Retail distribution center delivers significant cost savings and operational efficiency to more than 400 regional stores

Client

A major US retail chain

Challenge:

Uninterrupted operation was essential for a new distribution center (DC) to service more than 400 locations in one of the retailer's rapidly growing regions. A rigorous worldwide search for the most advanced automatic storage and retrieval software led to its proven supplier – Stratus – for the continuously available servers and services required to run this new real-time environment.

Capitalizing on the opportunity to build a state-of-the-art center from the ground up, the retail firm issued three challenging goals for the new DC:

• Reduce distribution fulfillment costs by "an order of magnitude"
• Enhance service levels to stores within the region
• Ensure the final DC efficiency model would amaze users and evaluators alike

Solution:

The final results are more than impressive. The less than 300,000 square foot center operates with one-third the staff, yet handles a volume comparable to a DC twice that size. Product and inventory information moves through the Stratus^® systems in real time, eliminating the need to close down for physical inventory. Efficiency is taken to a whole new level as items are packed in an order that reflects exact aisle assignments within individual stores. At the store location, orders are simply unloaded in sequence from the delivery truck and rolled directly to the correct aisle for immediate placement on the shelves.

Result:

With 1.5 million pieces handled daily and more than 50,000 different items stocked during a year, the availability, simplicity and efficiency that were the outgrowth of this Stratus-based design has already been duplicated at another regional location.

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