INDUSTRY: Cosumer Products
ERP: NetSuite
CHALLENGE
Before RF-SMART, SMKW relied on an outdated warehouse management system and a legacy shipping solution that created major operational bottlenecks and constrained their ability to scale.
RESULTS
With RF-SMART, SMKW significantly increased their shipping speed by 3x, generated labels in seconds, and reduced their training time to under a minute for new employees.
RF-SMART PRODUCTS USED
RF-SMART WMS
RF-SMART Shipping
3x Faster
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<1 min
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Labels
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“This is our fourth different shipping program in ten years,
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The Challenge
As the world's largest knife store with a 100,000 square foot warehouse, Smoky Mountain Knife Works (SMKW) in Sevierville, TN, was struggling with outdated technology that couldn't support their growth trajectory.
Key issues:
- Unsustainable Legacy System: Their outdated system was holding them back from modern warehouse operations.
- Picking inaccuracies across 28,000+ bins: Without optimized picking routes, warehouse staff wasted time navigating their massive warehouse, creating fulfillment delays.
- Third Party Shipping Bottleneck: Their previous shipping solution was too slow, significantly limiting daily output.
- Rapid Seasonal Onboarding: With 15-20 temporary workers joining during peak season, they needed a solution that required minimal training time.
The Solution
SMKW partnered with RF-SMART, building a fully integrated fulfillment operation from receiving to shipping.
With RF-SMART, SMKW:
- Deployed Pick Planner to intelligently route pickers through their 28,000+ bins, minimizing travel time and maximizing efficiency.
- Integrated with their conveyor system to create a seamless flow from pick-to-tote to quality check to shipping fulfillment.
- Implemented RF-SMART Shipping with the no-code Rules Engine.
- Leveraged RF-SMART’s user-friendly UI to enable training in under a minute
The Results
SMKW significantly transformed their warehouse operations by:
- Shipping packages 3x faster than their previous solution
- Reducing label generation to just seconds
- Cutting training time to under one minute for new employees
- Increasing labor productivity
Most importantly, RF-SMART provided SMKW with a sustainable, scalable foundation after a decade of technological struggles. By optimizing both picking and shipping, RF-SMART eliminated the inefficiencies that were limiting their growth. The solution's ease of use means their team can focus on serving customers rather than wrestling with complex software, positioning them to continue thriving as the world's largest knife store.
