AUTOMATION OF THE NEW DISTRIBUTION CENTER
AUTOMATION
PARTNERSHIP
Hachette UK, the UK's leading trade publishing group, has invested in a new central distribution center in Didcot, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom. Our objective was to make storage and picking even more efficient using innovative automation technology. Shorter lead times and lower transport and operating costs are only a few of the many advantages that the state-of-the-art fulfillment center brings. From one location into the whole world: The new multi-channel distribution center serves the different channels (B2B, B2C and e-commerce) from one location and fulfills orders globally.
HACHETTE UK
DISTRIBUTION
Hachette UK is made up of ten autonomous publishing divisions and over fifty imprints with a rich and diverse history. The leading British publishing group is owned by Hachette Livre, the world's second-largest trade and educational publisher. It forms a close network with the subsidiaries in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and India, and closely collaborates with Hachette Book Group in the U.S.
Hachette provides comprehensive distribution services to over 45 publishers, many of which are third-party clients from outside the Hachette UK group. The figures are impressive: Hachette UK supplies one out of every four books to the UK market and ships more than 68 million books globally each year.
Hachette UK Distribution is part of the Hachette UK publishing group. Their two previously-used distribution centers, LBS and Bookpoint, were merged into the new Hely Hutchinson Center (HHC) that opened in August 2018. HHC is one of the most advanced distribution centers in Europe. Cutting-edge automation technology and modern systems provide first-rate services to customers and publisher clients.
MASTERED
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MERGING TWO WAREHOUSE SITES into the state-of-the-art Hely Hutchinson Center
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REDUCED COSTS: Reduced transport and building costs
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FLEXIBLE AND SCALABLE SOLUTION to meet future growth
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INTRODUCTION OF ADVANCED AUTOMATION: More efficient storage and picking, resulting in shorter lead times and reduced operational costs
SUPPLY
CHAIN
STRATEGY
The historical growth of Hachette in the UK had been propelled by acquisitions, which resulted in operations being conducted from two separate UK distribution center sites. These supported Hachette’s own publishing companies and also acted as a storage and distribution service for third-party publisher clients.
Each of the two centers delivered products from its own group of publishers. Stock did not overlap, but both installations served the same customer base. To create even more efficient workflows, the older, mechanical processes in each have now been supplanted by new systems, and their activities have been merged into one innovative, central fulfillment center.
The implementation of cutting-edge technology makes it possible to reduce operating costs significantly, to improve service, and to ship orders to regular customers in a consolidated manner.
MATERIAL
FLOW
WHOLESALE, RETAIL, AND DIRECT CUSTOMERS
Hachette serves wholesale, retail, and direct customers. The new solution supports this omni-channel profile with a combination of full case and split case picking methods. Generally, any book title can be ordered as a full case or split case. Goods from split case picking are shipped in packages, returnable totes, and automatically erected cartons.
SPLIT CASE PICKING
Split case picking of single books is fully managed using a TGW FlashPick® goods-to-person solution. Five storage aisles, each equipped with a fleet of TGW Stingray shuttles, supply required source totes to one of ten “PickCenter One TS” workstations. These enable one-to-one ergonomics: empty order cartons and totes are automatically provided at the PickCenter One stations and, once they are filled, directed towards the outbound sortation area to be consolidated with other cartons and totes for the same shipping destination. Prior to sortation, the split case order cartons are finished via an automatic height reduction, lidding, and labelling process.
TGW WAREHOUSE SOFTWARE
TGW Warehouse Software manages all picking. This includes the timely coordination of split case picks and copying them to Hachette’s JDA WMS in order to create picking lists and to report back details on the contents of finished order cartons and totes. The JDA system manages conventional warehouse functions like full case picking in narrow aisles and is also responsible for the overall customer order coordination in the manual and automated areas of the distribution center.
FULL CASE PICKING
Full case picking is supported by a narrow-shelf warehouse area for pallets. Mixed pallets are assembled and transported to the TGW intake are. Packages that are destined for customer orders are labelled and transported via conveyors to the sortation zone. And packages that are intended as replenishment for the split case picking process are positioned in storage totes at one of ten TGW repackaging workstations. The totes can be partitioned to allow for the storage of more than one title within a single tote.
DOOR2DOOR Solution
The new central fulfillment center uses state-of-the-art warehouse automation technology to reduce operating expenses, improve service levels, and provide consolidated shipments to regular customers.
LIFETIME SERVICES– HIGH SYSTEM AVAILABILITY
Five-year all-inclusive contract: proactivity, continuous improvement, cost saving initiatives, and a one-team approach. Hachette is maintained and supported by seven TGW On-Site Residential Engineers, who provide flexible, three-shift operational support for maintenance work 312 days per year. Peaks: Monday – Friday 24/5. Focus: providing the highest levels of availability and reliability. This one-team approach allows for a successful and long-term partnership, while delivering optimum service and support.
KEY FIGURES
- Most automated book warehouse in Europe
- Footprint: approx. 5.56 acres
- Consolidation of two existing sites
- More than 90,000 tote storage locations for storing more than two million books
- 65-foot-high warehouse area for bulk items with 35 aisles for storing 25 million books
- 120 TGW Stingray shuttles (roaming mode across all levels)
- Approx. 2 miles of TGW KingDrive® conveyors
- Ten TGW decanting stations
- Ten TGW goods-to-person sequencing stations feeding an automated carton lidding machine and a dispatch sorter
- TGW Commander WCS
- Lifetime Services residential contract
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