Fast, flexible handling

Designing and installing a fast, flexible and efficient fashion goods handling system within a demanding timeframe was the challenge facing SDI Group when it was chosen by iconic store brand House of Fraser to equip a new national distribution centre

Arapid and sustained growth in online business, combined with already strong store sales, had led House of Fraser to begin planning a substantial upgrade to its logistics function in 2010. And it was to distribution centre handling specialist SDI Group that the company turned for systems to handle its throughput of fashion product, representing almost 50% of all stock units.

SDI Group had been involved in extending and upgrading systems at House of Fraser's existing facility and a good working relationship had been established.

With 61 busy retail stores to serve and web sales fast becoming House of Fraser's busiest single 'store', the existing distribution hub at Milton Keynes was already at capacity. A 245,000ft2 site in Wellingborough was selected and work on the project commenced in early 2011. Existing infrastructure was removed and new racking with 10,000 pallet positions was installed to accommodate home or non-fashion stock.

To handle fashion lines, a three-floor mezzanine was built providing a further 190,000ft2 of storage and picking space. SDI Group was tasked with creating solutions to handle all fashion items, comprising boxed goods and hanging garments and including stock for the company's in-store concessions.

After a detailed assessment of the client's needs, SDI Group proposed a hanging garment conveyor system together with a box conveyor to serve the mezzanine levels and, after fine tuning, SDI Group's engineers went on site in November. The installation was completed on schedule in early January despite the necessity for engineers to work around considerable quantities of stored stock moved from the Milton Keynes site and an unavoidable client side delay. As House of Fraser's Head of Distribution, Tony Carr, put it: "We'd moved a lot of stock into Wellingborough in the autumn and we had to ensure that service to stores was maintained. We worked closely with SDI Group to ensure their access wasn't impeded by the ongoing operational requirements and together we met all our targets." SDI Group's hanging garment system takes incoming stock from two dedicated bays in the Goods In area and feeds grouped items on overhead rails straight to the rear of the warehouse to be checked and receipted. Garments due for immediate dispatch are then routed to a marshalling area for sorting by store and whilst the company aims to match intake to store orders as closely as possible, product to be held in stock remains on the hanging garment system and is moved on a powered overhead conveyor to the 3rd mezzanine level for storage.

After unloading and receiving is completed, incoming boxed goods that are required to meet store orders are moved to a series of 'pick cells' close to the loading bay zone for immediate picking and then moved to individual store load assembly points. Items not allocated on intake are moved by lifts to storage areas on the 1st mezzanine floor from where they can be picked when needed.

To move picked stock from storage on the mezzanines, SDI Group installed a box conveyor system that links all three floors and enables the movement of bins and totes to stations on the ground floor where goods can be transported to the correct order assembly area for each store.

The site is now processing stock at a rate equivalent to some 33 million items a year and enabling the retailer to replenish its stores quickly and efficiently while satisfying the demands of its online customers. And as demand grows, House of Fraser is confident that the site's 'future-proofing' against higher volumes - through wider implementation of automation and IT solutions, the use of spare capacity on the mezzanines and the option to further extend them - will pay dividends.