In 2022, Ecentria, an outdoor equipment and tactical gear retailer, experienced 200% growth in a year, revealing a need to enhance its warehouse systems to manage increased demand efficiently. Their objectives included handling growth, reducing costs, boosting productivity, and improving fulfillment and delivery times for their diverse customer base.

Facing these challenges, Ecentria partnered with Alpine Supply Chain Solutions, a boutique consulting firm focused on optimizing space, equipment, labor, and systems within the four walls of the warehouse. The goal was to analyze Ecentria’s operations, inventory management, and distribution processes to recommend automated systems and design changes for their distribution centers (DCs).

Ecentria operates in two facilities and manages around 130,000 stock-keeping units (SKUs) of various sizes and types. They needed a partner to evaluate their processes objectively and propose changes to enhance efficiency and labor savings. Alpine conducted a thorough analysis, considering inventory movement, demand fluctuations, and projected growth to identify opportunities for layout and slotting adjustments, yielding immediate productivity and labor savings before the broader automation project.

Alpine recommended space optimization, reconfiguration, and slotting adjustments in both facilities, including implementing very-narrow-aisle (VNA) racking systems for high-velocity SKUs. These changes significantly improved Ecentria’s average pick rate, reducing travel time, optimizing forklift usage, and almost doubling productivity while reducing errors. This led to substantial labor savings and increased operational efficiency.

Looking forward, Ecentria and Alpine have larger plans for the future, including building a new automated DC in the Midwest by 2025. This new DC will feature an automated storage and retrieval system (AS/RS), picking robots, and advanced conveyor systems to optimize the fulfillment process comprehensively. The AS/RS is expected to pay for itself within five to seven years of implementation.

The collaboration with Alpine has proven fruitful, and Ecentria plans to continue implementing projects targeting operational improvements while looking forward to more substantial changes in their DC network design and automation. The partnership has not only expedited improvements but has also provided valuable insights that might not have been possible if Ecentria had undertaken the analysis independently. Get the full story as published in DCVelocity here.