Arnott’s goes high-tech with Peacock Bros.

Arnott’s Biscuits, one of Australia’s oldest business icons since 1865 has just completed a major I.T upgrade within every one of its 8 manufacturing and warehouse facilities located across Australia. Supplying bread, pies and biscuit products to over 40 countries around the world can only be achieved by having the most efficient real-time data and inventory control systems available, and it was time to upgrade.

Over 40 handheld scanners, 35 forklift mounted scanners and 20 barcode printers were required to complete the huge task of both receiving and tracking millions of dollars of produced goods into and out of the factories and warehouse facilities. Each device needed to be connected “live” to Arnott’s central BPCS (Data Inventory ERP system) enabling real-time tracking of all stock movements. Since the existing BPCS lacked this functionality itself the successful provider was required to provide the device functionality and seamless end-to-end data integration.

Peacock Bros., long time Data and Integration specialists were selected by Arnott’s to design, propose and supply the required components as well as write the device application software and ensure all components operated perfectly. Due to the sheer size and technical scale required to complete this task Peacock Bros. were considered as the only data integration company within Australia that had the experience, technical staff and resources to complete a task such as this.

RFGen’s software package was used to develop handheld device screens simultaneously linked to the existing Arnotts hosts systems. The software’s advanced data integration capabilities meant that Peacock Bros. were able to read and write data directly from BPCS and Arnotts other systems but still access all of the business rules incorporated into the systems to validate data and ensure its integrity. A vital component to any data collection system provided swiftly and at low cost but above-all reliably and fully integrated.

Intermec’s 2455 forklift mounted and 2435 model portable barcode scanners along with Zebra’s mobile QA420 barcode printers were selected for the solution. Peacock Bros. then developed an integrated program allowing each brand and type of device to communicate seamlessly with each other. The security architecture of the solution also encrypted all data before being transferred and received by Arnotts central inventory control system located within each site via Cisco’s “LEAP” advanced security protocols using authentication 128bit encryption and automatically rotating keys.

One of the most challenging aspects of this solution was that every mobile device had to receive the data, translate the information and send the data securely to Arnott’s inventory system without any perceivable lag in response time for the user. Having the best stock management systems available was only going to be of true benefit if the product handling process was not delayed.

Barry Swinbourne, Arnotts head of this and other I.T development projects commented, “We are extremely happy with the results of this project, Peacock Bros. completed this project into every site within 40 days, within budget and with 100% accuracy and operational success.” “We are looking forward to working with Peacock Bros. now on a long term business arrangement.”

Peacock Bros. have been designing and implementing data inventory and wireless communication solutions for over 20 years for some of Australia’s largest, best known companies. With locations throughout Australia, Peacock Bros. are establishing themselves as the foremost Australian experts in Data Integration Solutions.

Auckland Office
Peacocks Bros. NZ
25B Birmingham Road
East Tamaki
Auckland New Zealand
Telephone: (+64 9) 273 4455
FAX: (+64 9) 274 0952
E-Mail: cs@labelnz.com