Automation powers John Lewis’ Omnichannel growth

John Lewis invested in its National Distribution Centre in Milton Keynes with the addition of a second facility Magna Park 2 (MP2), featuring automated handling systems from KNAPP. This formed part of the company’s £250m investment in its logistics network to ensure efficiency in store replenishment and fulfillment of online orders from a single pool of stock.

The new warehouse went live in stages during 2015 and 2016 supporting 48 stores and online  sales in excess of £4 billion, with 350,000 SKUs across the business.

MP2 is connected to Magna Park 1 (MP1) by a 96m-long link bridge to create a ‘campus’ operation. The automated logistics systems supplied by KNAPP in the 650,000 sq ft MP1 in 2009 helped the retailer to implement a ‘sell one, pick one’ replenishment strategy for its stores in order to minimise stock in its distribution network. The warehouse automation has been developed since then to support John Lewis as its multi-channel distribution expanded and evolved into an omni-channel operation. With the addition of MP2, the Magna Park Campus can now process hanging garments for the first time.

Consolidation

Garment handling systems from Dürkopp Fördertechnik, a member of the KNAPP Group, allow the processing of clothing on hangers in MP2 and enable the consolidation of hanging garments with other goods for both store replenishment and online orders. 

“The ability to consolidate goods in this way is crucial for the business,” explains John Munnelly, head of operations at the Magna Park Campus, “because some 40% of fashion orders include what we call ‘binnable’ items – those stored in totes – such as shoes and accessories.”

The consolidation of orders between MP1 and MP2 is reducing the total number of orders, which results in a significant saving in transport costs.

With a footprint of 675,000 sq ft and a further 1.1 million sq ft of space on its mezzanine floors, MP2 has capacity for 1.6m garments. The hanging garment storage area has six levels, divided into static and dynamic sections. The static storage area uses Dϋrkopp’s ‘trolley-less’ conveyor technology whereby hangers are carried directly on the conveyor, enabling both single items and blocks of garments to be transported on the same system. The dynamic storage area has 126 buffers and uses Dϋrkopp’s RFID-controlled Rolladapter technology, which allows the use of a wide range of plastic or metal hangers and through which every garment carries unique product information in real time for tracking, picking and sorting. The Rolladapter system is also used in the garment sortation area, where a 3-stage sequence sorter ensures that batch-picked product is delivered in a store-friendly manner to the John Lewis branches, while eCommerce items are transported to the packing stations in the exact sequence required.  

Extra storage

Tote storage in MP2 is handled by KNAPP’s YLOG-Shuttle system, which enables shuttles to travel in both directions through the use of swivelling wheels and an innovative power supply system. With 72 shuttles serving over 71,000 locations, the YLOG store feeds totes containing flat-packed fashion items to three ergonomically designed pick-to-light stations. MP2 also features a high-bay pallet store for pre-toted buffer stock, served by five automatic stacker cranes that operate to a height of 19.4m in aisles that are 130m long.

At peak, Magna Park replenishes some 3 million units of stock to stores each week, as well as delivering approximately 60% of the online business, either directly to the customer or via Click and Collect. This means that any unplanned downtime for the warehouse automation can have a catastrophic impact on John Lewis’ supply chain. To avoid this, both MP1 and MP2 are supported by KNAPP’s resident Customer Service team, which ensures maximum performance capacity and availability for the handling systems through swift resolution of any issues and by carrying out a comprehensive programme of preventative maintenance.