Relationship Focus: SalSon Logistics
Founded in 1960, SalSon Logistics is a leading third-party logistics company, providing supply chain management solutions for a wide range of companies. Since its inception, SalSon has grown into a multimillion-dollar company with locations throughout the eastern United States.
With over 1,000 employees and one million square feet of warehousing space, the 3PL provides an array of services and capabilities, from import and export services to transportation and trucking to warehousing and distribution services. “We kinda offer a hybrid of services,” said Anthony Berritto, president/CEO of SalSon Logistics. “So by bringing up containers, bringing it back to our facility, doing any DC bypasses, or ultimate delivery to stores in the metropolitan area. So pool distribution is really one of our mainstays of business.”
Hytrol and the integration partner worked diligently with SalSon Logistics to implement an automated material handling system capable of processing the customer’s large volume of product. The conveyor system gives SalSon the ability to deconsolidate five times the amount of product compared to their previous system.“We wanted to grow the business,” Berritto said. “We know we had the best piece of real estate in Port Newark. We were prepared to invest in a top notch system. This facility is very unique…when we took it over… when we designed the system with Hytrol, we tried to figure out what was the best way to move as many cartons as we could, get it loaded out to trucks, and delivered out into the biggest market in the United States.”
Prior to implementing the Hytrol system, product sorting at SalSon was a manual process. Products were brought into the facility on simple flex conveyor. Labels were then sorted and scanned by hand, and delivered to pallet stations. Because the operation depended on physical labor, the daily output was limited by labor capacity. “Just to put things in perspective, prior to having this automated system we would sort on a huge day about 20,000 cartons,” Berritto said. “Today, with the system in full force, we do about 100,000 cartons.”
The system is comprised of several customized applications including a unique merging solution, allowing product from the five-lane receiving area to merge to one line. With EZLogic® functionality, the system pulls gaps between individual boxes and streamlines product as it moves into the sortation area. Hytrol and the integration partner worked with SalSon Logistics to develop an efficient sortation solution capable of providing high-speed sorting and accuracy throughout their process. Hytrol’s ProSort 400 Elite provides dual-side sortation, allowing product to be delivered to trucks on one side and to pallet-building stations on another.The ability to control the product while maintaining high levels of throughput is critical to the success of a 3PL. Hytrol and the integration partner created a system capable of improving SalSon’s current operations while preparing them for continued growth. Berritto stated that the benefits of the system offered savings in labor, speed and accuracy. “We achieved those on day one,” he said.
By focusing on the needs of the customer, Hytrol and the integration partner were able to design the most efficient system for the customer’s growing business. “Kudos to all the team at Hytrol for doing what they did. When we planned it, we sat down, we engineered it out, …There wasn’t a beat missed,” Berritto said. “Between delivery time and installation, it was flawless.”
