To say the least, Elizabeth Arden's DC in Roanoke, Va. has undergone some significant changes of late.

In the past year, it was expanded from 265,000 to 400,000 square feet. The layout of the facility was completely revamped, and $5 million spent on materials handling from a sortation system to very narrow aisle storage. Furthermore, this single DC's customer base for its cosmetics and fragrances increased from 7,000 to 35,000 retail stores and regional warehouses, explains Roy Drilon, senior vice president of distribution.

While the Roanoke DC was expanded by 50%, the square footage there is 60% less than what the overall company had in January 2001. That's when Elizabeth Arden was sold by Unilever to the public company French Fragrance Inc.

To manage distribution of both products and promotional items to both department stores and mass merchandisers (including Wal-Mart), the new ownership decided to consolidate everything into the expanded Roanoke DC. Closed were two French Fragrance DCs in Edison, N.J. and Miami Lakes, Fla., along with six overflow facilities, saving the company considerable space and costs.

In its first year, the Roanoke DC will handle $1 billion of goods, more than what was once handled annually when the company had 1 million square feet of space. Daily orders there have increased 100% to 4,000 per day. Meanwhile, order cycle time was cut by two days even as the company reduced overall inventory levels.

"Our response to orders is so good now," says Drilon, "that we truly act as the backroom warehouse for stores. We have become an integral link in the supply chain of our customers."

For that reason, this facility wins the Modern Materials Handling Productivity Achievement Award in Distribution.

"The demographics of our orders completely changed," says Drilon. "We went from shipping once or twice a month to regional warehouses and department stores to processing store-ready orders generated by point-of-sale data."

With that shift, Roanoke's picking process was outdated and undersized. Before the upgrade, there were 3,000 pick faces primarily for full case picks with less than a thousand for item picks. Today, there are 13,560 pick faces, each capable of holding eight hours of inventory.

Item picks are from three pick-to-light modules with 3,780 pick faces on the lower level of the three, two-level piece-pick areas. There are an additional 9,780 shelving pick faces for the slower movers on the upper level of the piece-pick modules.

Two, full-case pick modules are on the other side of the DC. One module accommodates full pallets only, while the new module is equipped with carton flow shelving on the lower level and full pallet flow positions on the upper level. There are a total of 2,100 pick faces between both modules.

Similarly, the number of storage locations was tripled, going from 14,000 to 42,000. To limit the storage footprint as much as possible, standard pallet rack five levels high was replaced with eight levels of high-density storage and very narrow aisle turret trucks. Despite the increase in locations, square footage dedicated to storage is only half of what it was previously.

At the other end of the warehouse, the sortation system was upgraded considerably. A pop-up wheel sorter is still used, but the speed increased to 70 cases a minute from 40. In addition, six divert lanes were added, bringing the total to 17.

To coordinate inventory movement, a warehouse control system was added. It directs picking and controls conveyors that move inventory through pick modules and between levels for accumulation prior to sortation. The warehouse control system also directs sortation, ensuring cartons are delivered to the correct shipping lane.

From receiving to shipping, bar codes play a large role in managing inventory. Receipts from Elizabeth Arden's manufacturing sites arrive with bar code labels. All others receive bar code labels at the DC.

Throughout the process, the labels are read automatically. This data is used by the warehouse control system as well as by the host that directs putaway in storage and replenishment of pick faces.

Both receiving and shipping were overhauled too. Once both on the same side of the building, receiving was moved to the opposite side next to the new storage area. The number of receiving docks was expanded from 6 to 12 and shipping from 17 to 21.

"The past three years have been especially interesting as we went through this process," says Drilon. "But now we are able to process orders more efficiently and are positioned for the company to grow aggressively."