Diebold picks, ships quickly

GREEN, Ohio--Diebold Inc. made a substantial investment in how it picks and then ships security equipment to its service professionals in the field--a $10 million investment, to be precise. In November, the company, known for installing security systems and ATMs for the financial market and as a manufacturer of a touch-screen voting machine, unveiled a new logistics center for warehousing and then shipping products and parts. The center replaces two older facilities in neighboring towns and brings under one roof 38,000 parts, from hinges for a vault to digital video recorders. Of those parts, 34 percent are security related, while the rest are related to its ATM and voting machine business. Officials at Diebold expect the new logistics center will give the company an edge when it comes to serving customers. The company operates 600 locations globally, but the logistics center will mainly serve the North American market. "It makes us competitive because we have the inventory, we have the parts," said Carrie Kandes, manager of media relations for Diebold. According to Chuck Ducey, Diebold's vice president of global customer service solutions, the former facilities did not allow for the efficiencies of a combined operation or advanced equipment. Automation in the logistics center has improved the time it takes for a product to get ordered, picked and shipped to just 20 minutes, down from two hours previously. "There's a conveyor system that runs two stories and the entire length of the facility," said Kandes. "Instead of one person picking the entire order, the conveyor is so close to different areas that people can work as zone pickers." Barcodes on products and parts enables Diebold to bring multiple pieces together into a same order at the end of the process, even though a different person picked each item. Diebold broke ground on the new facility, located 10 miles from the company's corporate headquarters in North Canton, Ohio, in August 2004. It signed a seven-year lease on the property and has a purchase option.