DC Velocity - February 2017

Material Handling CONVEYORS AND SORTATION

High Capacity
Spiral
Conveyors

High Capacity Spirals are in response to our customers’ need to go higher and handle more weight.

They can handle double the weight capacity of our regular spirals at speeds up to 200 FPM.

Optionally these spirals allow loads to enter or exit the High Capacity Spirals at intermediate elevations. New special induction and divert conveyors have individually adjustable conveying surfaces to match the spiral pitch, assuring a smooth and reliable operation.

For application assistance or more information, give us a call or visit www.ryson.com.

300 Newsome Drive • Yorktown, VA 23692
Phone: (757) 898-1530 • Fax: (757) 898-1580
VERTICAL CONVEYING SOLUTIONS
Visit us at PROMAT Booth S2447

DC-ThirdVert-2-17-modex.indd 1 1/10/17 12:11PM

Jackson says the search covered a territory bounded by Indiana to the west,

Pittsburgh on the east, Michigan to the north, and Kentucky on the south before settling on the site near Columbus. Among the factors that worked in Ohio’s favor were good highway access, proximity to major carrier hubs, and 11 area colleges that could feed a steady stream of graduates to the region’s already diverse labor pool. (Currently, about 110 employees work in the Ohio facility.) It also helps that 75 percent of the U.S. population can be easily reached within three to four days from the Buckeye State.

Distribution territory is roughly split at the Rocky Mountains. Torrance serves customers west of the range plus Texas, which accounts for about 30 percent of total volume. The larger Ohio facility handles the remaining 70 percent. Both facilities process only direct-to-consumer orders.

“We distribute and fulfill the same products from both facilities,” says Jackson. “Both are highly automated, though Ohio has higher capacities and can handle a little more scale.”

NEAT AND TRIM

Even though the Torrance facility had opened just a year earlier, the company incorporated some design improvements into the plans for its new Columbus DC, according to Jackson. Many of those changes were made to accommodate the operation’s scale. Because it would be processing higher volumes than its counterpart in California does, the Ohio facility would require automated systems with higher throughput and speed to ensure that it could turn orders around in the desired timeframe.

Bastian Solutions served as the designer and integration partner in both operations. It also provided some of the equipment, integrating its own conveyors and pick-to-light systems with systems from other manufacturers.

Finding the right integration partner was key to Dollar Shave Club’s ability to bring distribution in house. “As a startup company, it was important to find partners who can flex with us. It’s how we chose all vendors,” Jackson says.

“We don’t have the standard distribution
model. We need the ability to change
what we do easily. That is huge and has
been a big part of our success. We don’t
want to be locked in.”
It’s important to note that when it
comes to fulfillment, Dollar Shave Club
enjoys one huge advantage over most
e-tailers in that it handles only a small
number of SKUs (stock-keeping units).
This was a strategic decision arrived at
early on. While many online companies
compete by offering a vast selection of
products, Dollar Shave Club has chosen a
different route: selling a limited number
of quality products. It currently offers a
menu of about 30 items, including three
types of razors; blades; shaving, clean-
ing, and styling products; and skin care
lotions, lip balms, and wipes. Some of
these goods are also bundled with other
items for sale in packages—for example,
a pack that combines a washcloth with
body and face cleansers.

Among other advantages, the low SKU count—coupled with high demand density—has simplified order fulfillment and minimized the need for rack storage. Most inventory is stored as cases in forward locations.

SMOOTH OPERATOR

Daily operations at the Ohio fulfillment center are directed by a HighJump warehouse management system (WMS). Early on in the process, the software determines where the various orders will be filled. Orders that have a similar profile and contain the same SKUs are directed to batch pick stations. (These orders are batched into waves based on which SKU they contain.)