SOUTHERN COMPANY AUTOMATES ALABAMA POWER FACILITY with PRIYA
Southern Company improves emergency preparedness by standardizing on Priya platform

BEVERLY HILLS, CA (May 24, 2002) - Southern Company’s Alabama Power materials distribution center entered the age of warehouse automation with a Priya go-live on April 15, 2002. The implementation enables the 250,000 square foot facility to better supply materials for construction and emergency crews and 65 transmission and distribution warehouses throughout Alabama.

Priya will automate the facility’s warehouse operations and track inventory, equipment, and personnel in real-time.

Greg Smith, supervisor of warehouse operations for the facility said, “We wanted an off-the-shelf product because custom work is hard to maintain. Priya closely aligned with our current processes, but was configurable enough to set up the way we wanted it.”

Alabama Power is the second Southern Company subsidiary to go live with Priya. Georgia Power went live with Priya on February 20, 2002. The two subsidiaries cooperated on all aspects of the vendor selection and implementation. Combined, they serve the majority of Southern Company’s customers.

Motek project manager Coreen McCorkendale said, “Priya enables everybody to operate on the same warehouse management platform, which means they [Southern Company] can make all their facilities run the same way.” Smith added, “In a storm situation, our workforce can help out in another facility with minimal training. One of our goals was to make our processes identical.”"

“With this implementation, Southern Company will be able to implement Priya in any other facility themselves. They know the process, understand what needs to be done, and have taken full ownership,” said McCorkendale. “Georgia’s go live was smooth, Alabama’s was even smoother.”

Alabama Power has already seen a reduction in shipping errors and an increase in space utilization.

About Southern Company
With nearly 4 million customers and more than 34,000 megawatts of generating capacity, Atlanta-based Southern Company (NYSE: SO) is the premier super-regional energy company in the Southeast and a leading U.S. producer of electricity. Southern Company owns five electric utilities, a fast-growing competitive generation company and an energy services business, as well as fiber optics and wireless communications. Information on Southern Company is available at www.southerncompany.com.
 

Southern Company Goes Live with Priya in Georgia Power Distribution Center
Operating companies join forces to improve inventory control and customer service

BEVERLY HILLS, CALIF. (March 7, 2002)-Southern Company’s Georgia Power distribution center became the first of two installations to go live with Priya, Motek’s warehouse management system (WMS) on February 20, 2002. A leading producer of electricity in the U.S., Southern Company anticipates Priya will improve inventory control and customer service.

Johnny Armstrong, the manager of the newly automated facility said, “Priya’s true WMS system will allow Southern Company to manage all phases of its distribution business with technology, allowing inventory accuracy, space efficiencies, and inventory reductions that weren’t possible with the old system.”

“The competitive pressures of deregulation are forcing public utilities to reduce costs and improve customer service,” said Ann Price, Motek’s CEO. “By using technology to cut costs, Southern Company is taking a proactive step to secure its position as a market leader.”

The 250,000 square foot facility provides Georgia Power’s local warehouses with equipment to service and maintain Georgia’s powerlines. In the event of a natural disaster, Priya’s management features will help Georgia Power respond with speed and efficiency.

Before going live with Priya, the company relied on an in-house paper-based system. Greg Smith, the Southern Company project manager who oversaw the installation said, “We went from a paper system to a totally automated system overnight, but the employees accepted the challenge. They like that they can get real-time information in their RF units.”

Georgia Power worked closely with fellow Southern Company operating company, Alabama Power to bring warehouse automation to Southern Company.

“To implement Priya, Georgia Power and Alabama Power, two completely different companies under the Southern Company umbrella, had to come together to come up with best practices and streamline processes,” said Smith.

“Implementation was very smooth to the point that we felt comfortable shutting down our old system and server within two days of going live with Priya,” said Armstrong. “When our [Southern Company’s] other subsidiaries see this system in operation, we expect multiple installations.”

“The Motek & Southern project teams worked in harmony and assured the success of the project by following Motek’s implementation methodology, Tycan” said Coreen McCorkendale, Motek’s Project Manager. “The discipline this methodology enforced has been embraced by the Southern team who is using to install additional sites. I continue to see customer independence due to a reliance on process rather than people which I believe is liberating for all involved.”

Priya is scheduled to go live in the Alabama Power distribution center in April.

About Southern Company
With nearly 4 million customers and more than 34,000 megawatts of generating capacity, Atlanta-based Southern Company (NYSE: SO) is the premier super-regional energy company in the Southeast and a leading U.S. producer of electricity. Southern Company owns five electric utilities, a fast-growing competitive generation company and an energy services business, as well as fiber optics and wireless communications. Information on Southern Company is available at www.southerncompany.com.

About Motek
Motek is the developer of Priya, a Windows NT 2000, rules-based, real-time warehouse management system. Priya helps companies in the retail, wholesale, and third-party distribution markets streamline their warehouse operations using “Intelligent RFâ.” Since 1989, Motek has the market’s technology leader. Privately owned, Motek has garnered industry awards for innovation and technical excellence, and consistently ranks as one of Southern California's fastest growing companies. Information on Motek is available at www.motek.com.
 

 

Southern Company Selects Motek WMS
Priya® WMS Empowers Utility’s Warehouses To Support Mission-Critical Operations

BEVERLY HILLS, CA (February 20, 2002) – Motek, the technology leader in supply chain execution systems for Microsoft Windows NT^Ò, announced today that Southern Company has installed the Priya® Warehouse Management System at its Georgia site with a second Alabama site scheduled to go live in April.

Southern Company is a power generation and electric utility servicing the Southeast U.S. Considered one of the largest producers of electricity in the U.S., Southern has large and small distribution centers  that store supplies, maintenance and construction items for its line service crews and power generation facilities. Normally a low-volume operation, Southern’s distribution centers have to handle a ten-fold increase in traffic during emergencies like last winter’s storm, which knocked out power to 250,000 of the utility’s customers. Priya was obtained to better these facilities. 

After an extensive search, Southern found that the Priya WMS would give the utility greater control over inventory and ensuring that needed parts would reach field personnel on time.  Motek worked with Symbol Technologies to address the needs of Southern Company. “Integrating our WMS solution with Symbol Technologies mobile devices enabled real-time control over parts and supplies,” says Coreen McCorkendale, a project manager at Motek. “This will guarantee that items are available during mission-critical times as well as during routine operations.”

“The Symbol/Motek solution will enable Southern to benefit from the efficiencies of a real-time, mobile solution.  These benefits include increased efficiencies and productivity gains contributing to bottom-line results,” said Craig Kavanaugh, Vice President, Symbol Technologies, Inc.  

In addition to the functionality that Southern will gain from Priya in its current form, the utility is interested in new technologies employed by Priya like voice recognition. “We have some small part/fast pick areas that could benefit from hands/eyes-free RF voice devices,” says Systems Analyst Greg Smith at Southern Company. “Motek is the only system to have an integrated Interface Generator, Integrated Real-Time Engineered Labor Standards, and a proven documented implementation methodology,” says Greg Smith, at Southern Company.

The utility has licensed Priya and plans to install the WMS at its power generation facilities over the next year.

About Motek

Motek provides an advanced, WindowsNT/2000-based, user-configurable warehouse management system that helps mid- to large-sized companies in the retail, wholesale, and third-party distribution markets save money and improve customer satisfaction by streamlining their warehouse operations.  Since 1989, Motek’s Priya warehouse software and technology has been leading the market in innovation, implementation time and ease-of-use.  Privately owned, Motek has garnered numerous industry awards for innovation, entrepreneurship, and technical excellence, and consistently ranks as one of Southern California’s fastest growing companies.  Information on Motek is available at www.motek.com.