IRLY Distributors' WMS Roll-Out Conquers Recession; Daily Transactions Up Nearly 60 Percent

“Big enough to serve you, small enough to know you” is the community-based motto of Canadian owned and operated IRLY Distributors, a co-op group of independent hardware and building materials retailers. Based in Surrey, British Columbia, IRLY distributes lumber, hardware, building materials, plumbing, power tools and more to customers throughout BC and Western Canada.

IRLY had long been using a paperbased system that largely relied on the company’s lengthy employee tenure, which averaged close to 20 years.

The “tribal knowledge” these long-term employees possessed was invaluable, not only to the company, but to the warehouse’s overall efficiency. However, as technologies advanced and as new employees began to transition in, IRLY looked to implement a full Warehouse Management System (WMS) that would not only fully track all warehouse materials, but provide the technology needed to increase efficiency by 10 percent.