Warehouse and Logistics
Warehouse space & layout
Warehouse space & layout
Develop Consulting was approached by a logistics facility in Nottingham, part of a global transportation and logistics group with diverse operations. This facility employs 20 people in its warehouse operations and services multiple clients, including those in the cycling and consumer goods sectors.
The facility was experiencing significant space constraints that were affecting the efficiency and safety of its operations. Faced with these challenges, the logistics group required an urgent solution.
Results
- Created a new Cost to Serve model
- Congestion in all 4 warehouses resolved within 10 weeks
- A reduction of 3x agency staff, as relocating pallets each day was no longer required
- Health & safety improvements through new layouts
- Considerably helped employee engagement & morale
- ROI of 4:1
Observations
Process areas were struggling to function, and storage constraints were impacting the efficiency and safety of the Nottingham operation. High levels of congestion meant pallets were being stored in the aisles.
The operational window was also being reduced by 3 to 4 hours each day, caused by needing to relocate hundreds of pallets in and outside the facility, to allow access for the pickers.
This also meant pallets were being stored outside at the risk of the elements, causing packaging to deteriorate, and without any identifiable storage locations, this impacted productivity whilst pickers searched for orders, as well as affecting stock integrity.
Objectives
The company required a short-term plan to manage a variety of upcoming operational milestones.
They also needed to better understand the space utilisation for each client and gain more insight into the real cost to serve each customer.
Actions
Develop Consulting quickly identified the space utilisation for each client within the 54,000 sq ft facility, also providing insight to the clients whose footprint was exceeding their designated space and therefore causing congestion. A Cost to Serve model, detailing labour, rent, rates, insurance and equipment costs for each of the eight clients demonstrated that the client exceeding their footprint the most, was also loss making for them. This helped their decision processes to issue notice for the client to exit the site.
The customer’s exit helped to free up storage space and Develop Consulting supported a fully costed new business proposal, with the use of the Cost to Serve model. We also used our expertise to provide end-to-end process maps for the expected new business.
Develop Consulting trainers provided learning to key operational leaders to create SOPs, whilst also helping create the required operational SOPs the company had recently lost during a cyber breach.
Develop Consulting facilitated a new traffic management plan to support the change in layout and increased traffic, with the planned new business volume. The plan’s key aim was safety and designing a layout which would minimise vehicles needing to reverse on site. The plan was developed in a workshop including group walks to review and engage team members in the proposed new design.
