Footwear distribution: Efficient handling of push and pull flows
In footwear distribution, flexible and cost-effective solutions are vital to maximise competitive strength. More and more footwear is sold through other distribution channels rather than traditional shoe stores. As a footwear distributor it is important to respond quickly to rapidly changing fashions, consumer demand patterns and seasonal trends. How to handle a fast growing product range, which is increasingly being sourced from the Far East? How to manage both ‘push’ (stock replenishment) and ‘pull’ (ship to order) flows efficiently?
We can help you to optimise your footwear warehouse logistics. This includes the handling of pairboxes as well as full cartons. We have long standing experience in designing and building material handling systems for footwear. Some examples are New Gate Group (NG2), Euro Shoe and SB Logistic.
The New Gate Group (NG2) is Poland’s leading footwear company. NG2 expects to grow to 1,300 shops by 2012 and to sell 27 million pairs of shoes each year. To handle the daily deliveries to all the shops NG2 operates a warehouse with a sortation system. With this system NG2 can handle future growth, reduce the costs per unit and increase the service level it can deliver to its stores.
Euro Shoe’s is one of the leading footwear companies in the Benelux. Its automated warehouse in Beringen (Belgium) serves the company’s stores in the Netherlands and Belgium with the latest footwear fashion. The company has well known brands, such as Bristol and Avance. Euro Shoe uses a batch picking and sortation system in order to handle the push as well as the pull flows. The system is controlled by the VISION Warehouse Management System integrated with SAP. Euro Shoe has seen significant improvement in efficiency since the opening of the warehouse.
