Superior Beverage Blended Learning Warehouse Program
Stacey Edwards
Superior Beverage

Since our implementation of the learning videos we have reduced the time to floor with our associates, they are better trained in the different areas of Vertique and has created a more nimble workforce allowing flexibility in specific job skilled areas.

Maximizing the effectiveness of machinery

In 2010, Superior Beverage, a national beverage distributor, implemented the Vertique system into its warehouse. Vertique is a complex piece of machinery that utilizes robotic technology to assist in the distribution of beverage cases. With the addition of this complicated piece of machinery, managers received training directly from Vertique, but Superior Beverage was not able to share this information with warehouse associates in an efficient and measurable way.

To efficiently run the Vertique system, warehouse associates were needed in four different stations. The need for additional employees caused Superior Beverage to hire more warehouse associates, but Superior found the training to be a lengthy and limiting process. Due to the complex, time-consuming nature of the in-person training, employees could only train for one station or role. 

Restricted training considerably limited the mobility of warehouse associates across the four different stations, thus affecting employee retention. Employees felt pigeonholed into a specific role, and in the event of a warehouse associate calling in sick, other associates were unable to effectively perform in areas of the Vertique system that they were not trained in operating.

Superior Beverage determined that they needed to invest in all-inclusive training on Vertique for their warehouse associates. The main goal of the project was to teach warehouse associates the basic functions of safely and efficiently operating different areas of Vertique.

Custom video learning and virtual reality training

Superior Beverage partnered with Roundtable Learning to create a series of training videos that were developed into measurable eLearning courses for their warehouse associates. 

Our video team used different video products and techniques to first capture the Vertique system which demonstrated an almost cinematic overview of the system.

Working with the distributor’s SMEs, our video team created two to three additional videos for each job role. We were able to capture how the system worked as well as the requirements and expectations for warehouse associates in each Vertique position. 

To supplement the video learning, we created a virtual reality experience in which floor associates could pick up cases and stack them on a palette before ever setting foot on the warehouse floor.

AWARD-WINNING RESULTS

Our instructional videos equipped all team members with the tools and resources necessary to operate the Vertique system. After completing the video learning sessions, new employees were able to grasp their extraneous job duties, and associates said they felt they were better prepared to perform tasks in the multiple different areas of Vertique. 

Since the implementation of the training courses, Superior Beverage’s workers’ compensation claims have been reduced by 50 percent. The time that it takes an associate to become productive on the warehouse floor was reduced by 33 percent, and the cost of training has been reduced by 12.5 percent.

The video learning portion of the solution earned Superior Beverage and Roundtable Learning a Silver Brandon Hall Award for Best Use of Video.

Reduction in time to proficiency
33%
Increase in production
10%
Decrease in training costs
12%
Decrease in workers compensation claims
50%
Stacey Edwards
Superior Beverage

Since our implementation of the learning videos we have reduced the time to floor with our associates, they are better trained in the different areas of Vertique and has created a more nimble workforce allowing flexibility in specific job skilled areas.

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