FEATURE WAREHOUSING, HANDLING & STORAGE
PETS AT HOME SUPPORTS GROWTH PLANS WITH A £2.5 MILLION WAREHOUSE UPDATE
warehouse activity and provide real time visibility so we can track orders and keep our customers happy.” Pets at Home’s distribution centre
developments support its multi-channel strategy embracing a ‘bricks and clicks’ approach. The company’s in-house fleet manages the majority of the retailer’s click and collect orders to store, whereas home deliveries are handled by external carriers. imio-MFC allows orders to be tracked and traced across all three of Pets at Home delivery channels.
Pets at Home, one of the UK’s largest retailers of pet supplies, has signed a deal with Conveyor Networks to implement a £2.5m warehouse automation project at their eCom distribution centre in Northampton (‘SDC’)
F
ollowing trifold growth in eCom parcel volumes over the last 18 months, Pets
at Home will use warehouse automation technology to drive efficiencies, achieve greater productivity and deliver real-time visibility across the operation, so they can continue to provide accurate deliveries to their customers. Once implemented the warehouse will be capable of supporting Pets at Home’s future expansion plans of 100 per cent growth in parcel volumes over the next five years. Conveyor Networks will install an automated picking and packing system spanning three floors to transform Pets at Home’s second UK distribution centre, which is responsible for fulfilment of online orders, including subscription based medicines. The system will include conveyor modules, packing machinery, automated label print and apply and intelligent routing and sorting. A key element of the solution is the software platform that will manage the interface between the PLC control system and the host WMS platform; imio software’s MFC module (Material Flow Control) controls the flow of data between both programs and will provide real time operational visibility and tracking capability. The
28 JUNE 2018 | FACTORY EQUIPMENT
software will be provided by Conveyor Networks’ associate business – imio Software Solutions Ltd. The new system also complies with the
company’s sustainable packaging policy, by using cardboard cartons rather than plastic bags.
DRIVEN BY DEMAND Driven by pet owners’ demands for convenience and immediate availability, orders for the Pets at Home flea product subscription service are fulfilled through the Northampton distribution centre, and following the implementation, will be capable of delivering far greater run rates and with a more robust validation process, so as to ensure accurate delivery. According to Terry Siddle, director of
logistics and distribution at Pets at Home: “Automating material flow and packing for our eCom and subscription based medicines is a priority following our recent growth. It’s vital that we can handle increasing orders and parcel volumes without causing compromise to our high customer delivery expectations. Conveyor Networks’ imio- MFC will give us control over all
Conveyor Network’s automation project will be capable of supporting Pets at Home’s future expansion plans
GROWING VOLUME As warehouse automation specialists, Conveyor Networks believes that distribution centres, like Pets at Home’s in Northampton, who process up to 50,000 orders per day, will struggle to meet growing volume demands without adequate automation. Marcus Uprichard, sales and marketing director at Conveyor Networks, says: “Our recent research has found that peak volumes are adding on average around 50 per cent more parcels per day for retailers. Add in a growing customer expectation on delivery and this is putting pressure on warehousing and fulfilment. This system for Pets at Home is going to help them realise their enviable growth ambitions while allowing them to circumnavigate the traditional issues of extra resource required to facilitate such growth – especially at peak times.” The £2.5 million deal follows a project
in 2017 that saw Conveyor Networks upgrade obsolescent controls at Pets at Home’s Stoke DC, which is responsible for distributing stock to its 450+ stores across the UK.
Conveyor Networks
www.conveyornetworks.co.uk T: 01925 742888
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