The Supply Chain Consulting Group Optimise Logistics Operations For Coach House
Coach House is the UK’s largest wholesale and trade only furniture and giftware supplier, a family run business operating out of their current 300,000 sq.ft. sales, warehouse and distribution facility in Altham, Lancashire since 2004. The Coach House warehouse management team wished to optimise current operations within the existing site to improve the quality of service delivered to customers and thus recognised the need to extend their current footprint by an additional 100,000 sq.ft. with a, then targeted build completion of December 2016.
Coach House engaged The Supply Chain Consulting Group (SCCG) to manage their current integrated warehouse stock management and work flow processes for their distribution operations.
The SCCG team of Specialist Supply Chain and Logistics Consultants carried out an initial onsite review of current operations and future operational requirements to ensure the layouts, workflows and designs were optimised to their full potential. Outlining optimised picking strategies, shift patterns, resource plan and warehouse management team structure, the consultants from SCCG worked closely with the Coach House management team to create an operating model for their current and future warehousing requirements.
This was followed by a capacity assessment of the optimised facility, based on current and future growth requirements, which allowed the consultants to provide recommendations for measures to improve productivity and capacity of the warehouse and to suggest KPI metrics for core activities for similar item and case pick operations.
By implementing their project plan, the Specialist Consultants at SCCG, enabled Coach House to meet and exceed customer delivery and service expectations, position the site to meet current and future customer growth plans with a cost-effective operating model; and subsequently gain control of operating costs in terms of stockholding and cost of distribution.
Following successful completion of the warehouse review, The Specialist Consultants were asked by Coach House Limited to undertake an extension to the initial project scope; requiring SCCG to conduct a further operational review of facility layout, including but not limited to product flows and volumes, picking, packing and despatch procedures, and inventory management; the results of which highlighted opportunities for improvement.
The Specialist Consultants provided CAD drawings where needed to show rack and equipment layouts and defined work areas and conducted a capacity assessment of the optimised facility (existing and proposed extension) based on current and future growth requirements for the planning horizon, providing a final presentation of deliverables with recommendations and an implementation plan.
SCCG undertook this project with a view to providing Coach House with a best fit solution for both their current warehouse footprint and their in-build warehouse extension. Utilising the opportunities presented by the new extension whilst encompassing the fixed structures within the existing warehouse, SCCG successfully optimised the capability of Coach House’s warehouse operations, and simultaneously ensured Coach House experienced the easiest transition into their new combined footprint facility.
