CASE STUDY – GIRL SCOUTS

OVERALL LOGISTICS FLOW:

GIRL SCOUTS OF NORTHERN CA PRODUCTS

In the Fall, more than 350,000 nut items come through a similar process, originating at Ashdon Farms in Milwaukee, WI, trucked to Prism’s warehouses in Hayward, Livermore, Tracy and Stockton, CA where they break down the cases, sort by destination, match against troop orders and manage transportation to individual neighborhoods.

As troops advise the Girl Scout council that they need more product, the Girl Scouts send a delivery ticket to Prism, where a dedicated customer service representative pulls the order from the warehouse and Prism delivers the product the next day where needed. Sometimes the Scout leader needs product sooner, in which case Prism manages a ‘will call,’ function on-site at its warehouses: pulling the needed product, matching amounts and varieties against requirement in each category, and holding it for customer pick-up.

Inventory Accuracy Key to Successful Order Fulfillment

In 2007 the Girl Scouts of America consolidated amongst its councils for more efficiency nationwide. In Northern California, what had been five separate councils merged into the single Council of Girl Scouts of Northern California, now comprised of 19 counties from Gilroy in the south to San Jose, San Francisco, north to Marin, Napa, Chico and Eureka, plus San Francisco, the Peninsula, South Bay and the SF East Bay including Contra Costa counties – 19 counties in all.

In the same year, PRISM Logistics acquired Livermore, CA based Palestro Distribution Centers and renamed the firm PDC Logistics to maintain reference to the successful family owners that served the warehousing and logistics needs of its customers for more than 30 years. The PDC team, most with the company for many, many years, is a very experienced group of professionals excited about the upgrades to facilities, systems and processes since 2007, and instrumental to the successful service for the Girl Scouts of Northern California.

Data Quality Essential for Important Incentive Awards: ‘Recognitions’

Giving to the Community

Care to Give and Gift of Caring are two community service projects that the Girl Scouts support throughout the effort. During the course of sales, if scouts identify customers who would prefer to donate than to actually purchase cookies, the girls take orders for gifts to community service programs, food banks, the US military or other non-profit organizations. Customers can indicate where they’d like them delivered and Prism makes sure they’re delivered.

Says Senior Director of Product Sales for the Girl Scouts of Northern California, Samanthia Ableski, “I think the leadership they have there at Prism is a great group of people. We were with them as they were growing and have been able to grow with them. They are very community conscious. Even as Prism continues to grow with more and more warehouses throughout Northern California, community service is still very much a part of their makeup. I think Jere Van Puffelen has done a fantastic job with his family-owned business.”

Logistics Problem Solving a Prism Forte!

Every year it seems, the Girl Scout council advises that it runs into a situation where one of its other warehouses may not have enough product and don’t advise Girl Scout Operations in a timely manner. In those instances, Ableski says, “We rely on Prism to help us make sure we get product from one of their warehouses, up and out as fast as humanly possible… we’ll FedEx cases of nuts or cookies when needed, or any of the particular varieties needed, within each of those categories; Every time we’ve gotten in that kind of a situation, Prism has always been able to get us what we need when we need it.” She added, “Joe Silva, the delivery agent contracted by Prism makes absolutely sure everything is done the way it needs to be done, and appears flawless to us.”