KNAPP.com

Case Study | John Lewis Partnership | Great Britain

Founded in 1864, John Lewis Partnership (JLP) is one of the leading department stores in Great Britain. The company is based on the cooperative principle and today has more than 69,000 partners. The John Lewis Group includes the following companies:

• John Lewis: 29 John Lewis Stores and 6 John Lewis at Home stores

• Waitrose: 275 supermarkets • John Lewis Direct: internet mail order business • Greenbee: service provider, e.g. travel agencies, insurances,

telecommunication services

Guided by the company vision:

To create a company dedicated to the happiness of the staff through their worthwhile, secure and satisfying employment in a successful business,

John Lewis puts the employees at the centre of all company activities.

With the erection of the distribution centre in Magna Park near Milton Keynes, the company has set a new gold standard in the multichannel arena. The high level of automation in the distribution centre offers especially efficient order processing and optimal service for the the customers of JLP. In 2011, the automation solution was awarded the Award of Excellence of the Chartered Institute of Logistics & Transport in the category Materials Handling Equipment and Technology.

Case Study

John Lewis Partnership Milton Keynes, Great Britain

KNAPP.com | solution provider

Case Study | John Lewis Partnership | Great Britain

The challenge

Goods-in and disposal of original cartons Automated separation of containers

JLP and KNAPP look back on many years of successful cooperation. Since 2006 the leading British retailer has trusted the innovative KNAPP systems for furnishing its distribution centre in Milton Keynes. The high-performance distribution centre has served since its startup in 2009 as a logistics hub for the company and forms a stable platform for JLP’s constant growth.

The central goal was to continually improve service and availability while at the same time to reduce costs in order to be able to direct free resources into still more customer service and support in the stores.

KNAPP faced the following requirements for the distribution centre: • Efficiency and ergonomics in all warehouse processes • Shop-friendly delivery • Optimization of the service level for e-commerce customers, such as improved

dispatch quality and faster transit times • Multichannel: Different business models compatibly housed within a warehouse • Flexibility for reacting to seasonal fluctuations • Modular design and expandable solutions • Payback of invested capital • Reduction of workforce

Due to strong growth in e-commerce business, JLP commissioned KNAPP in 2011 with another automation solution for the B2C area to be able to respond to customer desires and to improve the service level for the customers.

KNAPP.com | solution provider

Case Study | John Lewis Partnership | Great Britain

The KNAPP solution convinced John Lewis and since 2006 has come out on top against more than 20 other logistics system suppliers. As part of a fully integrated supply chain strategy laid out for 10 years, the automation solution represents a quantum leap in the distribution network of the distinguished British business.

An ideal project partnership between KNAPP and John Lewis ensured smooth sailing during the project realization. The innovative KNAPP solution offers John Lewis numerous advantages:

The solution

• Formidable increase in the capacity of the distribution network to enable the planned growth and opening of new stores

• Significant increase in productivity within the distribution centre

• Reduction of overstock areas at the point of sale • Optimal presentation of goods in the stores due to

shop-friendly delivery • Reduction of stock • Additional sales due to higher availability of goods in the

shops and department stores • Multi-channel capacity and therefore the full integration of

the four strongly expanding direct-to-customer models

For the expansion of the B2C area in the distribution centre, JLP also relied on the experience of KNAPP. The modular structure can easily keep pace with the growing requirements. The extension includes the following:

• Extension of the existing OSR Shuttle™ systems in the warehouse area as well as for dispatch sortation

• Completion of a new OSR Shuttle™ system in the B2C area with double-depth storage of load carriers

• Completion of additional goods-in work stations • Automation of dispatch preparation

B2B picking area: 30 goods-to-person work stations

KNAPP.com | solution provider

Case Study | John Lewis Partnership | Great Britain

KNAPP.com | solution provider

The Magna Park distribution centre in detailThe automation solution that forms the heart of the John Lewis distribution network was realized in 62,000 m² surface area with 15 m height. KNAPP also supplied the software package for the entire warehouse management (WMS) and control systems (WCS).

Products for B2B area as well as for the B2C area are handled at the same time in the goods-in and detrashing areas.

Goods-in

The warehouse is operated with three shifts (24/7). Using this model, goods-in procedure can be distributed across the entire operating period. The goods (more than 80,000 SKUs in total) are delivered on pallets of mixed and one-type only products as well as in cases and cartons in freight containers. After paperless goods integration into the KNAPP system, each product is automatically allocated to one of the following storage locations:

• Pallet storage area for overstock: The pallet storage area for overstock is equipped with a narrow-aisle forklift with RF technology and has 20,000 available storage locations.

• Automated container storage and goods-to-man picking system with a total capacity of 287,860 storage containers.

Cubiscan Detrashing process at the goods-in work station

KNAPP.com | solution provider

Case Study | John Lewis Partnership | Great Britain

KNAPP.com | solution provider

Detrashing

All products that are accommodated in the automatic container storage or in picking locations are transferred from their original packaging to containers. The barcode of each container is then linked with the features of the product and saved in a relational database. The containers generated in this way are transported and stored automatically at the storage container locations. The container storage area includes 13 aisles for the Smart-Storage-System with stacker cranes and 16 aisle for the OSR Shuttle™ system.

This step is performed at a total of 52 system-guided goods-in work stations. The goods-in work stations are equipped with pallet lifters and are designed so that all work steps can be carried out with optimal ergonomics as well as with efficiency.

To avoid double handling in the warehouse, the entire content of a pallet is transferred to storage containers at the 52 work stations. Overstock which has no space in the automatic storage container locations is stacked automatically on pallets and put into storage in the pallet overstock area. The pallets are then retrieved when required, the containers de-stacked automatically and transferred to the Smart-Storage-System.

The goods-in workstations can also be used for picking: If dispatch orders are present at the time of detrashing, where a specific SKU fills one or more containers, a dispatch container is organized right at the goods-in workstation and then directly transported to goods-out. Order processing is carried out at the goods-in workstation with the help of a monitor.

Products that are not yet known to the system are directed to a special goods-in work station: Here the product is identified; it is scanned and the product measurements are determined. With this procedure, the product master data is automatically updated – after the product identification the standard detrashing procedure for the product is carried out.

Manual picking with RF technology

RF technology RF terminal

KNAPP.com | solution provider

Case Study | John Lewis Partnership | Great Britain

The picking itself is carried out at the ergonomic goods-to-person stations using Pick-to-Light. To ensure maximum efficiency throughout the warehouse, 12 dispatch orders (containers) are processed simultaneously in every station. The shop-friendly principle is used in the picking process. This principle means that products are combined into dispatch containers in such a way as to facilitate optimal handling in each shop. The flexible batch algorithm is also involved in the assembly of dispatch containers, adjusted for each respective shop layout, so that each store layout receives individual treatment.

Another feature of the solution is the optimal filling level of the dispatch containers: The manual picking guided by Pick-to-Light achieves an optimal filling level in the dispatch containers, which is not possible with fully automatic picking: An optimal use of the space in a dispatch container is therefore always possible.

This central part of the system achieves 8,150 container movements per hour and a picking performance of more than 20,000 items/h in peak times. The system was designed so that individual stations can be deactivated as required during off-peak hours. The shifts can therefore be flexibly adapted to seasonal fluctuations.

Route departure dates of customer orders are taken into consideration for the distribution of picking orders as well as for dispatch sortation by the OSR Shuttle™.

Picking B2B

The majority of picking activities within the warehouse is performed in a goods-to-person process: Containers coming from the Smart-Storage-System and the OSR Shuttle™ are transported to the 30 goods-to-person work stations.

The ingenuity of this solution lies in the combination of different storage systems, making it possible to fulfil, in an ideal form, the speed requirements of storage and retrieval processes (OSR Shuttle™) as well as storage density requirements (Smart-Storage-System). Based on highly dynamic control algorithms, the KNAPP system calculates the ideal storage position for each product. Relocation of stock between the systems is fully automatic, thus ensuring that any fluctuations, e.g. in throughput for special offers on certain SKUs, can be responded to immediately.

The retrieval of storage containers and their transport to the work stations is determined by a flexible batch algorithm in which the number of times each container must be manipulated is reduced to a minimum: A storage container should be completely emptied in as few picking stations as possible. This reduces the number of storage containers that must be transported back into the container storage systems.

Goods-to-person work stations

KNAPP.com | solution provider

Case Study | John Lewis Partnership | Great Britain

Dispatch sortation – B2B area

All shop orders are automatically transported to an OSR Shuttle™ that functions as a dispatch buffer. This OSR Shuttle™ was expanded from 7 aisles to 8 aisles and now has 10,816 available storage locations. The containers are buffered in the OSR Shuttle™ until needed, and then retrieved automatically in the sequence required and stacked on dispatch dollies.

The sequence of the containers on the dollies as well as the sequence of the dollies themselves are essential to the sorting process, to simplify and reduce handling in the stores. The containers are strapped on the dispatch dollies to secure the cargo and are sorted by route on a special dolly dispatch conveyor. The handling and supply of empty dollies for this warehouse area is automated.

Direct-to-Customer area – B2C area

A separate picking zone, connected to the control system and other warehouse areas, was designed to meet the growing demands of e-commerce. This picking area includes an OSR Shuttle™, a semi-automatic storage and picking system for the slow and medium-moving products from the B2C area, and conveyor loops with flow racks, where picking is carried out using RF terminals. As part of the extension, a new OSR Shuttle™ was erected with 4 aisles with double-depth storage for containers up to 35 kg for the B2C area. Additionally, the existing two-aisle OSR Shuttle™ was expanded to include 4 aisles; a third conveyor loop was also added to the two existing loops, and the 18 manual picking stations were increased to 26.

The Direct-to-Customer orders are transported to a separate packing area in which the goods are transferred to cartons or shipping envelopes, provided with the relevant documents and labelled. The orders are then transported to the dispatch area.

B2C picking

Key data Conveyor system & sorterSector E-commerce + Multichannel Total length Approx. 8.8 kmLocation Milton Keynes, UK Dispatch ramps 12 ramps for dolliesTotal floor space 62,000 m2 OSR Shuttle™ for dispatch sortation 8 aisles, 10,816 storage locationsNumber of articles (SKUs) B2B: 67,000, B2C: 35,000Lines/day B2B:170,000, B2C:25,000Items/day B2B: 550,000, B2C: 55,000Orders/day B2B:890, B2C:23,000Software Picking stationsWarehouse management KiSoft WMS Pick-to-Light 37 stationsWarehouse control system KiSoft WCS RF technology 26 stationsStorage location management KiSoft Motion System-guided (decanting) 52 stationsPicking KiSoft Pick-to-Light System guided (packing) 60 stationsApplication Framework KiSoft Command/KiSoft i-PointHandling Warehouse systemsContainers on dollies 3 forklifts for loading dollies Stacker crane Smart-Storage-System 13 aisles, 208,568 storage locationsContainers on pallets 1 destacker for unloading pallets

1 forklifts for loading palletsOSR Shuttle™ for B2B area 8 aisles, 21,504 storage locationsOSR Shuttle™ system B2C area single-deep 8 aisles in total, 8,704 storage locations,

2 work stationsOSR Shuttle™ system B2C area double-deep 4 aisles, 46,080 storage locations

4 work stations

KNAPP.com | solution provider

KNAPP AGGünter-Knapp-Strasse 5–7 | 8075 Hart bei Graz | Austria

Tel.: +43 316 495 0 | E-mail: sales@knapp.com

Centralized administration and control with KiSoft Software Dispatch on dollies

The customer’s benefit

During peak hours in this logistics system, up to 15,000 container movements are optimally managed and controlled by KNAPP’s high-performance software package. In addition, the integration of more than 130 system-guided work stations and some 50 mobile RF terminals into the standard cross-system user interface (GUI Application Framework) guarantees the highest-possible user-friendliness and efficiency in accessing the required information.

The entire logistics system has a modular design: If increased throughput is required, the system can be easily expanded without lengthy interruptions in operation in important system

areas. In close cooperation with John Lewis Partnership, KNAPP succeeded in creating a solution that combines the modules of its core competencies in storage, picking and sorting technology to an innovative and highly flexible system.

KNAPP was able to fully meet the customer’s requirements: efficiency and ergonomics in all warehouse processes, reduction of workforce, uniting various business models within one warehouse, flexibility to react to seasonal fluctuations, modularity and expandability of the solution, shop friendly delivery and payback of invested capital.