Supply chain management service provider ModusLink Global
Solutions Inc. has expanded what it touts as the most comprehensive suite of e-fulfillment solutions ever offered by one provider, and
it’s hired a top logistics executive from the world’s largest e-tailer to
head the program.
Waltham, Mass.-based ModusLink said it had enhanced the
“end-to-end” business support it offers to e-commerce players. This
includes establishing and hosting an online site, managing customer
product catalogs, pricing, global payment processing, and order fulfillment from warehousing and distribution to “last-mile” deliveries
and product returns. The company unveiled the program worldwide
about five years ago and plans to enhance the model by automating
its existing warehouses in North America and China by the end of
2015, it said.
In April, ModusLink named Nick Foy director of operations
process strategy and implementation. Foy had previously served
as senior manager of Amazon Logistics, a division of Seattle-based
Amazon.com Inc. In that position, Foy helped implement “Amazon
Prime Now,” the e-tailer’s new one- and two-hour delivery service.
In an interview from the company’s offices in Venray, Netherlands,
Foy described ModusLink’s new automated fulfillment technology.
It includes a pick tower containing three floors of flow racking surrounded by six pick streets, Foy said. Goods are replenished from
back to front with operators using a pick-to-light system to load
boxes that travel on a spiral conveyor and then along a powered conveyor for sealing, labeling, quality checks, and delivery to the dock.
The system can be slowed or accelerated to match the volume of
goods moving through the fulfillment center, according to Foy. For
further flexibility, users can adjust the size of the mezzanine shelving
in the modular pick tower to accommodate items as small as a box
of earrings to as large as a barbecue grill, he said.
From its location about two hours south of Amsterdam, the
new fulfillment center is situated to allow next-day delivery to any
location in the major trade zones of Europe, Foy said. Known to
European logistics workers as the “blue banana,” the region is a
fruit-shaped area stretching from Denmark to Northern Germany,
Belgium, the Netherlands, France, and Spain.
“The time between an order hitting our fulfillment center to the
item being picked, packed, and sitting on the dock waiting for the
courier is less than 10 minutes,” Foy said. “The customer today
wants instant gratification. Ten years ago, if you got a shipment to
the customer within 14 days that was acceptable. Eight years ago, it
was eight days. Five years ago, it was five days, and two years ago, it
was two days.”
ModusLink invested in the new automated system in an effort to
accelerate the fulfillment process and to win prized accounts such as
Mondelez International Inc., the international food conglomerate
and a recent customer, Foy said.
Foy declined to disclose the cost of building the automated fulfillment center but said it represented “a significant investment.”
—Ben Ames
ModusLink expands e-commerce
services Page Siplon has been named CEO of TeamOne Logistics, an Alpharetta, Ga.-
based provider of logistics work force
solutions. … UTi Worldwide Inc., a glob-
al supply chain services and solutions
provider, has appointed Raymond Lee
leader of the Greater China area (China,
Hong Kong, and Taiwan) and David
Buss leader of the North America area
(Canada and U.S.). …
Hyundai Forklift, a mate-
rial handling equipment
maker, has promoted Tim
Webb to national sales
manager. … Systems
integrator Intelligrated
has appointed Chuck Adams senior vice
president and general manager of sales
and John Sorensen senior vice presi-
dent and general manager of lifecycle
support services. … Timothy Sartin and
Eric Drabiuk have joined
Saddle Creek Logistics
Services as directors of
business development.
… Jeff Holmes has joined
IronPlanet, an online
marketplace for buying
and selling used heavy equipment and
trucks, as vice president, government
solutions. … Port Jersey Logistics, a
third-party logistics ser-
vice provider, has pro-
moted Erik Holck to direc-
tor of business develop-
ment. … Chad Gunder
has been named plant
manager for Akro-Mils’
Sandusky, Ohio, manufacturing facility.
… Southeastern Freight Lines, a provid-
er of regional less-than-truckload (LTL)
transportation services, has promoted
Coley Campbell to vice president of ser-
vice center operations. … Ben Conwell
has joined Cushman & Wakefield as
senior managing director and prac-
tice lead for the firm’s newly formed
e-Commerce and Electronic Fulfillment
Specialty Practice Group. … Third-party
logistics company Transplace has hired
Mike Dieter as its chief technology
officer.
newsmakers
WEBB
DRABIUK
HOLCK
