Visual Productivity Management Solution: ABC Target

16-Camera Solution Forms Direct Line-of-Sight between Customer Service and Shipping

ABC Target has been designing, manufacturing, and distributing store fixtures, displays and supplies for the retailer for more than 60 years. By adopting new technologies to streamline shipping and delivery, the company has served as a model of productivity and efficiency in Garden City, New York.

In March 2004, the company moved its warehouse to a new location in Long Beach, NY, leaving the customer service department at the existing facilities. The physical separation of the two departments made it more difficult to verify and modify shipping orders. As customers called to inquire about their orders, the company's 50 customer service representatives would call their counterparts in shipping department for status, creating a backlog of voicemail messages.

VSI designed a 16-camera solution that would resolve this issue, bringing greater efficiency and reduced redundancy to the order fulfillment workflow. Three pan-tilt-zoom cameras cover the "picking area" surrounding the conveyor belt where orders are gathered and moved to the dock to be shipped. The three IP-addressable pan-tilt-zoom cameras communicate with each other via a local area network and integrate to provide a complete view of any object within the field-of-view automatically. This view gives Customer Service a direct line-of-sight to items in the shipping and loading areas, letting them zoom in on boxes and other items to visually confirm orders via labels on items in the workflow. This intelligent video solution was also installed with four more cameras in the loading zone, four in the customer service areas, one on each of the four exterior corners of the warehouse, and one at the walk-up purchasing counter.

The camera at the walk up purchasing counter is equipped with a motion sensor. This triggers video recording and a doorbell in the customer service area when movement occurs as a customer walks up to the counter.

The views from the 16 cameras are accessible to every employee through a secure Internet connection and an easy-to-use Vigilo web browser interface from their desktop, laptop or handheld PC. Each employee can customize their individual camera views, displaying some or all of the camera views at once. Further, if they need to pan, tilt or zoom in the direction of an object of interest, such as a box containing a customer's order, they can control the cameras with the click of a mouse.

"By eliminating the need to call or go to shipping or customer service to verify order status or determine the physical location of products or people, we've all been able to work more efficiently," said Issac Schulman VP of Operations at ABC Target. "Vigilo helped us to harness the rapid processing power of the human eye, with an integrated video system installation that has met with immediate acceptance, directly improved the business and boosted employee satisfaction."

Rather than using an integrated video solution for security, the company has utilized intelligent cutting-edge technology to increase productivity and to insure that all employees can virtually see and be everywhere at once, despite geographic separation. Perhaps most importantly, the shipping packers don't have to answer and return hundreds of phone calls a day, and the customer service representatives can give fast service with visual knowledge of the entire shipping and delivery process. In turn, the solution pays for itself in no time.