February - Modern Materials Handling

modern WAREHOUSE/DCREAL DC STORIES:LOW COSTDEEP IMPACTBY MAIDA NAPOLITANO, Contributing EditorYou don’t always need hundreds of feet of conveyor or fancy equipmentto achieve real productivity improvement in your warehouse or DC. Thesemanagers found significant savings by working with the equipment theyalready had—and, in some instances, with just a few minor IT tweaks.With spring nearly upon us, it’s the perfect timeto regroup and take stock of your distributionoperation. You may want to walk your warehouse,study your layout, watch your workers, and performan information technology (IT) systems audit. Lookfor opportunities to increase your picker’s productivity,squeeze more storage space, and ultimately reign in youroperating costs.Of course, it’s easier said than done. So, to help you getstarted we’re going to take a closer look inside three very differentwarehouse and distribution center operations that spanfrom thousands of square feet of private warehousing space tomillions operated by a third party logistics (3PL) provider.While all the locations we cover here are geared for verydifferent operations, all share one common theme: The managerswho run these operations achieved new efficiencies byworking with the equipment they already had—and in someinstances, just a few minor IT tweaks. The managers you’reabout to meet prove that you don’t always need hundreds offeet of new conveyor or fancy equipment to achieve real productivitybenefits.J.B. Prince cooks up low-cost improvementsJ.B. Prince has been supplying top-tier restaurants, includingthose located in resorts and cruise ships, with the highestquality, hard-to-find kitchen tools and equipment fromaround the U.S., Europe and Japan for more than 30 years.From 1996 to 2006, this family-owned company hasoccupied the 11th floor of a 12-story building located in midtownManhattan, housing a showroom, corporate offices anda 7,000-square foot warehouse. Within this warehouse, theykeep stock of about 2,700 SKUs and pick and pack ordersfrom catalog sales from their online store as well as ordersfrom other distributors.Running a warehouse in the middle of Manhattan maygive the heebie-jeebies to any self-respecting DC manager,but to Larry Prince, the company’s vice president, it’s beenthe key to their business success. “In the world of fine dining,everybody who’s anybody comes to Manhattan at somepoint or another, and we’re here to provide them with instantaneousservice through our showroom.”Such strategy is obviously working, because over the pastdecade business has been booming. Two years ago, to keeppace with its success, the company added 5,000 square feetof reserved storage space on the 12th floor. It not only helpedopen things up, but it also exposed how inefficient their pickingoperation was on the original 11th floor.More business from online sales also meant that storagewas again creeping to near-capacity. Prince decided to recruitTranSystems|Gross & Associates, a Woodbridge, N.J.-basedfirm specializing in materials handling and design, to rationalizethe operation. Geoff Sisko, the senior consultant forthis project, quickly found a few more problems.“The storage racks had been laid out in very long rows,running parallel to the outside wall,” says Sisko. “Pickerswere putting a cart at the end of the aisle and walking along distance to get the items.” By making the rows ofstorage perpendicular to the outside wall, it shortened the36 F EBRUARY 2009 / MODERN MATERIALS HANDLING mmh.com