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Associated Wholesale Grocers Selects TRW's Warehouse Management System

30 August 1999

Associated Wholesale Grocers Selects TRW's MARC-ES Warehouse Management System for Global Distribution Centers

    RESTON, Va.--Aug. 30, 1999--TRW Inc.'s Logistics Execution Solutions unit has signed an agreement with Associated Wholesale Grocers (AWG), the second largest retailer-owned grocery wholesaler in the United States, to implement the MARC(TM)-ES warehouse management system (WMS) in three of AWG's Midwest distribution centers. TRW's extensive experience in the grocery industry and the need for minimal product customization to meet AWG's business requirements were cited as reasons for AWG's selection.
    TRW has implemented the MARC-ES system extensively in the grocery industry's high-transaction volume and high-user environments. Critical to the business needs of grocery warehouses, MARC-ES is proven to deliver the response times, throughput and system-directed replenishments and putaways required of a real-time WMS. Implementing the MARC-ES system in AWG's three distribution centers will equip the company with a more efficient distribution process that will improve customer service and produce a high return on investment. The agreement covers software license and implementation with an option to include hardware procurement.
    "The MARC-ES system's diverse and robust functionality and features will allow us to completely reengineer our distribution process," said Rich Vastine, Corporate Director of Industrial Engineering for AWG. "With real-time control over our distribution process we expect to easily meet, and perhaps exceed, our current rate of order lines per day."
    "Through a Proof of Concept procedure, we walked AWG through our entire system, listened to their operational needs and showed them how the MARC-ES system could meet those needs," said Lisa Fitch, director, MARC-ES product development. "The end result was that the MARC-ES system's modifiable parameters and tables were closely matched to what it would take to meet AWG's business needs requiring less customization."
    The current agreement states that the MARC system will be implemented in AWG's Kansas City, Kan., Springfield, Mo., and Oklahoma City, Okla., distribution centers. The combined area, totaling approximately 2.25 million square feet, is expected to house 800 users. The MARC-ES implementation will be based on IBM's DB2 database.
    Associated Wholesale Grocers is the second largest retailer-owned grocery wholesaler in the United States. They currently serve over 850 member stores and have become a dominant force in the Midwest for wholesale grocery distribution. AWG serves the central Midwest area including: Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska, Texas, Illinois, Tennessee and Kentucky. AWG posed consolidated sales of over $3.1 billion in 1997.
    TRW's Logistics Execution Solutions is a leading global warehouse management and logistics execution systems provider. Implemented in more than 200 sites worldwide, the MARC(TM) product line has been installed in a broad variety of industries, including grocery/food services, third-party logistics, pharmaceutical/healthcare, automotive, high tech/electronics, specialty retail, apparel and publishing. The MARC product line is positioned for e-business fulfillment with its use of Java under a network computing architecture (NCA) framework in addition to incorporating cXML for business-to-business communications. Complimentary MARC logistics execution solutions include application hosting, value added services, decision support and an extensive labor standards module which can be integrated with any WMS on the market. MARC products incorporate the latest in palm computing, voice and RF technology and integrate with leading supply chain and ERP systems such as Oracle, i2, Descartes, SAP, and BaaN. For further information, visit http://www.trw.com/MARC .
    TRW Integrated Supply Chain Solutions (ISCS) delivers total supply chain solutions: management consulting, enterprise resource planning, manufacturing execution systems, supply chain optimization and logistics execution systems. TRW Inc. provides high-technology products and services to the automotive, aerospace and information technology markets worldwide. Corporate information is available at http://www.trw.com .