AURORA, ILLINOIS, U.S. — SternMaid America announced in late 2015 that it invested $100,000 to modernize its warehouse. New high-level racks have increased storage capacity fivefold to a total of 1,500 pallet spaces. Additionally, state-of-the-art barcode scanning equipment has been installed for computer-aided real-time tracking of goods in storage and processing via an Enterprise Resource Planning system (ERP).    

Pallet barcodes and WiFi-scanning of the movement of all goods allow SternMaid America to tell where each individual pallet is at all times. When products are loaded onto a truck, they are scanned for the last time. A delivery note can only be printed if all of the pallets making up the consignment have been recorded. This avoids the risk of incorrect or incomplete loading.

“To reduce costs as well as carbon emissions, many of our customers are dispensing with unnecessary shipping of goods and are instead suppling their own customers with raw materials, intermediates and finished products directly from our warehouse,” said Jan Thoele, executive vice-president of SternMaid America. “We have therefore enlarged our storage capacity and installed a modern scanning system that enables reliable and fast identification of goods.”

The modernized warehouse completes SternMaid America’s comprehensive contract manufacturing services for the compounding of powdered food ingredients and supplements, the company said. The company offers everything from expertise in blending and quality control of raw materials to co-packing and logistics. With its central location in the U.S., the sister company of the German SternMaid is well set up to offer advantages in logistics that meet its customers’ individual requirements, the company said.