A major U.S. airline centralized parts distribution on Infios WMS, configured for aviation and rolled out across three automation systems.
They were good listeners, and that was the key. I am talking from the business side and they are talking from IT, so you have to build a language you both understand to get the end product you are looking for.Paul Hill, Sr. Manager, Distribution & Warehousing
The airline ran on an ERP that paid the bills and kept finance happy, but was never built to run a warehouse. Moving parts distribution into one central hub meant it finally needed a real WMS, and aviation inventory does not behave like normal inventory.
"It is not just box in, box out. We overhaul the part and bring it back into inventory multiple times, which means tracking serial numbers, and that is complex. We needed a system that could handle all of those attributes and warn us on the receiving end."
Paul Hill, Sr. Manager, Distribution & WarehousingThe WMS had to recognize four kinds of part a standard warehouse rarely handles:
A part is pulled, overhauled and returned to inventory again and again, and every cycle has to stay tied to its serial number.
Hazmat is flagged, handled and stored to regulation, with the system guiding the clerk at receiving instead of relying on memory.
Some parts expire. The system knows when to pull them and warns the team before an aged part is used.
Electrostatic discharge parts need special handling and storage, down to which cabinet they belong in.
At receiving, the system reads those attributes and tells each clerk what to do: this part to a clean cabinet, this one to cold storage, this one off the shelf next month. That is why configurability sat at the top of the airline's checklist.
The airline evaluated many WMS vendors and chose Infios. The deciding factor was configurability: Infios could be shaped around aviation instead of forcing the airline to change how it works.
Plenty of planning went in up front, but rollout always surfaces what no plan caught. E2 made fixes in an agile way as issues came up, and the two teams learned to speak one language: business on one side, IT on the other, meeting in the middle.
"E2 was a pleasure to work with and very patient. They are good listeners, and that was the key."
Paul Hill, Sr. Manager, Distribution & WarehousingThe airline did not flip a switch. It wrote business requirements and user acceptance test scripts, then proved the system at each step: the initial go-live, each new material type, and each piece of automation as it came online.
Automated storage and retrieval went in first, and the team worked out the kinks before anything else was layered on top.
Folded into the same Infios workflow and validated against their own acceptance scripts before go-live.
Autonomous mobile robots came online last, each rollout proven before the team moved forward.
Every material type and every automation got its own requirements and acceptance scripts. Nothing went live on assumption.
The airline had a rare way to measure success: a manual warehouse and an automated warehouse with similar SKU counts, side by side under one roof.
| Measure | Manual warehouse | Infios + automation |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions | Keyed by hand | Scan-driven, 3 to 4 times faster |
| Shipping | Each package keyed by hand | Uses data the system already has |
| Accuracy | Well below target | Up into the 90s |
"We could transact in and out of Infios at three to one, maybe four to one speed. And because you are scanning everything, you catch the empty bin and adjust on the fly. Our accuracy went up into the 90s. It had been way lower, because that ERP was never designed to manage a warehouse."
Paul Hill, Sr. Manager, Distribution & WarehousingPaul Hill walks through the manual warehouse next door, how the team chose the system, and what changed once it went live.
"There are a lot of good, hardworking, intelligent people who figure out a way to get it done. That is what we experienced."
Paul Hill, Sr. Manager, Distribution & Warehousing
E2's team knew Infios well, so the airline's unusual requirements were familiar ground. Fixes were made as rollout surfaced them, and E2 translated between the business floor and the IT build until both sides described the same system. When the build wrapped, the airline came down to celebrate with the E2 team.
Implementing the industry-leading WMS of Infios at a major airline was challenging yet rewarding. It took grit to integrate two automation solutions with complex airline business requirements. We increased the customer's efficiency in putaway and picking by integrating Crown, an automated forklift solution, into Infios' WA suite. It was a good feeling knowing that our hard work kept planes in the air and less time on the ground.
I thoroughly enjoyed integrating the intricate standards of the airline industry into Infios' AutoWave Application. This enabled the airline to efficiently meet demand across their network, from addressing Aircraft on Ground (AOG) situations to executing maintenance tasks planned a month in advance.
One of the most fulfilling parts of this project was being on-site during rollout, working directly with the operation to fine-tune the timing and efficiency between Infios WMS and the automated systems. Real-world testing gave us the insight needed to adjust processes in a way that made sense on the floor, not just on paper. It was also a great opportunity to dive into airline industry standards and apply them within the WMS framework. Bridging those two worlds, automation and aviation, was both challenging and rewarding.
Moving to a central distribution center, or standing up Infios around serial tracking, hazmat, shelf life or automation? We will help you choose, design and roll it out one proven step at a time.