Automated DC boosts flexibility, cuts bottlenecks
By Staff -- Modern Materials Handling, 9/15/1999
To keep up with its 25% growth rate, Dollar Tree-a fast-growing chain of discount stores where every item costs $1.00-put its own dollars down on a second new automated distribution center. The 425,000 sq ft facility in Olive Branch, Miss. was designed with an eye toward reducing bottlenecks and increasing flexibility in handling daily changes.The new automated system delivered immediate results. Since the system has been up and running, says Stephen White, Dollar Tree's logistics vice president, "Olive Branch has consistently stayed one day ahead of schedule."
At the facility, shipments arrive at 36 receiving doors. After checking quantities against open purchase orders, workers affix a bar code label to the pallet load. The label is scanned, and the pallet delivered either to one of 1,750 pick locations or to a drop point for putaway by a narrow aisle reach truck. Both the label and slot identification codes are then scanned to update the warehouse management system (WMS).
The WMS downloads the daily work plan, creating waves of up to 25 stores each, based on orders downloaded from the host computer. Per color-coded preprinted labels, order selectors pick in slot sequence at 4 four-level, full-pick modules, transferring loaded cartons to belt conveyors. Products from each module are then elevated 28 ft by multiple spiral curve conveyors and accumulated on a zero-pressure accumulation conveyor.
A high-speed, servo-controlled 5:1 merge combines all lines. Cartons are spaced for scanning by a gap optimizer and pass beneath a scanner, which transmits data to the on-line software system for upload to the WMS. Controlled-flow gravity conveyors carry diverted cartons to the correct shipping doors.
Keeping its 409 stores stocked with items for the customer with a dollar to spend has been an achievable goal for the discount store chain. "The facility's overall efficiency," adds White, "has exceeded even our own expectations." Buschman
FACT FILE
Dollar Tree
Olive Branch, Miss.
Application: Discount Store Chain
Facility: Distribution Center
Challenge: Keep up with 25% growth rate
Solution: New automated DC
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