience and maximize ROI. We’re relentless in our drive to find innovative, effective ways to enhance customer operations and challenge conventional thinking along the way. Learn more about why The Difference Is Us at www.trgsolutions.com.