Clothing chain boosts throughput 200% with new distribution scheme
Flow of merchandise through the DC.After receipt through one of 32 dock doors, non-crossdocked merchandise travels by powered conveyor to a storage rack location. After picking, it goes to packing then to the mezzanine before shipping. Lift trucks move crossdocked items (about half of all receipts) directly from shipping to receiving.
By Lisa A. Goetze -- Modern Materials Handling, 9/1/1998
An increase in throughput is usually a good indicator of higher productivity. And that certainly proved to be the case at the new central distribution center for casual clothing retailer County Seat.Since startup earlier this year of the new facility, County Seat has been able to increase shipments from its central distribution center to its 20 regional consolidators by almost 200%. In a typical week, depending on seasonal variations and stores' requirements for stock replenishment, County Seat now ships between 1.0 and 1.6 million units. Not only has this level of performance surpassed all expectations, says vice president of distribution Mark Schaffer, but there appears to be room for future gains, too.
As Schaffer explains, throughput is not the only measure of success for this Essex, Md., distribution center, which replaces one located just outside Minneapolis, Minn.
"County Seat has also been able to improve service to our 419 stores by 75%," says Schaffer. The company has retail outlets in 41 states stretching from the East Coast to Las Vegas.
That success, he adds, is the result of a materials handling system design that relies heavily on conveyors (Hytrol) to move cases of casual clothing efficiently through the facility. In addition, a straightforward storage scheme and extensive use of bar codes to track inventory have resulted in high efficiency. Lift trucks also figure prominently.
Schaffer expects that the new distribution center will manage the holiday season surge easily this year.
Handling product
County Seat receives jeans and other casual clothing from overseas. The majority of receipts arrive at the center directly from the port of Baltimore, about 15 miles away.
Arriving cases of clothing are already marked with the purchase order number and stock keeping unit (SKU). Workers compare this information to the data on receiving dock terminals which have been downloaded from an AS/400 at the company's New York offices. Three types of merchandise are received. Bulk and prepack items travel by conveyor to storage within the warehouse. Crossdocked items travel by lift truck from receiving to shipping.
Between 40% and 60% of re-ceipts are crossdocked, says Schaffer. These cases arrive with the vendors' purchase orders and customer information, and are ready to be shipped for replenishment of stock for individual stores.
Those cases that will remain in the warehouse receive a bar code label, generated by an in-house order management system, at the time of putaway. The AS/400 automatically determines the best locations for putaway, in terms of space availability.
As Schaffer explains, stores typically order on a weekly basis. Their requests are sent to the AS/400 in New York, which then downloads the orders to the Essex facility. Each store receives one or two shipments a week. The quantity of items received varies widely depending on the seasonal variations of the retail clothing industry.
A printed list from the AS/400 is given to the lift truck operator performing the picking. The lift truck driver picks items by region from one of 1652 pallet locations and/or one of over 33,000 bin locations. The lift truck operator deposits items on a conveyor, which ultimately moves them to the mezzanine level.
Merchandise travels from inclined conveyor to the mezzanine level before traveling to the shipping area. County Seat finds that by using a mezzanine level, the company is able to maximize the size and efficiency of its staging area. Cartons are sorted manually according to the destination that appears on the outside label.
It is important to note that while the central distribution center picks items for individual stores, it does not ship directly to them. Instead, the Essex facility first ships the items to 20 regional consolidators centers in eight zones around the country. In turn, these centers service 18 so-called pull points, which then send merchandise to the stores in their regions.
According to Schaffer, this new distribution center continues to exceed the company's expectations. By the time 2 million cases go out the door this December, he thinks everyone will have the best measure yet of just how efficient the system is.
System Snapshot
County Seat National Distribution Center Essex, Maryland
Facility established: February 1998
Size of facility: 276,000 sq ft
Customers: 419 retail stores
Products handled: Jeans and other casual clothing
Vice president-distribution: Mark Schaffer
Number of employees:
216, including managers
(165 employees on day shift, 6:00 a.m.-2:30p.m.; 40 on night shift, 3:00 p.m.-10:30 a.m.)
Receiving hours: 8:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
Throughput: About 1 million units per week; (176,000 when facility first opened early in 1998; approximately 25 million units of clothing will be moved through the facility by the end of 1998)
Conveyor: Hytrol 501-935-3700
Industrial trucks: Twenty four in total Crown Equipment Corporation 419-629-2311; Raymond Corporation 607-656-2311
Racking: Paltier 219-872-7238; Ridg-U-Rak 814-725-8751
Order management software: Island Pacific Systems 949-476-2212
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