What's next for Turn 14 Distribution

摘要

What, next? That's a question often asked by fast-growing companies. In an order fulfillment environment where companies put a premium on price, selection and cus- tomer service, companies not only find themselves running out of space and bumping up against inefficient processes, but also having to re-think their entire distribution strategy to take business to the next level of performance. That was the situation facing Turn 14 Distribution, a Horsham, Pa.,-based distributor of performance auto parts. In 2013, the then 11-year-old company was operating from a single, space-constrained 52,000-square-foot facility. To meet the distributor's goals for growth and nationwide two-day delivery, Turn 14 realized it would not only have to rethink its processes, it would have to design an entirely new network. What's next was to conduct a network design study, which identified three strategic locations to meet customer service requirements; and, then, working with a systems integrator (Honeywell Intelligrated) to develop a new warehouse design. The design brought in a custom-built warehouse management system (WMS), bar code scanning, weight and dimension capture, a light-directed put-wall, and conveyor and sortation. With those two steps complete, Turn 14 Distribution built and went live with three new distribution centers, back-to-back, in Pennsylvania, Nevada and Texas, increasing its available space to 710,000 square feet in just a few years.