50 IdeaBook 2015
still operates a West London facility for fashion apparel
that only does store replenishment. A separate DC in
Oilerton, England, handles fashion for online sales.
Plans call for the gradual closing of the West London
facility when the revamped network is completed;
Murphy says his company is still “working through
options” for the Oilerton site.
The other store-replenishment DC, in Northampton,
England, handles products that move in rollable cages.
That facility also stocks and ships “two-man” products,
such as furniture and appliances, that typically are
delivered by two partners to a customer’s home. John
Lewis is in the process of shifting responsibility for its
caged and two-man products to a facility in the city of
Milton Keynes that will handle both store replenishment and online sales.
In another part of Milton Keynes, the retailer is developing a campus that will include two hybrid facilities
connected by a 98-foot bridge. One building, dubbed
“Magna Park I,” handles products stored in bins; the
other, “Magna Park II,” will handle hanging garments.
Locating the two buildings side-by-side gives John
Lewis the ability to consolidate different types of prod-
ucts for direct-to-consumer or Click & Collect orders.
Say a customer orders a pair of shoes and a suit. The
shoes would be picked in the Magna Park I facility and
then married up with the suit picked in Magna Park
II before the order goes out the door. The “binnable”
facility is up and running now; Magna Park II will be
completed and automated material handling equip-
ment installed by the end of this year. At that time,
John Lewis will close older facilities dedicated to hang-
ing fashion. According to Murphy, the Magna Park
facilities are expected to process 65 to 70 percent of the
retailer’s online sales.
In addition, the company has a separate facility in
Birmingham, England, that fills online orders of fragile
items. Because those items could get damaged while
traveling in bins on a conveyor line, they are handled
and processed manually. As part of its network redesign, John Lewis plans to integrate the handling of fragile products into other DCs.
TRAVELING TOTE BINS
As previously noted, the new hybrid facilities will
support John Lewis’ shift to “eaches” fulfillment. The
example of Magna Park I illustrates how that process
will work.
When inbound products arrive at Magna Park I,
partners take the individual items out of their cardboard cases and place them in tote bins, which move on
automated conveyors to storage areas for putaway. The
tote bins generally hold similar stock-keeping units.
Recently, John Lewis introduced compartmentalized
LOCATING TWO HYBRID FACILITIES SIDE-BY-SIDE AND CONNECTING THEM WITH A
98-FOOT BRIDGE GIVES JOHN LEWIS THE ABILITY TO CONSOLIDATE DIFFERENT TYPES
OF PRODUCTS FOR ONLINE ORDERS. ONE BUILDING, DUBBED “MAGNA PARK I,” HANDLES PRODUCTS STORED IN BINS; THE OTHER, “MAGNA PARK II,” SLATED FOR COMPLETION LATER THIS YEAR, WILL HANDLE HANGING GARMENTS.
