Start-Up Of A World-Class Distribution Center: Hershey's MWDC Project

Source: 2004 APICS International Conference Proceedings.
Copyright © APICS—The Association For Operations Management. Used by permission.

Hershey Foods Corporation initiated a program to reconstruct its national distribution network in 2000. Company growth had resulted in significant capacity constraints, causing the company to expand into 22 warehouse locations, many being overflow storage. The excessive number of storage locations created many inventory and cost issues, with inventory being rehandled numerous times before final shipment to the customer. Improving service and reducing costs became key objectives of the new U.S. network design. The overall project included four new distribution centers of approximately 3.3 million square feet. Hershey had reduced its national network from 22 facilities to eight but still had opportunities for improvement. This presentation will focus on the project management and major tasks associated with the start-up of the 1.1 million square foot Midwestern Distribution Center (MWDC) that opened its doors in the spring of 2004. This final construction provides Hershey with a final network of five distribution centers in four geographical locations totaling about four million square feet.

About The Author
Ken Miesemer, CPIM, CIRM, has been with Hershey Foods for 14 years. He is currently director, distribution operations, overseeing approximately four million square feet of distribution center operations in the mainland U.S., Hawaii, and Puerto Rico and providing support to Hershey's Canada, Mexico, and International Operations.