BY DAVID MALONEY, CHIEF EDITOR
FACILITY DESIGN
NOT SO LONG AGO, WINE AND SPIRITS
distributor Republic National Distributing Co.
(RNDC) found itself facing the classic growth challenge—at least where its distribution operations
were concerned. RNDC, which is the second-largest
distributor of wine and spirits in the U.S., had seen
sales explode in one of its key markets: Virginia.
That kind of exponential growth is great for the
bottom line, but it can create problems elsewhere
in the organization. In this case, it was the company’s DC in Sandston, Va., that was feeling the
strain. Basically, RNDC had outgrown the
facility, and building out was not an
option. The Sandston building had
already been expanded in 2001, says
Stefan Kirshenbaum, RNDC’s vice
president of operations systems
and services, and the lot didn’t
allow for further expansion.
Filling orders on time was also
becoming a challenge. Space
limitations prevented the operation from deploying the kind
of technology that would allow
it to achieve the productivity
and accuracy levels it wanted.
And the building’s size limited
the amount of merchandise that
could be pushed through it in a
day. “We just grew out of it, plain
and simple. We needed to move
forward to a new distribution
space,” Kirshenbaum says.
After conducting a site search,
the company found a suitable
spot some 30 miles north of
Sandston in Ashland, Va. The
new location offered 23
acres to grow in as well
as proximity to Interstate
95. The move would also put it a bit closer to the
growth markets in Northern Virginia.
Opened in February, the new facility has a footprint of 280,000 square feet but offers 315,000
square feet of processing space when you include
the mezzanines. The site provides ample room for
expansion, with enough space to enlarge the facility
to well over half a million square feet if needed.
The facility’s material handling system was
designed by W&H Systems, which also integrated
the equipment. The new setup includes new automated equipment to speed up processing, including a voice-directed picking system and conveyors
and sorters that gently handle cases of bottles. A
camera system also assures shipping accuracy,
and smart software keeps it all flowing with the
smoothness of fine Kentucky bourbon.
RAISING THE BAR
For many of the products arriving at the new
Ashland facility, the first stop is the reserve area,
which contains both floor and rack storage and
some high-density pushback racking. As the name
implies, the pushback racks are designed so that
when a lift truck operator loads a new pallet into
the front of the rack, the previously loaded pallets
are pushed backward along a rail. The facility’s
pushback racks range from two to four pallets
deep, allowing the company to make optimal
use of storage space. When a pallet is removed,
the remaining pallets behind gently slide forward
to make it easy to retrieve subsequent pallets.
Advance Storage Products provided the pushback
racks along with flow racks and other static storage
units in the building.
Reserve items are used to replenish three modules—two that are used for full-case picking and
one for individual bottle selection. The Jennifer
voice system from Lucas directs all of the picking
activity. The Shiraz warehouse control system
specialreport
High spirits
Wine and spirits distributor RNDC found the answer to its space crunch—and throughput
woes—in an innovative new DC that features mezzanines and state-of-the-art conveyors.
