PET CIRCLE
As Australia’s leading ecommerce pet goods supplier, Pet Circle had achieved spectacular growth over the last two years and a strategy to accommodate future distribution activity was needed. Henderson Logistics were employed to assist with the development of an immediate upgrade in distribution operations at the Alexandria supply facility plus prepare a longer term strategy to cater for the future.
Pet Circle import and locally source a range of pet foods, pet accessories and veterinary supplies to cater for the increasing demand by fussy pet owners. Customers can order online or telephone to sales assistants and arrange for their entire pet needs to be delivered direct to their door. Pet Circle have established a distribution system that can receive an order and have it completed for delivery in around two hours.
Pet Circle process several thousand orders per day and have developed a unique inhouse batch picking system utilising ipads that display all selections including a photo of the required item. This assists pickers to achieve a very high level of order accuracy and pick rate for both permanent and casual personnel. Extensive use of barcode scanning in packing and despatch preparation also maximises productivity.
Henderson Logistics assisted in developing the upgraded layout and processes for the current facility. This introduced increased use of conveyors and carton live storage for assembly of accessories and is designed for the throughput and sales volume of high activity stock lines. Improved location control for high hit frequency items was also appraised and changes installed for the variety of larger bagged pet foods down to small volume accessories range. Increased flexibility was incorporated into the design to cater for future changes in goods range, product sizing, weights and order frequency.
A labour model was also developed that is used daily to define labour resource needs for key distribution functions. This will identify casual support or overtime needs and assists in maintaining labour effectiveness in distribution.
Henderson Logistics also prepared the concept design for a future distribution facility to cater for long term growth. This encapsulated many of the upgrades identified in the initial Alexandria facility appraisal and the design established the ideal future facility sizing, layout and manning structure. This will enable plans to be established for relocation when growth dictates the need for a bigger facility.
visit the Pet Circle website at www.petcircle.com.au.