Down a road with the evocative name of Book End is the national distribution center for children''s book publisher Scholastic. The company, which deals with thousands of schools and tens of thousands of teachers throughout the UK, is dedicated to helping improve literacy for a new generation of young readers. As Scholastic''s group operations and distribution director Philip Owen says, "We''re not making widgets, we are putting quality books into children''s hands. We all believe in that."
Installed in less than four weeks during the school holidays, a new picking system from Univeyor is helping to deliver eightfold increases in productivity, thereby increasing flexibility in book distribution.
"We have been dealing with schools for many years, arranging for pupils to select the books they want to read," says Owen. Witney supports book clubs, mainly dealing through schools where a teacher in each school distributes catalogues and consolidates orders.
"It was becoming apparent that we should aim to reduce the teacher''s workload, so we have made a strategic decision to be able to deal with teachers at the classroom level, as well as at school level," he continues. "Although it means less work for the teachers involved, it changes our operations considerably. We hit ourselves with a double whammy: a far larger number of orders and lower average order value. One parcel costs the same to deliver, however many books are in it, and there are other costs which are affected by the move to dealing with far more customers with smaller orders. So we saw the need to completely re-engineer our fulfillment activities.
"The main area of focus has been efficiency in the warehouse and we have made big changes to our order picking. Quality is also essential for us; if a child does not get the book they ordered, or it is damaged, it is a disaster. So we need to be spot on, whatever system we are using."
Up until the end of summer term, picking was done into plastic totes moved on trolleys around gravity carton storage. Once orders were complete, totes were delivered to checking and packing benches.
"We had experience of picking to dispatch boxes on conveyor from our US parent, which has a much larger distribution center," says Owens. So plans were drawn up and Scholastic searched for a conveyor system company to develop and deliver the solution on which so much depended.
Scholastic''s is a seasonal business and time is critical. Work is synchronised to the school year, just 36 weeks, with fixed deadlines such as half term along the way. All a term''s orders have to be delivered before the end of term and, as Owen comments, "We knew the schools were going back for the autumn whether we were ready or not. So although they were not the cheapest, we chose Univeyor because they gave us absolute confidence that we would be up and running on time. That confidence has not been misplaced and, in fact, the new system was installed and commissioned over a four-week window in the summer. It was up and running perfectly three days ahead of schedule."
Everything had to work closely together, with input from Univeyor on the conveyor system, including integration with the warehouse computer system, operations, live storage systems, work from Scholastic''s in-house IT department, and staff. As Owen explains, "Over the summer, every job in the warehouse changed. We also had to change every computer program we use."
The new conveyor picking system snakes around 3,000 live storage picking locations in the 40,000 sq ft warehouse, alongside 1,800 pallet racked locations for backup stock. There are three start points for dispatch boxes around the 250 meters of conveyor system. Boxes are automatically transferred to outer picking conveyors in any of the six picking zones, all governed by preprinted orders.
Staff work down two sides of carton live racking, selecting popular books from the purely educational to the latest Harry Potter blockbuster (Scholastic publishes over 20% of the offerings itself). Many titles -- in addition to Harry Potter -- sell in the thousands from each catalogue sent out.
Once the required items are placed in the dispatch box from a zone, it is returned back onto the inner powered conveyor for movement to another zone or on to quality checking and final packing.
All boxes are check weighed as an integral part of the conveyor system operation, and any that do not meet exacting tolerances are automatically presented to quality control staff. "We set the tolerances really low, so most of the boxes we check by hand are actually correct, but we would rather do this than dispatch an incorrect order."
Boxes finally pass through a void fill station and tape sealing before reaching the end of the conveyor system, where they are collected for loading onto a parcel trailer permanently stationed just outside the doors for the day''s dispatches.
Is the investment working?
"Our measurements show that we are achieving an eightfold increase in productivity, in terms of items picked per labour hour. I am confident that, despite increasing the burden on our operations, we will be able to handle our pre-Christmas peak with the normal single shift and permanent staff. Before this year, we would run for one and a half shifts a day and employ extra temporary staff."
Payback target for the entire project is just 18 months and Owen is confident it will be achieved, estimating that in the peak week for processing orders they will save over £6,500 compared to last year.
"We have achieved this by working closely with all the staff, communicating and familiarizing them with the changes planned. We have eliminated unproductive travel time and separate packing and the staff have worked with us in moving to the new system. Their enthusiasm has been one of the key criteria in the success so far," says Owen.
"This fits in well with our whole company ethos. We all believe in our mission to work with providers of education in helping to develop a love of reading in children. It is what guides us. With the new system we can continue to expand our contribution."