Kirkland’s New Home  

Oleh:

Forger, Gary

Jenis: Article from Bulletin/Magazine - ilmiah internasional
Dalam koleksi: Modern Materials Handling vol. 60 no. 4 (Apr. 2005), page 22-28.
Topik: HOME; kirkland's; new home

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Perpustakaan Pusat (Semanggi) Nomor Panggil: MM71.1 Non-tandon: 1 (dapat dipinjam: 0) Tandon: tidak ada

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By consolidating three warehouses into one and doing away with manual systems, the retailer now moves the latest home furnishings into stores more efficiently than ever. New is what home décor retailer Kirkland's is all about. "At any time, 70 % of the SKU s [stock keeping units] in our DC are new items," says Todd Weier, vice president of logistics. And that shouldn't come as a surprise. The retailer offers the latest styles in lamps and framed art as well as other decorating accents such as candles. Not long ago, furniture was added to the repertoire. While that has made Kirkland's a trendy place to shop, it also created some tough materials handling challenges for the Jackson, Tenn., retailer. It shipped product from three manual warehouses with 650,000 square feet to more than 300 stores in 37 states. "We didn't have a WMS [warehouse management system] or any mechanized equipment to manage and move inventory," says Weier. "In addition, we were using too much space to store inventory, were constantly developing workarounds to get product out the door, and we didn't exactly have great control of receipts, either," Weier adds. All that has changed since Kirkland's consolidated the three warehouses into a single 770,000 square foot DC. While floor staging dominates the facility, a WMS now directs warehouse activities. Meanwhile, the company's first use of conveyors and automated sortation (Intelligrated) now speed picked inventory from staging to shipping docks. And the results less than a year after moving into the new facility are impressive. It used to take three days to pick a single SKU for all stores. Now that can be done in a day. That, in turn, has had a strong impact on retail stores. Before, all had their own mini - warehouses of 500 to 5,000 square feet to manage inventory coming from the DC s and directly from importers. Now, almost all of those satellite facilities have been eliminated with more inventory than ever coming from the DC. In fact, stores that tended to stockpile inventory for several months are now comfortable with just 3 weeks of stock on hand. "We are much more reactive to store needs," says Weier. "And now stores keep much less inventory than before." In addition, distribution productivity has improved considerably. Throughput by shift has increased 40 %. That gain meant that last year's peak shipments to stores for the holiday season moved from August to November. And to top it all off, the cost of handling inventory dropped 14 % in last year's fourth quarter compared to the same period one year earlier. At its best, unit cost dropped 30 % for one week in 2004, says Weier.

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