Darroch | Case Studies

This company was successful in tendering for a contract to develop a new concept distribution facility to service the needs of New Zealand Defence Forces. The facility was developed during 1999/2000 in order to provide a total fourth party contracted service, which has been operating very successfully ever since. The Managing Director of YASL, Simon Harvey, had a vision for the whole concept and in particular the technology and likely concepts to be employed within the distribution centre.

The company had a successful distribution facility operating from their Broadmeadows site in Melbourne that had been operating for a number of years but nevertheless employed appropriate technologies. Therefore, it was useful to learn from the Broadmeadows site when developing the solutions and technologies for the new Auckland facility.

Darroch’s were engaged initially to work with the project team and develop the overall distribution centre operational concepts. The photographs show details of the operation, which involves the following:

An inwards goods processing facility.

Narrow aisle man-up bulk storage system for randomly storing standardised
cartons of products.

Horizontal carousels for batch picking fast moving products.

A mezzanine floor area for storing and picking batches of slow moving products.

Conveying system to deliver the cartonised product through the packing system
ready for despatch.

Darroch’s worked closely with Manufact Data Systems (MDS) and assisted with the development of the appropriate functionality for the upgrade of the Acumen Advanced Warehouse Management Module. The system installed was totally paperless from inwards to despatch – one of the first paperless sites in New Zealand.

Barry Darroch was part of the team, which also included YASL's M.D. Simon Harvey and Ian Parker of MDS, that visited America to select the carousels and software technology to drive them.

The distribution centre commenced operation on time and within budget with minimal start up problems. This site won three awards as follows:

Computerworld Excellence Awards 2001 - Most successful project implementation of the year.
Logistics Institute Excellence in Innovation Award 2001.
Supply Chain Association of New Zealand, Innovation in Supply Chain Award 2004.

The facility has been operating successfully ever since, achieving high levels of productivity and accuracy.