The Supply Chain Consulting Group Optimise Warehouse For Geldbach
Geldbach UK Limited are stockholders and distributors of pipeline equipment (including flanges, buttweld and forged fittings in carbon stainless and alloy steels), supplying the UK and International markets in the petrochemical, oil, gas, power generation, mechanical, heating and ventilation and shipbuilding sectors.
Geldbach is part of the Geldbach Group GmbH, which has 32 global subsidiaries, of which four are manufacturing plants. Geldbach UK supplies approximately 300 stockists plus a special projects division, which supplies the oil industry primarily in the UAE, and requires order consolidation on site. Exports account for approximately 25% of sales.
The Geldbach warehouse and distribution facility is located in Oldbury, West Midlands and comprises of two adjoining warehouses totalling circa 36,000 sq. ft. There is a high percentage of slow moving stock, due to the nature of the industry sector and product, in so far as certain critical parts must be held, which is also a unique service and selling point.
A need for external support was identified, in order to optimise layouts, workflows, processes and use of systems within the existing UK facility. Geldbach engaged the Supply Chain and Logistics Consultants at The Supply Chain Consulting Group (SCCG) for specialist support.
Within the scope of the project, SCCG worked to achieve the following targets: to determine the operational requirements for the optimised facility to meet current and future requirements; adhering to improving efficiency of product handling and picking, whilst also increasing capacity and floor space, defining the capacity of the optimised DC against growth projections; whilst ensuring to include optimised layouts, workflows and processes in the design for the optimised existing facility.
Using the data provided, SCCG provided detailed CAD drawings of the optimised facility considering MHE and racking specifications, within budget costings, to support their proposed optimised DC design.
SCCG provided recommendations for optimised picking strategies, shift patterns, staff resource plan and warehouse management team structure.
Assessing the suitability of the existing system WMS module, enabled SCCG to determine the best WMS operational requirements to support optimised workflows, and provide a set of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to support the optimised layouts and workflows.
Following a thorough review of their current operating operations, SCCG enabled Geldbach UK to determine their facility capacity and developed accurate optimised layouts, workflows and operational procedures for their current facility, whilst keeping growth projections in mind.
