Ace Endico Improves Productivity and Accuracy with Lucas

To support growth, Ace Endico needed a solution to help their workforce pick more cases in the same number of hours and load trucks more efficiently. “The main things we needed were better productivity and accuracy and an easier, faster way to get new employees up to standard,” says Murray Hertzberg, President of Ace Endico. After researching a variety of solutions, Hertzberg and his management team felt Lucas addressed the accuracy, productivity and training challenges, in addition to improving safety for workers.

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About Ace Endico

Ace Endico is a growing regional foodservice distributor in New York State. With growth comes the challenge to maintain and improve service while shipping larger volumes from the same physical space.

“Our case picking rates were about 135-145 cases per hour in the old system and now it is about 180, which is a greater than 25 percent increase in productivity. In addition, selection errors were reduced by 44% within months of implementation. We have improved the productivity and quality of life for selectors.”
Murray Hertzeberg, President at Ace Endico

The Lucas Solution

  • The Lucas solution includes unique AI-based optimization that is embodied in Jennifer™, the brains, voice and orchestration engine of the solution.
  • The Lucas system uses order, inventory and task information from their legacy WMS, and Jennifer™ prioritizes the orders and organizes work assignments based on rules configured for O&M’s needs.
  • Voice-directed picking across product areas, including case pick to pallet and cart picking for LUM items.
  • The management console helps managers manage work, audits and exceptions, and provides real-time productivity reporting.
  • The Lucas mobile application runs on industry standards mobile devices.

The Results

  • Each new user received 2-3 hours of training and the vast majority were picking productively on their first day.
  • Overall DC productivity across all activities (including receiving, replenishment and other tasks that were unchanged) increased greater than 10 percent.
  • Voice-directed picking across product areas, including case pick to pallet and cart picking for LUM items.