{
  "id": 17272038,
  "title": "Beverage Distribution: Why Your SKU Count is Crushing Productivity",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/30/beverage-distribution-why-your-sku-count-is-crushing-productivity",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-10-30T18:30:22.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "FreightWaves",
    "slug": "freightwaves",
    "url": "https://www.freightwaves.com/news/beverage-distribution-why-your-sku-count-is-crushing-productivity"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The article discusses how beverage distributors are struggling with logistics as they expand from hundreds to thousands of SKUs. This increase in SKU count is creating logistical nightmares, with pick paths extending and causing delays in truck departures. Zac Boehm, Chief Automation Officer at Hy-Tek Intralogistics, explains two automation systems aimed at tackling these issues: Hy-Sync and Hy-Flow.\n\nHy-Sync focuses on automating the retrieval of the slowest-moving SKUs (60-70% of total SKU count but just 10% of volume) to a single pick location. This consolidation aims to significantly improve pick speeds, potentially doubling or tripling them during peak seasons.\n\nHy-Flow takes a broader approach, automating the full flow within a facility, similar to a vending machine that handles product arrival, storage, and dispensing on demand. This system aims to reduce labor turnover, which contributes to high productivity drag due to excessive walking and repetitive tasks. The cost of high turnover rates, ranging from 80% to 100%, extends beyond hiring to include marketing, training, and onboarding new workers.\n\nBoth systems aim to keep existing employees by making their jobs more efficient and eliminating excessive walking and repetitive equipment mounting. Prospective customers can test these innovative solutions at Hy-Tek's 20,000-square-foot innovation lab in Erlanger, Kentucky.",
  "summary": "SKU proliferation has made beverage distribution a logistical nightmare. Zac Boehm, Chief Automation Officer at Hy-Tek Intralogistics, breaks down how their innovative automation systems, High-Sync and High-Flow, tackle the challenges of rising product counts and high labor turnover. Learn how optimizing pick paths and simplifying operations can lead to double or even triple pick speeds […] The…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}