What if developments outside the four walls not only impacted the way materials are handled inside the four walls, but drove the design of the entire facility? At Saks Inc.'s distribution center in Steele, Ala., that is exactly what happened.

The DC was designed to take advantage of floor-ready retail tag standards as well as flow-through crossdocking, says Ronnie Johnson, vice president of systems planning for Saks. The retailer and its suppliers extensively use electronic data interchange (EDI) to enable the rapid crossdocking of goods.

"From its inception, this facility was designed to handle more than 90% crossdocking," Johnson says. "Our conveyor systems, our information systems—they were all designed to support crossdocking." The result is a 200% productivity increase, and the removal of two days from the time that goods spend in the supply chain.

For department store goods, nearly 95% of goods are crossdocked. The key to success here is advanced knowledge of inbound goods via advance ship notices (ASNs). The EDI messages integrate with the DC's warehouse management system (Catalyst International, 800-236-4600), which communicates with a warehouse control system and an automated conveying and sorting system (Siemens Logistics & Assembly, 877-725-7500).

When goods are unloaded at receiving, a scan of each carton's SSCC-18 bar code ties it back to the ASN. The system knows which shipping dock and trailer to route it to.

As a result, it takes eight minutes or less for most goods to flow from receiving to shipping, all with minimal handling. "All we have to do is introduce the carton into the sortation system, and it will query the carton, book it and send it down the correct lane," says Johnson.

EDI messages from carriers supplement the information received by ASNs, while a yard management system helps route trailers to open receiving docks.

The system processes 45,000 cartons per shift, compared to 15,000 cartons per shift for a same-sized facility without these systems. In addition, the standard service level for the facility used to be three days, Now, 95% of goods are shipped the same day they enter the facility.