Warrington ADC

Creating the most advanced grocery distribution centre in the WalMart world

Concept
  • Automated receipt and putaway of single SKU pallets in highbay storage.
  • Pallets retrieved and individual cases delayered and placed onto trays, manually and/or by robot.
  • Trays stored in dynamic high density storage miniload system (HDS).
  • Trays retrieved and sequenced for ergonomic presentation to pickers to build store-specific mixed SKU pallets.
  • Pallets automatically wrapped and then transported to designated marshalling lanes for store dispatch.

Challenge

Requirement to increase total network capacity to support business growth and to collapse 2 ageing distribution centres into a single new facility.
Additional SKU range & case throughput required along with capability of serving new store openings in the region and optimising transport to serve.
Systemic flexibility required to handle changing range of SKUs; sequencing of product through the facility; balancing stock vs flexibility of system. 
Cultural challenge in changing how Colleagues work, process training for inbound, outbound, inventory control, maintenance teams. 
Handling migration from the old DCs during peak trading, and scaling the operation to reach full capacity and hit all ROI metrics.   
Modular design requirement to defer significant capital payments for future years.

Value

Benefits of project 

Significant opportunity to reduce headcount for like-for-like output and to increase capacity by serving more stores, more efficiently.
Pallet build density significantly improved, to reduce damage and increase number of cases per pallet to save transport miles and in-store labour.
Better footprint and cube utilisation with multitiered mezzanines and reduced travel for all pickers.
Higher quality pallets, as SKUs built in single site instead of from 2 separate DCs, requiring consolidation.
Improved ergonomics and system flexibility, reduced inventory levels, better Colleague facilities.
Step change in production-line monitoring of operations, to ensure timeliness and accuracy of order fulfilment.
Reduced Cost % Sales drives significant Return-on-Investment, with ability to add further technology in phased development. 
Concept and Realisation videos