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DRAPER TOOLS IS 101 YEARS OLD THIS YEAR - AND INVESTING IN AUTOMATION TO SUPPORT THE CONTINUING GROWTH OF ITS BUSINESS raper Tools, a leading hand and power tool distributor is a family-run
company that has been in business for just over a century and has more than 5,000 UK and overseas customers. Historically its customers have been mostly business-to-business (B2B) retailers and distributors but more recently Draper has also begun using its logistics platform to ship to consumers directly on behalf of its customers.
Draper Tools has been implementing a strategy that upgrades and modernises its warehousing and logistics workflows with enabling technology. Draper Head of Warehousing and Logistics, Matt Boschi is leading that process supported by Draper Tools technology partner Red Ledge. He is responsible for Draper Tools’ two-site, 560,000 square feet warehousing operation which is based in Eastleigh, Hampshire and employs around 120 people.
IMPROVED EFFICIENCY
Draper Tools has moved from a long-established, paper-based environment to a warehouse management system driving handheld terminals and mobile computers and is now in the process of integrating its technologies more fully. Thanks to this new technology that drives its warehousing and logistics division the company has been able to service additional demand without taking on the temporary staff it used to.
WMS-DRIVEN OPERATION
A ‘Red Ledge WMS’ warehouse management system now sits at the heart of the company’s 15,000-SKU operation. The WMS is integrated with Draper Tools’ IBM ERP (enterprise resource planning) and Knapp automated picking systems and is capable of updating inventory in real time. Other, WMS-driven functions include a volumetric packing optimiser, automated labelling and
J
MACH 2021 LEADING THE WAY TO RECOVERY anuary 2021 is going to be a hugely important landmark for UK
manufacturers. After the disruption of 2020 getting supply chains moving and investment flowing are going to be big priorities for the new year. The place to do that will be the NEC, which will not only play host to MACH, the UK’s national engineering and manufacturing exhibition between 25-28th January, but will also be packed with other events. After a gap of nearly a decade, Subcon will return to being co-located
Controls, meaning it will be a huge week for UK manufacturing. The organisers have partnered on the events before, but in the current climate the collaboration takes on added significance as the need to kickstart the manufacturing sector after the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic becomes of crucial importance to the wellbeing of the UK economy as a whole.
By pooling their resources, expertise and experience, the two
organisations said they would be better able to support UK manufacturing and engineering businesses to bounce back as the economy starts to rebuild and adapt to this ‘new normal’.
The highpoint of the week will be the Manufacturing Technologies Association’s Annual Dinner which the Association, which owns and runs MACH, will be holding onsite at the Vox, on Tuesday 26th January. James Selka, CEO of the MTA, said: “Our intention is to ensure MACH is not just a showcase for the manufacturing technologies sector, but a celebration of the manufacturing industry at its best. MACH is a content- led event and brings together the latest advanced engineering and manufacturing technologies - in operation and all under one roof.” “Highlights for the show will include a significant focus on the digital factory, with more automation and connected manufacturing processes, power by the hour and new cost efficiency solutions that will dramatically improve production processes and help shape the industry over the next
www.machexhibition.com
decade.” FACTORY&HANDLINGSOLUTIONS | JUNE 2020 5
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NEWS
carrier management. The company’s 100+ mobile scanners that are now used by its warehouse teams are also driven by the Red Ledge WMS. Future objectives include greater automation of Draper Tools’ export order fulfilment. “Having a WMS allows you to drive efficiencies and adapt to new working practices such as drop shipping directly to consumers on behalf of our customers. Also, we are now able to pick orders in batches rather than single orders, delivering efficiencies in the use of warehouse time” Matt Boschi explains. “The orders are all single units but rather than doing 600 journeys round the warehouse we are doing thirty. And we have that ability because Red Ledge is helping us by writing and tweaking the applications we need.”
MORE PROFITABLE
The Draper Logistic Team works closely with the Red Ledge team to ensure that the WMS is harnessed to the needs of the business. The system is used to generate management reports on the performance of Draper Tools individuals, teams and warehouse processes. “Greater operational visibility is making warehousing and logistics here a more profitable part of the business by driving down our costs” Matt Boschi says.
“With the Red Ledge WMS we are well positioned to manage all types of change” Matt Boschi concludes, “and the functionality of our WMS can be easily replicated to support multiple operations domestically or globally.”
www.drapertools.com
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