How Rocket Mobile Helped Hallmark Cards UK

Organisations that rely on SAP EWM for management of their supply chain and fulfilment processes are recognising the urgent need for improved mobile user experience.

Increased pressures on warehouses brought about by the combination of the pandemic and Brexit, notably labour shortages and transport delays, mean efficiency at every stage of the supply chain has never been more important.

Delivering on those efficiency and productivity gains is why the Rocket Mobile solution was developed.

Businesses deploying SAP mobile applications with Rocket Mobile can improve user experience up to 200% faster than with SAP alone. It’s these kinds of advantages offered by Rocket Mobile that led Hallmark Cards UK to choose the solution.

What challenges did Hallmark Cards UK face?

With their market share under threat from new and established competitors, Hallmark had to evolve their offering to ensure they could deliver on shifting customer requirements. Specifically, this was the desire to not be constrained by the traditional wholesale retail fulfilment model. Smaller orders were becoming more frequent. Order lines that had previously been cases and pallets would sometimes be made up of as little as individual cards.

However, the layout of Hallmark’s UK warehouse in Brighouse, Yorkshire, was set up to accommodate large volume wholesale demand. The warehouse’s processes and operational technology was also optimised for this purpose. As a result, single item picking simply couldn’t be achieved efficiently or cost-effectively.

Why Rocket Mobile was the perfect solution

Hallmark Cards UK first engaged Rocket back in 2011 with the aim of leveraging the power of SAP EWM to streamline warehouse processes. They returned to their supply chain expertise partner to achieve the goal of creating highly optimised and easy to use mobile picking processes.

High picking order efficiency

One of the critical success factors of the project was delivering high order picking efficiency.

To achieve this, part of the new warehouse layout included a dedicated single picking area. This was supported by pick wave planning and optimised ecommerce picking routes, while mobile devices were also key — specifically the Honeywell Dolphin 75e.

Configured to be worn on the operator’s forearm and combined with a scanner mounted to the wrist, the device made it easier and faster to interact with the SAP EWM system, while also optimising product handling.

Compared with standard SAP ITS Mobile, Rocket Mobile’s user interface makes a significant difference to productivity and efficiency.

Rocket Mobile’s enhanced presentation and design improves option alignment, reduces visual ‘clutter’ and is simply a faster platform. Customisable drop-down lists for Handling Units also reduces the need for manual data entry.

Improved user experience

There are so many ways Rocket Mobile improves the user experience of using mobile devices in the warehouse.

The interface is slicker and easier to use, the platform is faster to run than SAP ITS, and contextual help is also made available, with access to task-specific procedures and information about best practices.

Mobile devices are now ubiquitous in people’s everyday lives, which means your workforce expects fast and easy-to-use mobile experiences at all times. Rocket Mobile delivers on that expectation.

Error-free picking

Picking errors slow down order fulfilment and reduce efficiency, so increasing pick accuracy was an important element of the project.

The Rocket Mobile solution was able to deliver on this thanks to a number of features.

Apart from the cleaner interface making processes easier to follow, visual confirmations on all scanned items made a huge difference to operator confidence and pick accuracy. 

The ‘Snap and Go’ feature also helped create a self-sufficient workforce that could identify and resolve warehouse issues faster, offering the ability to take a photo and provide a narrative on a problem that might be causing errors in the fulfilment process or impacting efficiency.

Faster onboarding and training

User adoption of new technology and processes is essential to the success of a project like this. What’s more, Hallmark used high levels of agency warehouse staff in peak periods, and this meant the solution had to be easy to learn. Fortunately, Rocket Mobile makes onboarding and training simple.

The Rocket Mobile interface isn’t just clean and easy to navigate; it’s intuitive too. This significantly reduces training time and makes the solution easy to understand, even for Hallmark’s newest operatives.

Another key advantage of Rocket Mobile is how easy it is to monitor workforce productivity against KPIs. This makes it possible to identify training needs, as well as the warehouse’s top performers.

The highly visual nature of the platform, along with the ability to apply Hallmark’s branding to the interface, also helped with user engagement and adoption.

Flexibility to accommodate peak seasonal demand

Fluctuating seasonal demand doesn’t just affect Hallmark’s labour and training needs — it also has a big impact on their product ranges. Demand for specific product lines, for example, Christmas cards, changes dramatically throughout the year.

To address this challenge, Rocket introduced dynamic pick faces and processes to the single picking area. This allowed products to be reorganised to ensure optimised space usage and high pick rates.

When stock in warehouses changes rapidly, errors can occur. Rocket Mobile’s visual confirmations and product imaging helped to combat this threat and significantly improve pick accuracy.

Conclusion

Is your organisation experiencing similar challenges to Hallmark Cards UK?

If you want to understand how Rocket Mobile can improve warehouse efficiency, user engagement and streamline your processes,  then book a discovery call with one of our expert SAP consultants.