Case Studies > Giant Eagle Reduces Costs and Increases Customer Value with Manhattan Solutions

Giant Eagle Reduces Costs and Increases Customer Value with Manhattan Solutions

Customer Company Size

Large Corporate

Region

America

Country

United States

Product

Manhattan Transportation Planning & Execution
Manhattan Warehouse Management
Manhattan Labor Management
Manhattan Extended Enterprise Management
Vocollect Voice

Tech Stack

RF Technology
Voice Technology

Implementation Scale

Enterprise-wide Deployment

Impact Metrics

Cost Savings
Customer Satisfaction
Productivity Improvements

Technology Category

Functional Applications - Transportation Management Systems (TMS)
Functional Applications - Warehouse Management Systems (WMS)

Applicable Industries

Food & Beverage
Retail

Applicable Functions

Logistics & Transportation
Warehouse & Inventory Management

Use Cases

Fleet Management
Inventory Management
Warehouse Automation
Predictive Maintenance

Services

Software Design & Engineering Services
System Integration

About The Customer

Giant Eagle is a prominent food retailer and distributor in the United States, headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA. The company operates 221 supermarkets and 140 fuel and convenience stores across Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, and Maryland. Each store offers between 20,000 and 60,000 items, including over 7,000 products under the company's own brands program. Giant Eagle also manages five distribution centers, ranging from 90,000 to 800,000 square feet, to support its extensive retail operations. Known for its commitment to customer value and operational efficiency, Giant Eagle employs the Toyota Production System methodology to enhance overall efficiencies by considering customers, quality, and people. The company sought to modernize its supply chain operations to reduce costs and improve its customer value proposition.

The Challenge

Giant Eagle, one of the largest food retailers and distributors in the U.S., was facing significant challenges due to outdated batch technology and multiple systems spread across various locations. The company needed to reduce costs and improve its customer value proposition. With 221 supermarkets and 140 fuel and convenience stores, Giant Eagle's operations were complex, involving five distribution centers ranging from 90,000 to 800,000 square feet. The existing systems had reached their maximum efficiency, and the company sought a single vendor to meet all its supply chain requirements, including advanced functionalities like flow-through order processing, put-to-store picking, and expanded RF and voice functions. Giant Eagle interviewed over 10 companies and shortlisted four vendors for detailed demonstrations. The company needed a partner with a solid understanding of the grocery industry and the capability to develop grocery-specific functionalities.

The Solution

Giant Eagle chose Manhattan's suite of solutions, including Transportation Planning & Execution, Warehouse Management, Labor Management, and Extended Enterprise Management, to overhaul its supply chain operations. The implementation strategy focused on deploying Warehouse Management and Labor Management at the most complex facilities first, followed by a rollout to other facilities. A dedicated team from Giant Eagle and Manhattan co-developed advanced grocery-specific capabilities such as enhanced code dating, advanced directed putaway options, real-time tasking, and put-to-store functionality. These solutions enabled real-time replenishment priority bumping, ensuring products were at the pick slot at the right time, thereby reducing skipped picks and order shorts. Labor Management was integrated into every facility, leveraging existing labor standards to improve productivity. The Manhattan solutions also enhanced the capabilities of Giant Eagle's Vocollect Voice system, streamlining operations across all five distribution centers. The solutions covered various functions, including RF receiving, directed putaway, directed replenishment, voice selection, RF loading, put-to-store, trading partner management, labor management, and advanced reporting.

Operational Impact

Inbound and outbound accuracy at Giant Eagle's distribution centers now exceeds 99.9%, significantly reducing mislabeled items and mis-shipped totes.
The company has doubled the number of direct labor hours on a labor standard, resulting in an 8-10% productivity improvement in the health and beauty care distribution center and a 3-5% increase in other facilities.
The integration of Manhattan solutions has streamlined receiving processes, enhanced tracking capabilities, and improved the recall process through automated code/date tracking, lot tracking, and country of origin tracking.
Real-time capabilities provided by Manhattan solutions have enabled Giant Eagle to capture and analyze the time required for each step of the distribution process, leading to increased throughput and reduced inventory investment and space requirements.
Giant Eagle plans to continue reducing the time to replenish store shelves, the time from order placement to delivery to the distribution center, and the time from the vendor to the distribution center, further enhancing operational efficiency.

Quantitative Benefit