Distribution Centre Simplification Programme 2015

After initial start-up and go live in 2014 at their state of the art distribution centre in Castle Donington, the Client carried out a full operational review of the facility from inbound to despatch, which included system and automation optimisation. The main reason for the review and the launch of the programme was to ensure stability for the site operationally, and to safeguard delivering a successful 2015 peak for the Client.

Once the review was completed, an initiative to ‘Simplify’ numerous areas of the operation was launched.
C Logistics Solutions, working alongside business partners within the project team, were tasked to deliver Castle Donington’s ‘Simplification Programme’ for 2015.

International Flagship

The Client had partnered with a global e-commerce company to allow worldwide countries to trade with their .com using their own currencies.

Orders would be generated by the partner using a front-end add-on to the Client’s country website and would have their documentation suspended and treated differently within the automated warehouse for onward shipment to the partner’s warehouse in Northampton. The partner to generate the international documentation with relevant local currency for onward shipping by their carriers.

Project scope was to include creating terms of reference and sign off, stakeholder engagement, creation of new SOPs, set up of new sortation chute and new carrier arrangement for warehouse and end-2-end processes testing with ‘live’ orders ensuring up and down stream messaging.

Project launched with Australia and New Zealand followed by Canada and USA. Increasing market volumes by approx 30%. Warehouse process scaleable to increase the number of countries & volume with minimal review.

New Gift Card Operation

Implement a new in-house Gift Card operation to take over from an existing Third Party provider.
To provide a full logistics solution for gift card orders for both consumer B2C and businesses B2B with a 1pm order cut-off for next day delivery. Circa 150k orders per annum across 30 card designs of high value. The warehouse area to be secured and using a transport tracked solution.

Due to the existing contractor going into administration the project moved into a Disaster Recovery mode requiring a speedy resolution to IT functionality and a quick agile approach to get operational.
Upon completion the client is able to offer 6 days ordering compared to the previous 5 day operation, there is an annual management fee of £30k saving, a more resilient process and increased customer service levels
Operations commenced as soon as the IT development was deployed meeting the business objectives.

Click & Collect Implementation

The project was to transfer the Click & Collect for 600+ stores to a new automated site. After the initial implementation move the customer ordering proposition from Noon to 20:00 via new carriers.

To design a floor layout and sortation process off the warehouse automation system to sort 70,000 parcels per day across 600+ stores over 50 carrier depots. IT development required to support the process. Operating procedures to be compiled and train out. Ensure the solution is scaleable and sufficient resources are planned into the operation to accommodate new volume on site.

C Logistics Solutions were able to deliver a robust and sustainable operation against agreed service levels and a solution that also delivered the new customer order proposition which was well received by the client.

Management Recruitment Programme

The project was to bring the recruitment plan back on schedule in readiness for the site’s peak activity. Working with internal stakeholders and numerous recruitment agencies, interviewed for more than 90 managerial positions ensuring candidates have the correct technical expertise and cultural fit.

In an 8 week window recruit more than 70 permanent operational line management vacancies using competency based interviews. Creating job descriptions to assist the recruitment agencies and select the correct candidates.

Time constraints with internal stakeholders meant that our own initiatives and experience drove the pace and owned the process to a successful conclusion.

The recruitment plan was quickly brought back onto schedule with minimal involvement from existing line-management resulting in their time being released back into the business. Successfully recruited all the required personnel within the timeframe set.

The scope was subsequently widened to include additional vacancies in other departments and in readiness for the launch of another new site.

All internal stakeholders were extremely grateful for taking control of the recruitment process and managing it through to its natural conclusion with a high retainment rate.