Near Barcelona, a highly automated global multi-channel distribution center was created for the Spanish fashion retailer Mango. It centralizes all of the fulfillment centers into one location. Currently, this central logistics hub is being used to supply more than 2,200 stores in over 100 countries. The highly automated solution ensures optimum performance and high throughput capacity.
With this new distribution center we will be able to continue to offer our customers the best possible service."
Antonio Pascual, Director Supply Chain
ENABLER OF BUSINESS GROWTH Thanks to the system's scalability, Mango is equipped for its growth plans
REDUCED INVENTORY AND FULFILLMENT COSTS
CONSOLIDATION OF TWO DCs INTO ONE Supply of more than 2,200 stores in over 100 countries from one DC
SIMPLIFIED PROCESSES FROM GOODS RECEIPT TO GOODS ISSUE
Mango was founded in 1984 and has its headquarters in Lliça d´Amunt (Barcelona). Today, they are one of the world's leading fashion chains. The company specializes in fashion selling apparel, shoes, bags and accessories both online and in over 2,200 brick-and-mortar stores. The Spanish company is represented in over 100 countries.
The growth over the past years made it necessary to consolidate the supply chain. In order to optimize delivery times and reduce fulfillment costs, Mango opted for a central distribution center in the Catalan municipality of Lliça d’Amunt. Thanks to the system's scalability, Mango is equipped for its growth plans and has the necessary flexibility to adjust to changes in the order structure or its business model.
In the goods-in area, cartons are brought into the distribution center using inbound lines directly from the trucks at the docks. Operators touch each carton only once, when loading it onto the extended conveyor inside the container. Up to 6,000 cartons per hour are received and transported to the automatic mini-load warehouse. In total, the automatic double stacked mini-load warehouse provides 850,000 storage positions for cartons of a wide range of sizes. The high-performance storage and retrieval machines (AS/R) can store and retrieve up to 6,500 cartons per hour.
The goods from the automatic mini-load warehouse are first repackaged into totes at toting stations and then stored in the shuttle system. The shuttle warehouse serves as a highly dynamic buffer for order fulfillment via picking workstations or sorters, depending on the order type:
All orders coming either from the sorters or the goods-to-person workstations are consolidated in the automatic mini-load warehouse and from there are transported to the dispatch area. A linear sorter routes the order cartons to the dedicated lanes, where 5,800 cartons per hour are loaded into trucks.
The smart inbound and storage system 'One-Touch Receiving' allows Mango to automate its entire goods receipt process. The goods receipt lines use a cross-belt sorter to transfer up to 6,000 cartons per hour automatically to quality inspection (if required) and to the automatic mini-load warehouse for storage.
A special highlight of the overall solution is the enormous automatic push/pull carton warehouse on two levels with 850,000 storage positions. This makes maximum use of each cubic meter of the warehouse's footprint. It is used for inventory storage, order consolidation as well as a dispatch buffer for flat and hanging goods (packed as flats in cartons prior to shipping).
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