Cost Plus World Market Selects Yard Hound™ from PINC to Improve Supply Chain Operation Efficiency

Feb. 25, 2008 - PRLog -- BERKELEY, CA – PINC Solutions, the leader in cost-effective real-time asset visibility technology, announced today that Cost Plus World Market  has selected and implemented PINC Solutions’ Yard Hound™ to track and manage their fleet trailers at World Market’s main Northern California Distribution Center.

Cost Plus World Market is a leading specialty retailer of casual home living and entertaining products. The company operates over 298 stores in 34 states and reported 2007 revenue over $1 billion.

“We are always looking for cost-effective ways to improve our supply chain,” said Ray Whitley, Senior Vice President, Supply Chain, at Cost Plus World Market. "PINC’s solution automates many of the yard management processes that were done manually. By using their system, we are able to keep track of our assets in the yard at all times, and share the information through a web-based interface. With a minimal amount of capital investment and virtually no disruption to our Distribution Center operation, we have improved our yard operation efficiency and cut costs.”

“PINC is pleased to enable World Market to accurately monitor and track their assets in real-time utilizing Yard Hound™, the latest embodiment of our patented RTLS-tracking technology,” said Aleks Göllü, CEO of PINC Solutions. “We empower our customers to streamline distribution yard operation with real-time visibility into all of their yard activities. Yard Hound™ can easily be incorporated into customer’s logistics management system as an overlay to existing processes, or be integrated with other Yard and Warehouse Management Systems that may be in use already. The asset location and status information is kept updated constantly with minimal human intervention, and the users have access to electronic record and can receive automated alerts and reports about their assets remotely anywhere, anytime.”

Built on an innovative combination of advanced sensor and passive RFID technologies as the RTLS platform, PINC's products represent a paradigm shift in mobile asset management through real-time asset visibility. Cost Plus World Market and other clients of PINC realize many benefits from Yard Hound, including

•   Increased yard operation efficiency
•   Improved yard truck and driver productivity and retention
•   Reduced manual yard checks
•   Minimized congestion at choke points such as gate and dock doors and increased throughput
•   Improved equipment utilization
•   Reduced late, demurrage and detention fees
•   Enhanced customer and vendor services

Additional features of Yard Hound™ such as real-time task assignment and acknowledgement for yard-truck drivers, and user-defined access to real-time visibility data for their 3PL providers and carriers, allow the customers to achieve further saving beyond the immediate return seen from their daily operation. The resulting improvements in economics typically generate a positive ROI for clients in less than a year.

About Cost Plus World Market
Cost Plus World Market operates 298 stores in 34 states under the names "World Market" and "Cost Plus World Market." The stores feature an ever-changing selection of casual home furnishings, housewares, gifts, jewelry, decorative accessories, over 500 international wines, gourmet foods and beverages offered at affordable prices and are imported from more than 50 countries. Many items are unique and exclusive to Cost Plus World Market. All are regularly supplied by an international network of individual and regional artisans developed over the Company's nearly 50 years in the import business. The majority of the store's furniture is constructed of environmentally friendly, farm raised wood while a number of items are made out of recycled glass and yet countless items are constructed of environmentally friendly bamboo. The value, breadth and continual refreshment of products invite customers to come back throughout a lifetime of changing home furnishings and entertaining needs.

About PINC Solutions
PINC is a privately held company headquartered in Berkeley, California. Its real time asset management solution, Yard Hound™, is deployed at industry-leading customers in manufacturing, retail and transportation sectors throughout North America.  PINC has pioneered the development of RTLS products using passive RFID, MEMS and other low-cost sensors to determine the item position, eliminating the need for heavy capital investment in the infrastructure.  The Yard Hound™ Product Suite is designed with a scalable architecture for businesses of any size, and is expandable with modular components as customers’ needs grow. For more information about PINC Solutions and the Yard Hound™ Product Suite, please visit www.pincsolutions.com

Media Contacts
PINC Solutions: Michelle Kiang (press@pincsolutions.com, +1 510-845-4900)

Website: www.pincsolutions.com