RedPrairie to Help Drive Greater Distribution Efficiency And Competitiveness at Georgia-Pacific

Georgia-Pacific Standardizing on RedPrairie Warehouse and Productivity Management Solutions at Eight National Distribution Centers

March 18, 2003

Waukesha,WI - Georgia-Pacific’s consumer products group -- the world’s leading manufacturer of tissue products, with brands such as Brawny towels, Quilted Northern bath tissue, Sparkle towels and napkins, Angel Soft bath tissue, Vanity Fair napkins and Dixie products -- is standardizing on RedPrairie’s warehouse and productivity management solutions to drive greater efficiency and competitiveness at its eight major U.S. distribution centers. Georgia-Pacific currently gains improved throughput and efficiency at four of the centers with RedPrairie’s warehouse management system (WMS), DLx® Warehouse.

 "Our Northwest Service Center, as with all of our distribution facilities, must be the lowest cost provider to compete with outside resources for Georgia-Pacific’s business. If we achieve the expected results from RedPrairie’s productivity management solution, it will give us a competitive advantage."

Ken Du Vall - Senior Manager of Warehouse Management System, Georgia-Pacific 

The latest implementation of DLx® Warehouse at four large distribution facilities that comprise the Northwest Service Center is part of a larger effort to standardize platforms across all consumer product group distribution facilities. 

Ken Du Vall, Georgia-Pacific Senior Manager of Warehouse Management System explains, “We’re developing a WMS center of excellence in Green Bay (WI) to provide better support for all of our distribution facilities. This will include standardized applications and support. Although we evaluated other systems, we selected DLx® Warehouse as the WMS standard for our major facilities because of the significantly increased efficiency it has already demonstrated at our sites in Alabama, Georgia, Oklahoma and Wisconsin, where it has been running for several years.”

During their evaluation, Georgia-Pacific learned about the potential labor efficiency that RedPrairie’s productivity management solution offered. The development of preferred methods and engineered labor standards that are an important part of this solution fit perfectly with Georgia-Pacific’s drive for standardization and promised substantial labor productivity gains.

Commented Du Vall, “Our Northwest Service Center, as with all of our distribution facilities, must be the lowest cost provider to compete with outside resources for Georgia-Pacific’s business. If we achieve the expected results from RedPrairie’s productivity management solution, it will give us a competitive advantage.”

The first of four new Northwest Service Center DLx® Warehouse implementations is scheduled for October 2003 at their one million square foot Front Avenue facility in the Portland, Oregon area. At approximately the same time, the productivity management solution, including preferred methods, engineered standards and DLx® Labor productivity software, will also go live at the Front Avenue site. Two additional sites in the Portland area and one in Woodland, California will implement both RedPrairie systems over the next two years. The systems will be fully integrated with Georgia-Pacific’s SAP R/3 order management system.

A key feature of this multi-site rollout will be the use of the RedPrairie Approach, a laser focus on helping customers achieve measurable results with RedPrairie solutions. “Each site is different enough that a cookie-cutter approach would not work for this rollout,” remarked Du Vall. “Through the RedPrairie Approach, RedPrairie is providing additional assistance to tailor their solution to each facility.”

Concurrent with the Northwest Service Center implementations will be the introduction of RedPrairie’s productivity management solution at the four existing WMS sites. The first of this group to go live, in early 2004, will be the enormous Green Bay facility. 

“Green Bay is a complex mixture of buildings and operations,” said Du Vall. “There is significant opportunity for us to increase efficiency and improve operations by implementing preferred methods and engineered standards. In addition, the system will provide the individual labor performance data we need to implement a gainsharing incentive program to drive our targets.”

Commented John Jazwiec, RedPrairie Company Results Leader, “Our selection as the WMS standard validates the value we have helped Georgia-Pacific achieve with our warehouse and transportation solutions. The addition of productivity management at all eight facilities will further increase their level of efficiency while helping to achieve their goal of standardized applications and processes. Georgia-Pacific has been a leader in the manufacturing sector in utilizing technology to drive millions out of distribution and logistics costs. We’re proud that RedPrairie has been an important part of their success.”

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