Success Story: Lighthouse for the Blind

BACKGROUND

Lighthouse for the Blind is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing services, support, and employment opportunities for individuals who are blind or visually impaired. Established in the early 20th century, its mission is to empower those with visual impairments to lead independent and fulfilling lives. The Lighthouse team chose to modernize its supply chain operations and selected Oracle Cloud and Intellinum as its trusted technology partners. The primarily blind warehouse workforce needed a solution that could support their shop floor operations across three warehouses and ten different stores.  

CHALLENGE

• Accessibility: Blind and low-vision users needed to utilize warehouse technology intuitively to drive efficiency in the warehouse 
• Data Accuracy: Data entered in the system and labels printed on-site were prone to errors 
• Better Decision-Making: Decision-makers needed more information from their supply chain and finance teams for strategic planning  
• Compliance: Contracts with government agencies like the Department of Defense meant that Lighthouse Solutions needed to comply with government regulations  
• Technical Debt: Years of customization and patches to legacy software led to the accumulation of technical debt and a reliance on tribal knowledge for training new hires 

OBJECTIVES

• Implement a cloud-based solution to manage the Inventory and Manufacturing processes.
  
• Rely on industry and accessibility best practices to alleviate ongoing support and training costs. 
  

• Provide mobility for receiving, quality inspection, and sampling inspection processes. 

• Improve Data Accuracy by enabling quality inspectors to use inspection rules for efficient inspections. 

• Enable accessibility to mobile screens so blind and low-vision users can perform warehouse operations. 

• Implement a solution that meets government standards and runs in a secure government cloud.
  

• Leverage cutting-edge warehouse technologies to maximize the efficiency of the warehouse workforce. 
  

• Empower executives to make key decisions confidently, trusting that inventory data is accurate and up-to-date.
  

SOLUTION

Lighthouse for the Blind was searching for a powerful Supply Chain system that could handle its unique accessibility and regulated governmental requirements. Due to its industry best practices and accessibility features, Lighthouse for the Blind selected Oracle Cloud and chose to pair it with FlexiPro as its mobile supply chain execution system.  

Some of Lighthouse for the Blind’s key objectives centered around the ability to work more accurately and efficiently with its Quality team. FlexiPro enabled Lighthouse for the Blind to overhaul its Quality process by enabling the attachment of documents during receiving and quality inspection and enabling quality inspectors to use inspection rules for efficient inspections.  

Data accuracy was a key area for improvement. Customer satisfaction and strategic decision-making relied on timely shipment and real-time data. Intellinum provides a robust labeling solution that lets end users print customer-specific labels along with ASNs, enables file-based printing for stock locator labels, allows ad hoc label printing for base stores using pricing strategies, and provides a web-based UI for label reprinting. 

Intellinum provided accessibility for blind and low-vision users through an intuitive UI and prompts on the scan gun, allowing users to Automatically assign ASNs and pack units for large orders to improve operational efficiency. Users could also pack boxes and pallets according to customer requirements. The solution was built entirely in Oracle’s Government Cloud, satisfying the ask from the Department of Defense per Lighthouse for the Blind’s contract.  

 RESULTS

The successful implementation of Oracle Cloud and FlexiPro exceeded Lighthouse for the Blind’s accessibility requirements, provided leadership with better decision-making capabilities, and reduced the ongoing costs of running their robust supply chain network.