ITW Retail Group, Australia’s leading supplier of hardware and fasteners to the retail trade, is building a new high-tech 21,500 sqm national distribution centre (DC) at South Dandenong in Melbourne.
With around 7,000 stock keeping units (SKU), including brands such as Zenith, Ramset, Buildex and Pryda, ITW Retail Group products are a popular choice for builders and the DIY market in Australia and New Zealand.
The new DC is scheduled to commence operations in the latter half of the year. It is being fitted out with integrated logistics and paperless picking technologies from Dematic.
ITW Retail Group’s national operations manager Brian Angwin said systems integration was the most important feature of the new DC.
“While all of the individual product, technology and software systems that go together to make a modern DC are important, it is how efficiently those systems are integrated that creates a logistics solution which is greater than the sum of its parts.
“From where and how our products should be stored, through to the most-efficient and accurate way to pick, assemble and despatch orders, Dematic’s advice has been invaluable,” Mr Angwin said.
“The new DC will not only enable us to pick and pack orders faster, more accurately and cost-efficiently than before, it will enable us to increase throughput volumes and provide us with the organisational agility to respond to changing customer demands over time.”
A key feature design is a smart zone-skipping conveyor system, which will transport orders only to those areas of the DC where items are required, reducing order processing time and increasing overall system throughput capacity.
