A Case of Success: Beer Distributor Maximizes DC Efficiency with Lucas Warehouse Optimization Suite

A growing, family-owned beer distributor in the Eastern U.S. was battling to keep pace with rising orders, overtime costs were increasing, and they were struggling to get trucks out of their two DCs on time. While their larger distribution facility had experienced some productivity gains through a legacy voice picking system, their other, smaller DC was especially challenged, due to an outdated paper-based order selection process.
The operations team was looking for alternative solutions that could provide a better overall ROI through productivity increases and other operational gains, along with a lower per-user cost. The VP of Operations approached Lucas to understand how the Lucas mobile, voice-directed Warehouse Optimization Suite could offer them optimization benefits beyond what they were able to realize from the voice system they had been using.

Bringing new benefits to picking operations

In a series of on-site discussions, the Lucas team identified several process enhancements that Lucas could provide that were not available in the distributor’s current WMS or voice solution. In particular, the Lucas Warehouse Optimization Suite includes asset tracking and pallet-building capabilities that would save time and money without adding to the cost of the solution. Unlike simple route-based pallet sequencing in a WMS, Jennifer, the voice, brains and orchestration engine of the optimization suite, considers order priority, selection location, travel cost, product attributes, and other factors to create optimal multi-pallet units of work. Jennifer™ evaluates millions of potential combinations to determine the “best match” or grouping of work from among the available pallets.
Better pallet building offered additional advantages for delivery and customer service. The Lucas Warehouse Optimization Suite also provides real-time management reporting tools that would drive additional operational improvements in both DCs.

Lucas mobile applications also offered other distinct advantages over the distributors current voice-only applications:

  • Lucas solutions run on Android hardware devices (smartphones, tablets, or RF terminals), which allowed the distributor to replace proprietary voice terminals and eliminate the risk of using an out of support Windows OS.
  • Lucas’ unique dual speech engine recognition technology reduces employee training time to just a few minutes and eliminates concerns about accents and other speech challenges in a multi-lingual workforce.
  • Jennifer provides on-screen training, user tips and a more secure, intuitive log in process than voice-only systems. The mobile device screen also provides additional diagnostics and alerts for users and IT support staff. The screen can also be disabled or turned off to eliminate distractions.


Improved sector productivity

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Elimination of overtime


Improved accuracy and customer service

Easy implementation drives efficiency, labor, and accuracy gains

The Lucas Warehouse Optimization Suite was installed in the smaller DC and immediately improved selector productivity. “It wasn’t unusual for us to complete picking orders by 2 p.m., but with the Lucas solution our team is typically done by 6 a.m.,” reports the VP of Distribution. “We have practically eliminated overtime and improved customer service and accuracy.”

Based on those results, the company then installed the Lucas system in the larger DC, which had been using the legacy voice system for five years. The changeover was a non-event for users. “In less than 20 minutes, a user could switch over to the Lucas application.” The implementation time for installing the Lucas solution in two DCs was half the time it took to install the previous voice system in a single site.

“The Lucas warehouse optimization solution has transformed operations and added a range of new management and mobile work capabilities that make us more efficient and effective than ever before,” says VP of Operations.