Business Issue An automotive OEM parts distributor covering a five-state area was running out of room at its single 300,000 sq. ft. distribution center. The distributor was considering a $25 million expansion to be completed within 18 months. Current warehouse capacity exceeded 95.8% of available space. This left little room for new products or efficient part locating. The distributor asked Flow … [Read more...]
Warehousing and Logistics Case Studies
$1,350,000 Annual Savings Realized by Window-covering Manufacturer
Business Issue A window-covering manufacturer acquired a new company resulting in increased inventory stored at its 100%-utilized southeastern location. This resulted in 40% of orders split between Arizona and North Carolina, adding more than $1 million in annual costs. The company leased a larger warehouse to locate the new product and consolidate inventory from its two smaller facilities and … [Read more...]
Warehouse Space and Shipping Capacity
Business Issue Rapid growth of manufacturer and distributor of restaurant supplies struggled with warehouse space and shipping capacity. Approach Used Redesigned warehouse flow to reduce operator travel time and installed a carousel storage system integrated with SAP along with SAP Warehouse Management and custom RF transactions. Results Reduced warehouse OT by 80 … [Read more...]
Incoherent Finished-Goods Dock Operations
Business Issue The client was running out of room to stage finished customer orders. Product would move to the shipping dock and ‘park’ wherever there was room. When it came time to load the delivery trucks, it was a treasure hunt across the whole dock to find all of the customer orders. With an additional 30% growth expected, the client knew that the current mode of operation would lead to … [Read more...]
Affordable Raw Material Storage Needed
Business Issue A growing building supplies manufacturer was running out of room and wanted to convert warehouse space to make room for a new product line. The plan was to change from traditional pallet fork trucks and pallet racks to expensive Very Narrow Aisle lifts and racks at a cost of almost $500,000. This was a significant capital expenditure for a small business with annual revenues of $30 … [Read more...]