Born to be wired

Recognizing the need for change is one thing; designing that change is quite another. Early on, the company determined an outside perspective would be beneficial. It enlisted the help of Markham, Ontario-based consultancy Supply Chain Alliance Partners (SCAP).

For those involved in the day-to-day management of the DC, it was initially tough to hear the impressions and advice of an external party. But once the ideas were on the table, Deeley associates dropped their defences and started working collaboratively with SCAP. Together, the team came up with a new strategy of managing the DC’s activity. At its core was an order segregation methodology designed to manage each type of shipment—stock, rush and seasonal—differently.

“That really was the key. Once we had the orders broken out so we had some visibility…it really started to click,” reflects Arthur.

SCAP worked with Deeley until the project picked up steam and a cross-functional team—comprised of managers from the distribution, purchasing, IT and sales teams—was in place to handle it. This was a big change for the company; traditionally, most DC decisions were made by DC staff alone. But collaborative representation helped guarantee that the effects of changes on different areas would be well understood.

Together, the team came up with a plan for the DC designed to benefit everyone in the business. That was three years ago; since then, the company has implemented several phases of change.

First gear
First on the agenda was dealing with orders for seasonal items. During peak periods (like the start of the riding season, when, according to Jeff Draves, senior manager, product services, “everyone wants everything”) the company is slammed with orders of both stock and seasonal items.

In the past, filling this need created major bottlenecks in the DC. At times, the backlog of skids from the factory climbed to 200. This created chaos as associates struggled to put product away and pick enough to meet demand.

“We wouldn’t really know what was in each box until we’d opened it,” recalls Arthur. “We’d realize we didn’t really need what was in the box right away, but since we’d opened it, we’d have to keep going through the process of putting it all away.”

The solution was to start cross-docking seasonal items. Deeley adopted a new approach to ordering seasonal items from the US. It started ordering such products separately and requested that each order come with a unique purchase order. This makes a shipment of seasonal items immediately identifiable to receivers, who can then direct it to the cross-dock area.