John Lewis, and its partner KNAPP, won the 2018 Supply Chain Excellence Award for Automation Innovation, fighting off strong competition from industry leaders from around the world.
The Awards were presented at a glittering gala dinner at London’s Park Lane Hilton in front of hundreds of supply chain leaders.
Since 2005 John Lewis has been working closely with Knapp on the retailer’s semi-automated NDC in Milton Keynes. Over the last 18 months the Magna Park campus has seen the introduction of the second building, new automation and a third more SKUs with completely different handling characteristics, suppliers and processes.
By consolidating hanging and flat garments at Magna Park, and by migrating from a third party operation, outstanding efficiencies and cost savings have been achieved.
The judges said: “This is a clear winner – a great data-driven, customer-centric solution to a set of clearly defined strategic issues.
Innovation was a key theme of the Awards this year and highlighted the dramatic developments in both supply chain thinking and technology that is changing the market.
