Yankee Candle has extended its picking system to increase distribution capacity following the move to the new European headquarters in Avonmouth.
The company relocated the new site in June 2012 to accommodate its plan for future growth of the business.
At 175,000 sq ft the new DC is almost three times the size of the original facility. The increased warehouse facilities enables higher levels of stock to be held on-site, increased volume of orders to be dispatched for retail outlets, export customers and a growing online business. The move also enables the company to avoid the additional cost of off-site storage.
SSI Schaefer installed the original “flexible zone” pick-to-light system in the previous building. It was contracted back to extend the system to accommodate the new warehouse and increased distribution at the new site.
It dismantled the existing zone picking system made up of carton live storage, pick-by-light picking and conveyor-based carton sortation, transported it to the new distribution centre and reinstalled it in conjunction with a complete reconfiguration and extension. The addition pallet positions in the new building have significantly increased storage capacity.
There are now more picking locations in the carton live storage, an additional full case ‘pick to belt conveyor’, additional ‘sort-to-route’ sortation lanes for completed orders and separate shipping carton feeds from two zone picking areas. The system has also been given a software overhaul including additional interfaces to contract carriers’ systems.
Bruce Mitchell, operations manager for Yankee Candle Europe, said: “SSI Schaefer ensured the movement of the picking system to our new DC in Avonmouth was accomplished without a hitch.
“The additional full case picking functionality provided by the extended system has considerably speeded up our operation, enabling us to more tightly control our picking and wave management. We now have a system which is future-proof and flexible enough to accommodate further expansion when needed.”
