Matalan is one of the UK’s leading fashion and homeware retail brands with over 200 out-of-town stores, totalling over five million square feet of retail space. To maximise the potential for sales and to allocate inventory more efficiently, the company decided to make a step-change in supply chain performance by embarking on project ‘Moving to Singles’. The company’s Corby DC was the first to be transformed. We talk to the Head of Logistics at Matalan, about how SDI Group technology is enabling the retailer to pick and replenish stores in single items.
What are the advantages to moving to singles?
Replenishing stores in a much higher percentage of singles rather than with full cartons allows our supply chain to be more responsive to demand and enables us to present the product, at size colour complexity, where it is required. Our retail store stockrooms will be less cluttered, unpacking and shelf replenishment less laborious for busy sales staff and goods can be re-stocked quickly, allowing us to present a consistent offer to our customer.
What did moving to singles mean for your Corby DC?
It meant a radical redesign of our 320,000 square feet Corby distribution centre. Transforming the stores replenishment operation from a system designed for handling and distributing full cartons, to one capable of picking and supplying in single items, required the use of sophisticated automated warehouse technology. So we talked to SDI Group.
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The Corby site re-fit was just part of project ‘Moving to Singles’. We are also in the process of deploying further SDI automated systems at our new 575,000 square feet Galaxy distribution centre in Knowsley, Merseyside, where Omni-channel fulfilment is undertaken for store and ecommerce orders.
The task at Corby was to re-model the entire receiving, storage and sorter facilities for hanging garments, replacing now out-dated pin-chain Goods-on-Hanger technology installed by SDI Group ten years before.
The complete upgrade centred on the installation of SDI’s new HF250 overhead hanging garment conveyor system, which incorporates their latest friction-drive technology and modern low-maintenance materials in its design. This gives us greater reliability and maximum up-time.
How did SDI Group cope with the challenges at Corby?
One of the greatest challenges for SDI at Corby was delivering and installing a complex Goods-on-Hanger system, to upgrade the capacity of the operation from 1 million units of storage to 7 million units, without causing any impact on day-to-day fulfilment activity. This they did without any disruption at all.
Throughout the whole build programme meticulous planning ensured that the site continued to operate without issues – right across receiving, storage, sorters and dispatch. In effect, the SDI team had to construct a whole new warehouse operation, from receiving and storage to sortation and despatch, in parallel to the existing system and then, after extensive testing and integration of SDI’s warehouse control software with our host warehouse management system, switch over to the new operation.
Another major consideration was that we wanted to utilise the 4 inch trolleys from the old system. So this required SDI to refurbish all 20,000 of them – and to expand the system with a further 15,000 new trolleys.
How did the build programme and switchover go?
The Corby project was started in September 2013 and installed by March 2014, with switchover taking place on the weekend of 4th July. Over the ‘go live’ weekend over 55,000 sets of garments were moved from the old storage area to the new storage facilities – a task that was completed 12 hours earlier than expected.
Can you give a brief overview of the operation?
From the goods receiving bays, two inbound conveyors and a “boxed up and hang” system convey goods to a routing tower and four, 10 lane GOH put away sorters. In total, some 35 HF250 trolley induction stations feed the sorters. On the outbound side, a 181 lane ‘store sorter’ accumulates orders for stores.
So what’s next?
Following the ‘go live’ of the new system, work is now underway on refurbishing and upgrading the old storage areas. By completion in early 2015, the refurbished storage areas will have been integrated into the new automated materials handling operation.
Can you sum up the benefits to Matalan of the Corby investment?
By investing in a highly automated overhead hanging garment system capable of preparing orders for stores in singles, we have equipped our supply chain for strategic, competitive advantage. Now stores get a more precise replenishment and store rooms are less cluttered. The result is, each individual store is more aligned to customer demand and offers far greater potential for increased sales.
Reconfiguring the Corby distribution centre prepares the company for the future.
Receiving throughputs are estimated to peak at around 1700 trolleys per hour with an average of eight units per trolley, and picked and dispatched throughputs are expected to peak at around 1300 trolleys per hour, with an average of six units.
The automated equipment supplied and installed by SDI Group at Corby places us in a strong position to increase sales opportunities across our stores. We believe that by making a strategic shift to fulfil a much larger percentage of store orders in singles, we will be able to offer our customers a more rewarding experience – placing us in a stronger position for future growth.
SDI Group
Tel: 01763 244 299
www.sdigroup.com