"Every day low cost"

Conceived in partnership with former Next supremo George Davies, retail giant ASDA's George clothing range was launched in 1989.The brand is now sold across seven countries and remains a key driver of business growth.With George aiming for number one UK volume market share, SDI designed handling systems for the company's flagship Lymedale distribution centre as its general manager Sharon Hammond explains

Where does the site fit into the ASDA George supply chain? Lymedale is one of three regional DCs.We receive, process and deliver the full range of George clothing and accessories to some 120 stores.We are also responsible for picking and dispatching all stock for the e-commerce channel.

When the site first opened, almost everything was done manually.With a company strategy based upon 'every day low cost' we needed to become a much more productive and efficient operation.

And this is where SDI became involved.What was the project brief and how did the company implement developments? Indeed. The site handles both hanging garments - 'goods on hangers' or GOH - and boxed product and each requires a dedicated handling system. Both, however, had to be integrated so as to ensure a coherent flow from goods-in to the final assembly area for individual store orders.

SDI designed systems and wrote bespoke process control software that would allow over 1.4 million picks per week. RFID was selected as the most appropriate communications technology as it offered greater flexibility than bar coding.

A four-storey mezzanine for boxed goods and hanging garments and served by lifts was installed. This enabled boxed product, transferred from delivery vehicles on boom conveyors and palletized on the ground floor, to be moved into flow racking. From here, items could then be picked and moved to the outgoing load assembly area.

Hanging garments would be unloaded by boom rails and grouped by SKU on specially designed flight bar hangers or 'jets'.

Fitted with an RFID tag and holding up to 40 items, the jets would then be moved by powered overhead conveyor up to the appropriate storage zone and manually offloaded onto rails.

When required, goods would be picked onto jets and moved by conveyors to the ground floor for sorting by store.

The system has grown since then.What developments have there been and what is planned? The whole project has been one of continuous improvement.We now have an automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS) for boxed product and new highspeed 'hangsorters' for goods on hangers plus additional storage capacity. All this has meant that volume is now close to 2.5 million picks per week and we are targeting 3.5 million! During 2011 we are installing new intake booms for both hanging and boxed goods as well as an extra accumulating replenishment line, which will hold boxed product until the required workstation is free. New strippers, used for separating individual hanging items, are being fitted, as are new parastackers for collecting empty jets. Even the jets - a new version using non-metal rollers to minimize wear and improve operation is being introduced - will be handled by a new split return line to ensure they return to intake points even more quickly.

There seems to be a lot going on.How are you managing this without disrupting dayto- day operations? Partnership and hard work! SDI engineers are based on site and we hold regular meetings to review progress, discuss technical and manpower matters and to forward plan.We just have a very collaborative and effective relationship.