A West Midlands-based material handling company has completed two projects for supermarket-giant Asda 鈥 to allow it to increase storage capacity for George clothing.
AMH Material Handling, which , has helped to reconfigure warehouse space inside Asda鈥檚 Lymedale distribution centre, in North Staffordshire, and has increased storage capacity by 250,000 units.
The work the company has carried out has also helped to 鈥榮ignificantly鈥 speed up throughput for George鈥檚 e-commerce operation ahead of one of the busiest times of the year 鈥 鈥榖ack to school.鈥
Asda鈥檚 1.2 million square-foot Lymedale facility provides store replenishment regionally and services the e-commerce business nationally.
Hosted over three mezzanine floors, the facility handles the replenishment of stock for 174 stores as well as the pick, pack and despatch for 海角视频 and international online orders.
AMH 鈥 which has its headquarters in Halesowen 鈥 was tasked with creating additional space in the warehouse on the back as 鈥榯remendous鈥 growth for the George e-commerce business.
As part of the projects the company reorganised both the retail and e-commerce operations with the installation of conveyor routing, thousands of additional storage locations and a further 1,000 linear metres of hanging garment storage.
The company also designed a bespoke solution to remove cardboard waste via head height conveyors, eliminating the need to take up valuable floor space at the facility.
Trevor Austin, operations manager at Asda, said: 鈥淲e needed to update our facility to manage the increasing throughput demands of both the e-commerce and retail operations and we asked AMH to design and develop a solution to manage this. The team took on board the challenges we were facing and worked with us to develop a solution that was fully capable to meet our demands.
鈥淭he peak period for George begins with the 鈥榖ack to school鈥 period and remains at this higher level right through to Christmas. This year鈥檚 forecast for the number of items despatched in the peak week suggests a 16 per cent increase on the previous year鈥檚 record week. Therefore, it was critical that the projects were completed in time to handle the increase in throughput.鈥
Mr Austin added: 鈥淭his set AMH a tight deadline to meet 鈥 especially as they had to work alongside other contractors on site. Their professional approach, however, meant they were flexible and communicated well with all the personnel on site so as to meet our needs.
鈥淥verall, the successful completion of the projects has increased efficiency and performance, and we are better equipped to effectively manage increased volumes.
鈥淭he completed projects have significantly increased our storage and throughput capacity. In addition, we have appointed AMH Material Handling as Asda鈥檚 in-house maintenance team at the Lymedale site, giving us cover at all times throughout the year.鈥
