Seaway Food Town, a regional supermarket chain, needed to "consolidate distribution from three less-than-optimum operations into one highly automated order selection facility," says Doug Pope, vice president distribution.

The challenge the supermarket chain's distribution presented to a materials handling systems integrator was a big one, Pope adds. Included were these goals: Increase SKU (stockkeeping unit) count from 3,000 to 7,000 with the consolidation. Distribute a lot more product faster and with a higher degree of accuracy. And do it from a much smaller location.

Three operations with a total area of 180,000 square feet had to be consolidated into one 100,000 square feet facility.

This consolidation took place in the Toledo, Ohio area. The project involves distribution of general merchandise and slow-moving grocery items for Seaway, a division of Spartan Stores. Order selection and handling of these supermarket goods had to optimized compared to the far from optimal warehousing that existed previously. With the requirement that total SKU capacity be more than double in this smaller facility compared to what it was in the three prior operations, the systems integrator came up with a design with two 3-level order selection modules.

But due to ceiling clearance limitations, the smaller facility was limited to a two-level-high configuration. The solution? Trench the existing floors in the facility to make room for the first level of the order selection modules.

The redesigned facility now has two 3-level (floor plus two deck levels) order selection modules for split case picking. Order selectors pick items from a computer-generated pick list to totes in specific pick zones. This selection approach has resulted in improved accuracy and a greater throughput rate.

The facility also has a very-narrow-aisle (VNA) selective pallet rack system for batch picking. The VNA system maximizes use of available floor space. This system also was designed for a floating slot discipline for SKU locations. Order picking productivity is higher now as pickers select full case quantities from VNA racking in batches of four stores per picker.

Conveyor systems serve several purposes in the redesigned DC. One conveyor transports totes with orders to a manual palletizing area. And pallet flow conveyor provides replenishment capability for the split case picking module area. Pallets are loaded onto flow rail and conveyed to the proper slot, which minimizes the travel distance to replenishment stock.

According to Pope, the systems integrator "delivered with an innovative design that maximized cube utilization in a smaller footprint. The new system has helped us reach our objective of warehousing and distributing more SKUs in a more productive and efficient fashion."

DPI Material Handling Systems
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www.dpisystems.com