Leading logistics consultancy, Davies & Robson, has successfully completed a warehouse systems and process review for leading bathroom, kitchen and appliances supplier, PJH Group (PJH).
PJH is part of the Globe Union Group, a world class design, marketing, manufacturing and trading organisation supplying kitchen and bathroom products to customers worldwide. The company is the UK’s largest supplier of bathrooms, kitchens and appliances to customers including more than 4,000 independent retailers, builders merchants, housebuilders, developers and specifiers. The company operates around 400,000 sq ft of warehouse space, with a typical stockholding in excess of £18 million.
Having recently made a number of improvements to the layout and allocation of tasks within its central distribution centre in Cannock, PJH recognised that its warehouse management system and processes required improvements to complement the physical changes. The company appointed Davies & Robson to help identify opportunities to introduce improved processes and procedures and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the site’s WMS and its interfaces with the company-wide ERP system, in order to improve service quality, reduce costs and improve operational resilience.
Following interviews and process observations, Davies & Robson mapped standard operations within the warehouse, along with the flow of information and system interfaces and undertook a gap analysis between the existing WMS and the optimal solution.
Davies & Robson’s consultants then recommended a programme of process improvements and system enhancements, including a real-time put away algorithm, a pick-face replenishment prioritisation algorithm and pick-face replenishment optimisation routine as well as modifications to the data displayed on the RF guns during picking routines to improve operator decision making.
Having already identified that its WMS would require some modifications, PJH also engaged with their technology provider to customise the system in line with Davies & Robson’s recommendations.
PJH is now implementing Davies & Robson’s three-phase project plan to deliver these improvements, which will also result in substantial operational savings.
Richard George, Marketing and IT Director, PJH Group said: “We already knew broadly where improvements were needed and brought in Davies & Robson to help us pinpoint specific opportunities and what actions were needed to exploit these.
“The changes they suggested were all clearly attainable and the benefits quantifiable in terms of either improved service quality, cost or operational resilience and, in some cases, all three.
“There was no ‘smoke and mirrors’ – they simply came in, got to work and delivered what we needed.”
Andrea Harris, Consultant at Davies & Robson said: “Many companies have warehouse management systems which start out being fit for purpose but which can very quickly become sub-optimal as their needs change. Like PJH, whilst they may have made improvements in their warehouse environment and processes, their ability to realise the full benefit of these changes is constrained by the inability of their WMS to support increasingly complex business needs.
“To support continuous and meaningful operational improvement, companies should regularly review their systems and work with their system provider to ensure that their WMS remains closely aligned with the needs of their business.”
Davies & Robson
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