Corporate Express cut its niche in the office supply business through fast processing of orders and by offering next-day delivery directly to their customers' desks. It is a sound strategy that has made this company the world's largest business-to-business supplier of office products, computer supplies, office furniture and promotional items.

The company was recently acquired by Netherlands-based Buhrmann NV. This necessitated some re-alignment of the 38 office products distribution centers Corporate Express has in North America. The combined company, for instance, had three DCs to serve metropolitan New York City. One of the first orders of business was to consolidate the three into a new automated facility designed to move product efficiently while providing for a high degree of customer service.

'Doing distribution flawlessly is very important to us,' says Tim Beauchamp, senior vice president of distribution operations, 'and our highest rated item in a recent customer survey was our delivery service.'

Beauchamp adds that the consolidated facility was also a critical step in bringing together the staffs of the merged companies and creating a new business culture.

The new building, located across the Hudson River from New York in Secaucus, N.J., features 3.6 miles of conveyor (Siemens Dematic), a sliding shoe sorter, a new customized warehouse management system (WMS) and a unique combination of two technologies for split-case picking-wrist scanners coupled with a voice-directed system.

Since opening last April, Corporate Express has increased processing accuracy to greater than 99.9%, much better than the former paper-based systems. Costs have been reduced, labor has been saved and the facility is able to handle higher throughputs. Increased efficiencies have also allowed the company to offer later order cut-off times for next day deliveries-from 2:00 p.m. formerly to 6:00 p.m. now.

Another unique feature of the building is the design of the receiving area. The same doors used for incoming products can also be used for shipping.

'The receiving area would have sat empty during the night,' explains Beauchamp, 'so we thought, 'How can we use it?''

Conveyor spurs feed this area from a pop-up sorter located above the receiving doors. The spurs can be raised or lowered using hoists. Outbound product can be sent to this area when extra doors are needed. For shipping, the spurs are lowered. When used for receiving, the spurs are raised to clear the floor for lift truck traffic.

All of these improvements have helped Corporate Express process orders quickly and accurately.

'This place was successful very quickly, where it could have gone the other way without good planning and coordination,' says Tom Heslin, vice president of operations, Eastern Region.

'It was a total team effort between The New York Division and our corporate office from the planning stage through execution,' adds Michael Diani, vice president of operations for Corporate Express' New York Metro Division.

The facility has 12 receiving doors for incoming product, with most receipts coming from 20-25 major suppliers. Lift trucks and pallet jacks are used to offload pallets from their trailers. The dimensions of most products are known, which helps the warehouse management system maximize storage within the facility. Any stock keeping units (SKUs) that are new to the building are measured electronically with a cubing system.

Fast-moving, high-cube items, such as copy paper, are stored at floor level in bulk storage. A bar coded license plate is attached to each load and scanned by a lift truck operator upon pick-up. The loads are then driven to the bulk storage area where non-conveyables are also stored.

Other full pallet loads of a single SKU may be stored in conventional pallet racks. Each pallet load also receives a license plate, which is scanned by the lift truck driver upon pick-up. The WMS then assigns a location in the reserve area with like product typically stored together. The driver also scans a bar code attached to the rack location to confirm proper putaway.

Less-than-pallet-load SKUs are gathered at the dock onto a pallet. Each carton receives its own bar code license plate as it is placed onto the stack. An orderpicker operator then gathers the mixed load, scans it, and is informed on the display to take it to very narrow aisle (VNA) storage. The orderpicker is wire guided as it travels within the narrow aisles. Cartons are assigned to storage by SKU and placed onto wire decking. Each carton is scanned along with its location bar code upon deposit.

If the facility is out of a particular SKU, or if the item is new to the facility, then it may head directly from receiving to a forward pick module, including the area where proprietary items are picked. Proprietary items are promotional materials specifically designed for particular clients. This may include briefcases emblazoned with a customer's logo, pens, golf balls and other novelty items, as well as specially printed order forms, notepads and other office supplies.

Typically though, the modules are replenished as needed with case items brought by lift truck from reserve storage-either from the conventional pallet racks or the VNA storage area. Corporate Express practices first-in/first-out replenishment for most of its products, bringing oldest stock first to the forward pick modules. Most replenishment takes place during the morning shift.

Picking is performed in all areas of the facility. Non-conveyables and the large cube items are pulled from bulk floor storage. Some full pallets, such as those of copy paper, may be selected from this area, but primarily it is full cases that are chosen here. These are picked by label onto a pallet of mixed SKUs. The load is scanned, allowing the WMS to direct the lift truck or pallet jack operator to take the pallet to the proper outbound door.

Full cases of products are also pulled from the pallet and VNA racks of reserve storage. Pick-by- label is used here to select the individual cases utilizing orderpicker trucks. Items are scanned as they are picked before being taken to a conveyor spur where the cartons are offloaded. The conveyor will eventually feed the cartons into the facility's sorter.

Full cases are also picked by label from pallet flow racks and case flow racks located in a two-level pick module. Each case is pulled, labeled and placed onto a conveyor that runs through the module.

The vast majority of orders, about 80%, require less than full case picks. Split-case items are housed in multi-level modules containing carton flow racks and shelving. Voice-directed picking makes item selection very efficient.

Three machines first erect cartons, with each dedicated to building a particular size. A bar code label is added to each carton, which is then scanned to allow the WMS to assign a particular order to that carton. The WMS also knows how much each carton size holds and factors that into its assignment based on the known dimensions of products in the order.

The carton is next directed to the pick module where a pick and pass strategy is employed. Pop-up diverters direct the cartons only to those zones, 32 in all, that require picks. A worker in the zone typically allows six cartons to accumulate. Then each carton Id is read with a wrist scanner to alert the WMS that the carton has arrived in the zone. The WMS then instructs the voice system to direct the worker in batch picking items from the flow racks and shelving. The worker hears the location and quantity to select through a headset and gathers up the specified number of items, scanning the location with the wrist scanner to verify. Next, the worker is instructed to place a particular number of products into each staged carton-two items in carton 1, one in carton 4, five in carton 6, for instance. Each carton is also scanned as the items are deposited.

The voice system also tells the worker when all items for a carton have been gathered. The worker will then push it off onto a takeaway conveyor, where it will be diverted to other zones containing picks. A typical or-der contains about 4 lines, with an average of 1.2 items per line.

In a similar way, the voice system also directs picking from the shelving in the proprietary area. These items are also picked to carton, though the area does not contain as many zones and picks are more limited.

After passing through picking, some items may also travel to a value-added station for ticketing, while about 10% of all orders randomly divert to a quality control area for inspection.

Completed orders are conveyed to a pack station where air pillow dunnage is added. The cartons are then sealed and conveyed to the shipping sorter, where they merge with full case items picked from the other areas. This sliding shoe sorter has 45 diverts that feed the facility's 38 shipping doors according to delivery route. Automatic extenders assist in loading the 72 panel delivery trucks used for deliveries.

'You can never have enough dock doors,' says Beauchamp, 'so we designed each dock for two turns and we also custom-designed the doors to fit the trucks.'

Some cartons may also divert to another conveyor that takes them to the receiving area, which doubles as a shipping dock when needed. Pop-up diverters above this area feed the shipping lanes, where items are gathered onto pallets for loading. When the area is needed again for receiving, usually the next morning, hoists raise the shipping spurs high above the floor level to permit lift trucks to travel below.

Corporate Express designed the Secaucus facility to handle expected growth for the next seven years.

'Our volumes will increase and we will not have any problems meeting our delivery times,' says Beauchamp.

Managers are also happily surprised with the accuracies they have achieved in the building and credit much of it to the voice-directed picking systems. They are so pleased, in fact, that they are currently in the process of converting 22 of Corporate Express's facilities to voice systems.

'The pick-to-voice has been knocking us out with how accurate it is,' says Heslin. 'We can take people off the street and easily train them. It has changed our whole mindset on distribution.'

Corporate Express is also currently constructing new distribution facilities in Baltimore and Idaho Falls, and plans to use what has been learned in New Jersey at both sites.

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