Improving e-commerce order-fulfilment productivity: A case study

Author's Biography

John C. Peck PhD, was a professor of computer science at Clemson University, serving twice as department head before he retired. He created the Clemson Division of Information Systems Development, where he was responsible for a staff who designed and developed information systems for the state of South Carolina, including Medicaid management information, food stamps, mental health, Title IVD and online DHEC health information systems. Additionally, John founded the Clemson Apparel Research Laboratory, funded for more than 15 years by the US Department of Defense, with a mission of developing advanced manufacturing systems for producing critical apparel products. John published numerous professional papers and was issued two patents in speech technology that enabled disabled people to talk to their sewing machines as alternatives to using their legs to control the machines. After retiring from Clemson, John joined Foxfire Technologies Corporation, a company he founded in 1987, where he designed and developed real-time shop floor control systems for manufacturing and warehouse management systems. John sold Foxfire in 2007 and started FastFetch Corporation, a company that designs and implements hardware and software targeted at fast and accurate order fulfilment in distribution centres. While at FastFetch, John was granted two US patents, numerous international patents and has two US patents pending.

Edward W. Page PhD, is a co-founder of FastFetch Corporation. He has extensive engineering and management experience in a variety of industry, government and university positions. He holds a BS degree in electrical engineering from Clemson University, an MS degree in engineering from the University of Alabama-Huntsville and a PhD degree in electrical engineering from Duke University. He began his engineering career with Teledyne Brown Engineering in Huntsville, AL, where he worked on ground support electronics for NASA’s Apollo Program. He held engineering positions at the US Army Missile Command as well as Research Triangle Institute before beginning an academic career as an assistant professor of electrical engineering at Rice University. In 1975, he joined Clemson University where he served in several roles, including professor of computer science, associate dean of engineering and science and executive director of the Clemson University Research Foundation. Edward has extensive research experience in artificial intelligence and biologically inspired computing paradigms and has served as principal or co-principal investigator on a variety of research projects sponsored by both government and industry organisations. He has also served as a consultant to several government and industry organisations, has published more than 60 papers and authored a book on microcomputer architecture. Edward was the chief hardware designer for FastFetch’s product line and continues to play an active role in R&D activities at FastFetch.

Jim Bate PhD, is vice president for software development at FastFetch Corporation. He earned a BS in mathematics from Bob Jones University and MS and PhD degrees in mathematics from Clemson University. He worked for three years at J. P. Stevens, Inc. implementing IBM’s business system planning and organising an operations research group. After leaving J. P. Stevens, Jim was a contractor for QS Systems, implementing a vital records system for the state of Wisconsin and a payroll system for the state of Oklahoma. In 1983, Jim returned to Clemson University as an associate professor in the computer science department. In 1985, he joined Integrated Support Systems, where he led programming of a logistics system for the US Air Force. In 1989, Jim joined Foxfire Technologies Corporation, where he was responsible for creating and maintaining a real-time shop floor control system and a warehouse management system that were central to Foxfire’s product line. Jim has been with FastFetch Corporation since 2008 and is the chief software developer for FastFetch’s order-fulfilment products.

Garry R. Harper was born and raised in Hialeah (Miami), Florida. He was an All-State baseball and football player in the state of Florida. He was recruited by the University of South Carolina to play football, where he started for three years and still ranks in the top 10 in offensive categories. He was also the quarterback for the 1980 Heisman Trophy winner, George Rogers. Garry spent 12 years with IBM before resigning in 1992 and entering the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, where he earned his Master’s of Divinity in Old Testament/Hebrew and Greek. After ten years in full-time ministry, Garry returned to the business world, where he became a vice president of merchandising at ScanSource, the largest auto-id distributor in the US. After five years with ScanSource, he came to Agilysys in 2004, where he worked as both a client executive and mobile and wireless specialist. His career continued with SYNNEX as director of the mobility business unit. Garry then joined Motion/Xplore Technologies as manager of distribution and channel. In 2017, Garry became vice president of sales and marketing for FastFetch Corporation, where he provides executive leadership of sales and marketing activities, including bringing new products to market, product branding and customer engagement. Garry is a bi-vocational minister and is a motivational speaker to civic clubs, schools and businesses.

Joe Plassmeyer is director of operations at BuySeasons’ distribution centre in New Berlin, WI, where he is responsible for daily operations in a 300,000 sq. ft distribution centre with approximately 100 full-time and 300 seasonal associates. Prior to beginning a career with BuySeasons, Joe was a corporate trainer at Texas Roadhouse. Joe began his career at BuySeasons as a seasonal employee ten years ago and advanced through various positions to become director of operations. In this capacity, Joe has responsibility for all distribution centre operations including receiving, storage, replenishment, picking, packaging, shipping and returns. He is active in continuous improvement projects aimed at improving productivity and accuracy while reducing costs and waste. He recently led a major expansion at BuySeasons, which included the installation of a new warehouse management system supplied by JDA and replacement of BuySeasons’ voice-picking system with multimodal batch-picking carts supplied by FastFetch Corporation. These hardware upgrades, coupled with extensive FastFetch optimisation algorithms, yielded significant productivity increases that enabled BuySeasons to ship almost twice the number of orders with significantly less labour.