Like many companies adopting new distribution practices to address changing business environments, Vistar realized a critical need and turned to Fortna as its design and integration partner for a new distribution facility.
The company is one of the nation's largest distributors of candy, snacks, and beverages found in office lunch rooms, vending machines, theater concession stands, retail checkout counters, and the snack areas of the hospitality industry.
It used to be that Vistar would ship mixed pallets of products to customers, but like most wholesale suppliers, it found its customers wanted smaller quantities shipped to them more often. That meant its distribution facilities had to find ways to do more piece picking for orders to ship via parcel carriers. Vistar also needed better processes to fill direct-to-consumer orders, including drop shipments to end-users on behalf of its customers.
The manual facilities in the company's network were not up to these new requirements, and so it was decided that the "pick and pack" operations from four facilities serving the East Coast needed to be consolidated into one highly automated operation in Lebanon, Pa.
"We wanted to create a center of excellence for pick and pack," explains Mike Fernstrom, Vice President of Retail Automation at Vistar. "This consolidated facility allows us to reach the entire East Coast within two days. We are ideally located geographically, and it gives us room to grow."
"We looked to them to design the right operation, but also with the right equipment," recalls Fernstrom. "We chose Fortna because they are agnostic to equipment manufacturers, so they can help us apply the right tech to the right solution. They make it work."
AUTOMATED CANDYLAND The equipment chosen for the 277,000-square-foot facility assures that orders are processed quickly and accurately, while also providing capacity to grow. Denser storage now allows Vistar to increase its offerings to more than 10,000 different products. A three-level pick module holds most goods in pallet flow racks, carton flow racks, and shelving. Radio-frequency (RF) devices direct workers to pick items into totes staged on carts.
Most of the faster-moving items are selected from ground-level storage racks. Here, small innovative tuggers maneuver easily through the racks, each pulling two carts holding 14 totes. For flexibility and greater efficiency, the design has workers doing a combination of cluster picking and discrete order selection into the totes.
Vistar and Fortna chose a Perfect Pick goods-to-person system supplied by OPEX Corporation to hold a large number of products. The system uses small robots called iBOTs that move within an aisle between two rows of racks holding some 5,000 totes. The iBOTs move totes holding needed items to two picking stations, located on opposite ends of the aisle. Pick-to-light technology is employed at the stations to provide fast and accurate picking into multiple order totes.
The facility also utilizes four sorters. One routes totes to various pick areas; a packing sorter delivers picked orders to 48 pack stations; a post-packing sorter sends completed cartons to be void-filled, sealed, and labeled; and a shipping sorter delivers packed cartons to outbound docks.
Additionally, Vistar is able to offer value-added services for customers, such as creating cartons of mixed products and cases holding smaller quantities. One area of the building also contains packaging equipment where fresh candy is bagged.
Since opening its doors last October, the facility is more efficient, offers increased throughput capabilities, and has reduced the reliance on difficult-to-find labor.
"With the larger building, we have additional capacity and room to grow," adds Fernstrom. "This building is the platform that will allow us to grow additional business, either B-to-B or B-to-C services. So, we are really excited about the opportunities that this building has given us."
Situated at the crossroads of the Choctaw Nation in Durant, Oklahoma, Big Lots' 1.2 million square foot distribution center serves 235 stores within a network of more than 1,300 stores across 48 states. Big Lots is a large national discount retailer, providing everything from furniture to food, as well as household goods and seasonal décor.
The Durant facility serves stores in parts of 16 states, stretching from the Canadian to Mexican borders. Such a vast area makes it difficult to find reliable transportation. For years, Big Lots utilized multiple carriers, but the complexity as the chain grew resulted in products not being delivered to stores on time. This complicated retail operations, as products often were not available to sell in a timely manner.
"We have a long average distance to our stores, which made it very difficult to hit the appointment times consistently that our stores expect," explains Kory Shinlever, director of domestic transportation at Big Lots. "We also had issues with DC productivity we needed to solve because we had a lot of transportation partners supporting that store delivery. It made our trailer pool very complex."
Big Lots needed a partner who could replace that complex mix of transportation providers with one dedicated fleet. They found that partner in Ruan.
"The services we provide Big Lots out of the Durant facility are dedicated contract transportation, yard services, as well as brokerage services during times of surge or other nuances that they have within their network to support," says Jeremy Carmichael, vice president of operations at Ruan. "Our partnership with Big Lots is one of a similar culture. Being people-first and people-oriented, we believe in enduring partnerships. We believe that shared culture fosters a long-term relationship."
Big Lots has improved service dramatically since moving its store deliveries to Ruan. Trailers are always available at the Durant DC, something that was a problem before and slowed down distribution operations.
"It's a great partnership from senior management down to the local management here," says Edwin Boothe, Big Lots' director of distribution at the Durant DC. "Drivers are courteous, professional, and they do a good job with the store personnel. On-time percentage has been great. Service levels have improved since we've been with Ruan."
"The working relationship is amazing," adds Holly Valcik, Ruan's dedicated transportation manager who works onsite in Durant. "The team here at Big Lots has been amazing and very supportive. Anytime I have any questions or needs, they are there to support me."
"Our stores from the Durant distribution center now are serviced at the highest level they ever have been at this point," notes Shinlever. "That makes a huge difference to the stores because they're able to improve their productivity. The stores don't have associates waiting for the truck. And because of that, they're more efficient at the unload. They've improved not only their productivity, but they decreased their total detention costs."
He adds that productivity at the Durant DC has also improved since Ruan right sized the trailer pool with units now always available at the 40 outbound doors. Warehouse associates can finish their picking and not have products stacking up at the docks, as trailers can be loaded on time.
Shinlever says that with Ruan, they found a long-term partner. "We wanted a partner who would be able to solve solutions at scale, who could grow with us and also matched our own company culture - one of being able to succeed together and playing to win," he shares.
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