storage case study l
store. They are scanned at induction station onto a sort conveyor before heading down chutes to be packed separately.
One thing was clearly apparent during Bisham Consulting’s initial review of River Island’s DCs: the amount of space that could be gained by building a mezzanine structure above the ground floors. The mezzanine in DC1 is located over the marshalling area for buffering store orders brought in on the hanging garment rail from DC2 before despatch. River Island have created sufficient space to extend the mezzanine space out and to an extra floor above, with stubs ready for sprinklers, lighting and other fixings to attach on to if needed.
business for a whole year.
Various options were examined with the possibility of relocating some or all of the new DC capacity. However, the team assembled over the years in the Milton Keynes DC is highly valued within the River Island business, and there was a desire to retain the skills and commitment of the team. Consequently, the decision was made to co-locate the two new buildings on a single plot in the Milton Keynes area.
Available space
The new DC comprises two, self- contained units linked by twin bridges: The 24,800m2
DC1 holds River Island’s
boxed product whilst the hanging garments are housed in the 20,600m2 DC2. The building includes a three-tier mezzanine, totalling 14,300m2
.
The scheme almost doubles the space River Island had previously but the retailer also wants lean operations. River Island can be regarded as risk averse so it was no surprise when they accepted a key piece of Bisham Consulting’s advice, which was not fundamentally changing processes at the same time as relocating the operation to minimise the risk on migration and thereby ensure business continuity.
So, the new DC uses operations familiar to River Island but with throughput improvements from mechanisation where beneficial, such as providing a more ‘goods to man’ operation in DC1 with the introduction of a conveyor carousel to reduce staff travel and linking the Hanging Garment conveying system through from Goods receiving in DC2 – to Consolidation with Boxed product and Despatch in DC.
SKUs are picked from locations in the 28 ShD October 2011
www.PressOnShD.com
racking onto order picking trolleys and then placed into bar-coded totes that travel on a conveyor loop to the appropriate area in despatch determined according to the dynamic routing system in River Island’s Warehouse Management Software (WMS).
Supporting e-commerce E-commerce orders are picked in the DC just as if the order was for a normal
“Our previous DCs had no flexibility for expanding the mezzanine area,” says Arif Ahmed. Here, we have built in resilience, in the event we require expansion in one unit several years ahead of expectation, we will not have to disrupt a live operation in full swing and affect service levels.”
DC2 is dedicated to the storage of the hanging garments, which are
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