With roots extending before Prohibition, RNDC is one of the nation’s leading wholesale beverage alcohol distributors, specializing in wine and spirits. Having experienced tremendous growth, both organically and through several mergers and acquisitions, RNDC now boasts 44 facilities across the country, totaling over 11.5 million square feet and more than 10,000 associates.

RNDC serves as a critical link between suppliers and those who sell or serve alcoholic beverages, shipping roughly 9 million orders annually to over 250,000 customers, with the majority of deliveries made within a 24-hour window. RNDC has over 400,000 SKUs across the network, and ships in total nearly 45 million bottles annually.

According to Steve Platte, Vice President, Distribution Services for RNDC, customer service, product expertise, and executional excellence are the hallmarks of their enduring success. “Our customers expect 24-hour turnaround on their deliveries. So it’s really important for us to have accurate, on time, in full deliveries for all of our customers,” he said.

“They need that product so they can always have what their customers want. It’s our responsibility and our duty, especially if we want to be the distributor of choice,” said Troncosa.

To ensure the fulfillment of their mission to customers, RNDC partnered with Lucas Systems more than 20 years ago. Today, the Lucas Warehouse Optimization Suite, embodied in Jennifer™, the brains, orchestration engine and voice of the solution, is at work in both the case pick and bottle pick areas, serving as described by Platte, an “imperative part” of RNDC’s fulfillment system.

Platte shares “Lucas is a partner that has been in lockstep with us throughout our shared journey, continuing to grow and evolve with us.” That includes creating value for leaders, workers and customers.

For new workers, typically that means being up to speed and on the floor working in about an hour and a half with Jennifer. “It took me about 30 minutes to learn how to use Jennifer,” said warehouse associate MaCorey Marks. “Jennifer helps me be better at my job, allowing me to be faster by telling me the location, and I can just go right to the location instead of reading a screen.”

The biggest benefit echoed by several workers was how easy it is working with Jennifer. “Before working with Jennifer, I had to pick with paper tickets,” said associate Elijah Blanchard. “It’s so much easier with Jennifer because she tells me what to do, where to go, how much to pick, and she always rephrases it if you ask her to repeat something. It’s perfect.”

For managers, the Lucas Management Console provides real-time visibility into operations, exceptions, associate productivity, and workflow, as well as powerful tools to manage the workforce. “During my production shift, I can view real-time progress and decide where to best allocate workers to keep us on pace, explained Leroy Willis, Night Supervisor at the Louisville, Kentucky RNDC facility, who also finds great value in the reporting tools available through the console.

Finally, driving execution excellence in warehouse operations has allowed RNDC to take their accuracy and productivity to new heights. “Using Lucas software, we see on average, facilities doubling their productivity while also improving their accuracy,” said Platte, noting as an example that the Louisville, Kentucky facility was at 99.6% accuracy.

Like many companies, RNDC values partners rather than just vendors, and looks for like-minded collaborators that understand the unique needs of their customers, and strive to maximize the benefit for all stakeholders. “Lucas helps us run and manage the business by making us more accurate and productive,” said Troncosa. “As part of our culture to serve the needs of our associates, suppliers, customers and community, it’s a huge reason we can get our people home to spend more time with their families.”