Just as Urban Outfitters is redesigning its processes to compress its overall supply chain, the new Reno, Nev., facility was designed to accelerate order fulfillment processes. Read related article on Urban Outfitters' distribution process.

Only 10% of the merchandise received at the facility will be stored in the reserve storage area. The rest will be crossdocked directly to the shipping area for delivery to another distribution center, or sorted to a packing area where the merchandise will be allocated to stores served by the DC.

The process begins when inventory arrives at the receiving area. The purchase order on the shipment packing list is entered into Urban's enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.

That alerts brand merchants who wrote the purchase orders as well as allocators who allocate the shipment among the stores in their brand that the product has arrived. This is their opportunity to reallocate inventory or allocate product that hasn't already been assigned to a store.

Once the inventory is entered into the ERP system, cartons are staged on pallets in a pallet staging area. There, order quantities and SKUs are validated and entered into the ERP system. That generates the allocation process.

Cases that can be sent directly to one of the stores or to another DC receive a shipping label and are inducted into the conveyor and sortation system, where they are then sorted to the shipping area.

Inventory that has yet to be allocated is transported by lift truck to the reserve storage area. Cases are put away on wire decking in a narrow-aisle area, pallets are stored in select rack, and bulkier items are stored on cantilever racks.

Product doesn't receive a bar code label for putaway. Instead, an associate scans a bar code on a putaway ticket and a bar code at the putaway location. That ties the product to a location in the inventory management system.

The rest of the inventory is ready for allocation. Product that requires ticketing or other value-added services is sent to a carton buffer and ticketing area. Once it's ready to be processed, cases are placed on the conveyor and delivered to the sliding shoe sortation system, which sorts it to a packing lane. Meanwhile, a carton monorail system delivers shipping cartons to the packing lanes. The monorail is also used to take waste away from the packing area.

To ensure accuracy, associates only pack items for one store brand in a lane. To keep presentation to the stores easy, packers don't mix women's clothing with men's clothing or apparel with housewares in the same carton.

In the packing area, Urban Outfitters uses a pack-to-light solution. Associates place cartons in rack locations. Each carton represents a specific store. Multiple cartons of the same SKU are sorted to a packing area at one time.

When they arrive, the packer scans a bar code label on a ticket in the lead case, which launches the packing operation for that SKU. Lights on the pick racks identify which cartons, or stores, will get that SKU and how many cases or items should be placed in a carton.

Once a shipping carton is full, it's pushed back onto the conveyor system. On its way to the shipping area it is weighed, taped and then sorted to the shipping area.