Case Study: Stride Rite Footwear Improves Productivity By Nearly 300 Percent!

At Stride Rite Distribution Centers (DCs), compliance labeling is a major undertaking. The retail stores that sell Stride Rite shoes all have their own requirements for how they would like the shoes labeled when they receive them and most retailers require their own custom labels. These labels could include such variables as store logos, barcodes that coincide with the store's database or different label colors for each size within a style lot.

In the past, all of these compliance labels were obtained in one of two ways: A printer in the back room would print batches of compliance labels or Stride Rite would order a shipment of pre-printed labels. A worker would then carry strips of labels to the DC's rework area and begin the tedious process of manually matching the labels to the boxes.

That process was not only very labor intensive but also inherently error-prone. The necessity to switch from one label format to another or shift focus from the boxes in order to peel labels creates an opportunity for mistakes. In order to avoid errors, employees must carefully double check the labels against the shoeboxes which slows the progress even further.