Horticultural Supplier Homebase Replaces Batch Paper Pick Operation With Catalyst's WMS

Homebase, part of the J. Sainsbury PLC supermarket group, is one of the leading "do it yourself" home and garden centers in the United Kingdom. The company has more than 300 stores throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland as well as several new 100,000 square-foot flagship superstores. To serve these stores, Homebase operates a total of seven warehouses, one in Swindon and six in the Northampton area. The company, founded in 1979, had 1999 sales of over $100 million.

Hombase's Challenge
Homebase is the UK's largest supplier of horticultural products and hard goods such as garden furniture. This scope of products forces their distribution operation to handle a complex combination of seasonal products that come in various shapes and sizes and that are easily damaged and perishable. This product variety means that an extremely well planned and implemented solution is vital to ensuring a smooth distribution process.

Homebase is one of the first UK home and garden stores to introduce Direct Global Sourcing. The ability to purchase products directly from manufacturers throughout the world has increased the complexity of their distribution operations. In addition, the launch of newer, larger flagship megastore retail outlets has increased the demand for greater quantities and a wider range of products to be handled by its distribution centers.

Prior to the installation of the Catalyst WMS, Homebase operated a batch paper pick operation. Implementing barcodes throughout the warehouses to create a full real-time RF environment was another supply chain challenge facing Homebase.

Homebase's Goals
To support Homebase's retail expansion, several new warehouses were opened to keep up with customer demands. Homebase wanted their new warehouse network to have the capability to handle the massive increase in product flow-through to meet the requirements of its stores and the rapid overall growth of the company.

One of Homebase's key requirements was to have a stock sharing capability whereby if demand exceeds available stock then the system apportions fairly what is available to each store. In addition, it was important to find a warehouse solution were the order-picking sequence was able to match the vehicle dispatch times.

The Catalyst Solution
Catalyst WMS was first selected for Homebase's Lydiard Fields Greenfield site warehouse in Swindon in 1996 and installed in 1997. All sites have since been upgraded and are now running Release 7.2. The Catalyst WMS was chosen because it was a mature, tested and proven product that had the power to handle existing requirements as well as having the flexibility and scalability necessary to expand with the business. In addition, real-time functionality with radio frequency (RF) equipment was essential.

Homebase's Return on Investment
Catalyst WMS has given Homebase much greater stock accuracy and operational flexibility. The company can now reserve stock for special ordering and uses RF for real-time management in many key areas of the business, adding to both the efficiency and productivity of the company's distribution operations.

"Catalyst has real-time functionality at the core of its system and this has been vital in Homebase's on-going developments, Catalyst's staff is very knowledgeable and experienced and has been instrumental in ensuring each implementation project has been a success." Nick Allen, Head of Logistics, Homebase.

Warehouse Site Overviews
Lydiard Fields, Swindon and Park Farm, Northampton
Lydiard Fields is a 300,000 square-foot warehouse and installed the Catalyst WMS in 1997. Park Farm was installed in February 1998. The sites have conventional racking for hard goods and outside storage for bulk handling of garden furniture. Horticultural products, including houseplants, are stored on Danish trollies in special warm chambers within the warehouses. The warehouses handle around 10,000 SKUs and employs an average of 60 staff working three shifts, which increases to 100 during peak season. Peak season for Homebase is early spring and December.

During peak season the warehouses handles approximately 60,000 order lines per day, dropping to 40,000 during the low season. Stock is received and the information is scanned into the Catalyst WMS using RF. Hard goods are scanned and put away using reach trucks, while horticultural products have to be scanned and then put away by hand.

Brackmills, Northampton
Catalyst was installed at Brackmills in June 1998. Brackmills is a 300,000 square-foot warehouse that handles 13,000 SKUs. Products handled at this site include slow moving "do it yourself" goods and small parts. A carton live storage area (flow rack) is used for handling small parts. During peak season, this site handles around 90,000 order lines per day and 60,000 during low season. Brackmills also handles returns for Homebase.

Wellingborough Imports Depot, Northampton
Catalyst was installed at Wellingborough in January 2000. This 280,000 square-foot facility handles fast moving, bulky "do it yourself" products, garden furniture and imported lines delivered via container. There are 5,000 SKUs and an average of 25 staff working three shifts. Peak season sees 30,000 order lines per day and 20,000 in low season. RF is not used at this site with orders picked by paper and shipped by store product group, by order type and by delivery date.

Rushden, Northampton
Catalyst was installed at Rushden in May 2000. Rushden is an 110,000 square-foot facility handling fast moving "do it yourself" products and lines stocked specifically for the new Homebase superstores. There are 7,000 SKUs and around 20,000 order lines per day during peak season. Orders are shipped by store product group only. No RF is used at this site.

Sywell Butts and Sywell Premium Remote Distribution Centers, Northampton
Catalyst WMS was installed at Sywell Butts in June 2000 and Sywell Premium in October 2000. These 40,000 square-foot warehouses handle out of season stock for Homebase. There are around 1,000 SKUs in each and stock is transferred from these sites to the main issuing distribution centers.

Technical Facts at a Glance
Homebase's current ERP system is currently running on an IBM mainframe but the company will be moving to SAP R/3 in 2001. Catalyst WMS is running on a HP K-Class system using the Oracle 8 RDBMS. RF equipment is LXE Narrow Band and Symbol Spectrum 24 Spread devices.