Genesco has just gotten a foot up on the competition. Its new automated distribution center in Lebanon, Tenn. assures that it will be able to keep up with the steady demand created by aggressive growth in its retail footwear divisions. The new center is designed primarily to supply 579 Journeys stores, a mall-based chain that offers trendy shoes and accessories to the teen and young adult market. The building will also funnel products to other Genesco stores including Journeys Kidz, Jarman and Underground Station. Johnston & Murphy shoe stores are also owned by Genesco, but products for those stores are distributed elsewhere.

As one of the nation's largest shoe retailers, Genesco is well aware of the need to move products quickly through the supply chain.

'Speed to market is very important to us. We are high fashion, which means our product life is 8-12 weeks and then they go away. We try to get these shoes out to the stores before anyone else,' says Mark Teegarden, general manager of the Lebanon facility. 'We needed to enhance our distribution capabilities. Journeys simply outgrew our old facility.'

The new building is designed for speed (Q4 Logistics). With trendy brands such as Nike, Puma, Timberland, Dr. Marten, Diesel and adidas, most products spend very little time in the DC.

'We are not a crossdock facility, but we are pretty darn close,' adds Teegarden. About 75% of product moves out to stores within the first week after receipt.'

The new DC provides the capacity Genesco needs to accommodate growth in the Journeys chain, as it reduces costs and labor needs, while enhancing information capabilities. The building features increased automation over the facilities it will replace, including wireless picking, two sliding shoe sorters and an efficient packing operation that includes weight checking. Pick modules with automated zone picking now replace the wheeled carts used previously.

'We did not have good information before on our productivity and we had little technology in our old systems,' says Teegarden. 'We have replaced the carts so that now with the zone picking, the cartons come to the operators.'

'After the design phase of the project, I knew this was going to be a showcase facility,' Teegarden adds. 'We let our performance speak for itself.'

While the facility is still in its ramp-up mode, efficiencies can already be seen.

'We are as happy as we can be with the building and the new systems,' says Teegarden. 'Right now we have approximately three-fourths of the staff of the old facility and have already matched their daily shipping levels.' Accuracy has also been very good, at greater than 99.6%.

Genesco expects a return on investment for the facility within three years. The project was also completed under budget. Nearly 1,000 stores will be served from the DC by next September. Currently, Journeys' e-commerce orders are also filled here, as well as the facility is contracted to handle orders placed on the adidas Web site.

Many suppliers provide advance ship notices (ASN) of receipts that are due to arrive at the facility's 25 inbound docks.

'The advance ship notices speed processing on the receiving side,' says Teegarden. 'That helps us have faster putaway, which also contributes to our speed to market. We presently have in place a program that ensures that all of our vendors will eventually become ASN compliant.'

Most inbound stock arrives in floor-loaded full trailers. Expandable conveyors assist unloading with cartons then manually palletized according to stock keeping unit (SKU). Carton labels are printed for receipts based on the information from the ASNs. If a receipt does not have an ASN, then the vendor's case label is scanned or the information may be keyed into the warehouse management system (WMS) using terminals located at receiving. A license plate is also printed and attached to each pallet.

Every SKU in the facility represents a particular shoe style, color and size. Only one SKU is stored on each pallet. Some vendors ship products to Genesco in medley form, meaning that the carton received may contain shoes of the same style and color, but with different sizes. These cartons are opened at receiving and manually re-boxed and palletized so that only one SKU (and one size) will reside on the storage pallet. A future upgrade to the host system will enable Genesco to receive medley cartons as a unique SKU that will then be crossdocked directly to the stores.

Information on product weights and dimensions is also very important to the facility. The dimensional information is used to allocate storage space and determine shipping carton size. The weight is used to verify that the proper amount of product has been picked into the carton.

This information must be gathered on new SKUs, which arrive almost daily due to the trendy nature of Genesco's merchandise. A cubing system is used to measure the dimensions and weight of each boxed pair of shoes and all accessories. The item is scanned as it is placed into the cubing system. This allows the gathered information to be automatically shared with the WMS.

Once receiving is complete, the WMS calls for a lift truck to pick up the load in receiving. The lift truck operator scans the pallet and is informed by radio frequency device where to take it for storage. Almost all product initially heads to reserve storage unless it is needed immediately within one of the forward pick modules. The driver takes the load to the assigned location and scans the location bar code upon putaway. Slotting of items is done according to store division and product style to make replenishment and picking easier.

Most replenishment occurs during the early morning hours to prepare for that day's orders. Eventually, a second shift will handle most replenishment tasks. Additional replenishment also occurs throughout the day whenever product is needed to refill forward pick areas. Lift trucks, directed by the wireless radio frequency terminals, bring stock from the reserve racks to the facility's three pick modules. The pallet license plate, as well as a bar code designating the module location, are scanned to confirm the transfer.

Two of the modules contain pallet flow racks with the third composed of carton flow racks and bin shelving. Many of the items used to replenish the carton flow racks and shelving do not require a full pallet. Instead, orderpicker trucks working in reserve storage select individual cases to fill these areas.

The early part of the week is the busiest time in the facility. This is due to the need to restock stores after brisk weekend sales.

'We are very sensitive to meeting point-of-sale replenishment,' notes Teegarden.

Picking is conducted in waves based on shipping schedules to the various stores. Typically, about ten waves run daily. Rarely is merchandise picked directly from reserve storage, as a full carton of one size and style is too much product for one individual store to stock and sell. Orders are instead filled in the modules using zone picking.

The two modules containing pallet flow racks have three levels, while the carton flow and bin shelving module have two levels. A fourth picking area also has been developed on the lower level of one of the reserve areas to house overflow. This section contains wire deck racking across the pallet positions. Any items picked from here are deposited onto a nearby conveyor spur.

Processing starts in whichever of the 64 total picking zones contains the first pick. Label printers are located at the beginning of each level within the module. These produce carton bar code labels that also include instructions as to which of the three sizes of cartons should be used for each order. This label is manually attached. Fixed scanners on the conveyor system read the bar code label, directing the carton to zones where picks are required.

Upon arrival in a zone, a picker scans the bar code ID label with a handheld RF scanner. The unit then displays the picks needed for the carton from that zone. The worker selects the items, scans each, then scans the carton once more as the items are deposited within it.

'The pickers may be picking into multiple cartons simultaneously to improve efficiency. The additional carton scan makes certain that we get the right product into the right carton,' says Teegarden.

The dimensional information acquired earlier on each SKU assures that a predetermined number of shoe boxes fits within each order carton, typically 10-12 pairs. Once all picks from the zone have been completed, the carton is pushed back onto the transport conveyor that climbs through all levels of the module. When additional picks are needed within a zone, a pop-up diverter on the conveyor directs the carton to that zone for processing.

The picking process is identical for both shoes and accessories, though typically a greater number of accessories fit into a shipping carton. All accessories are housed in the shelving area, as they normally require less storage space than shoes.

Completed cartons from the different modules next meet at a sawtooth conveyor merge. They then pass over an inline scale where the cartons are weighed and compared to the expected weight that the carton should contain. Following this, the cartons next head to a sliding shoe sorter that feeds two quality control lanes and six taping and manifest lanes.

Cartons entering the manifest lanes are scanned by a fixed scanner, which brings up their record on an adjacent monitor. A shipping label, carton content label and packing slip are printed and attached. Dunnage is added if necessary.

The facility produces its own dunnage using recycled corrugated. A machine slices used cardboard cartons, emptied during the picking process, into strips about six inches wide. The strips are then rolled and taped to produce a strong tube that is used to fill any void areas within the shipping cartons. Packed cartons next pass through an automatic sealing machine and are then conveyed to shipping.

About 20% of the cartons arriving in the packing area are randomly diverted to the two quality control lanes for inspection, though this percentage can be altered through the conveyor control system. Also fed here are any misreads of the carton bar code and those cartons that contain weight discrepancies. Inspection of the cartons is conducted and any problems are resolved. The cartons are then packed, labeled and sealed in the same way as other cartons entering the other pack lanes.

The cartons next head by conveyor to a second sliding shoe sorter that serves shipping. This unit contains 17 diverts that feed the 25 outbound docks. Most items head to the 11 trailer-load lanes featuring powered extenders that assist in floor loading of the trailers. Six other lanes serve less-than-trailer loads. Items here are palletized. Some pallet loads are also stretch wrapped to prepare them for shipping.

Genesco uses a combination of their own trucks and contracted vehicles for delivery. They also rely on consolidators to further break down orders for stores in various areas of the country.

E-commerce orders are picked along side of other orders within the facility, but these divert to a spur near a shelving unit where they are consolidated and held for UPS pick-up.

'Now we are past our initial issues with the start-up and can begin fine-tuning the building to remove any remaining inefficiencies,' Teegarden says.

One of the tasks to address is the desire to balance the workload in the building. Most products ship to stores only once or twice each week, with the bulk of processing on Mondays. Teegarden would instead like to see more immediate store replenishment by providing smaller shipments more often. That will make it easier for the facility to handle the 1,000 stores it will be supplying regularly, plus eliminate the need for additional storage on the store end.

The building and materials handling systems were also designed for growth well beyond current needs. The grading has already been completed on site to expand the building footprint to over 500,000 square feet. A third pallet flow module is also in the plan, as is a third level in the module that holds bin shelving. The conveyors and sorters were designed to easily double the number of diverts to the taping stations and to shipping. A second story can also be added to the office complex for use as a call center or for other corporate services.

'The building was designed based on volume projections for the next ten years provided by our merchants. We will never have to go back and retrofit our facility to accommodate future growth within the company,' adds Teegarden.

Click the icon to read how New Balance distributes shoes.