Gideon Hillman Consulting conduct Warehouse optimisation review
Autoparts & Diagnostics Ltd has been run by the Seal family since 1991. The APD group is a traditional motorfactor supplying car parts and accessories to the motor trade sector. Today APD Tewkesbury are proud to be recognised by their customers, as one of the best run independent motor factors, operating in the South West, as part of a larger group consisting of depots in Gloucester, Cheltenham, Cirencester, Bristol, Coleford, Yate, and Witney.
Autoparts & Diagnostics Ltd are proud to be members of the IMTFA; one of the UK’s largest buying groups, which provides APD with the opportunity to buy and supply the very best automotive brands at very competitive prices to their customers. Alongside this, APD pride themselves on their products being sourced globally, stocked locally, and delivered on time.
The APD Tewkesbury depot opened in 2003 offering the core group motorfactor service, however in 2009, APD expanded this service offering to include export to Europe. Following this change Tewkesbury experienced subsequent significant growth.
In 2013 APD moved into a new facility (to be referred to as Warehouse A) and in 2015 acquired an additional larger warehouse (to be referred to as Warehouse B) on the same estate. Warehouse A operated as the primarily facility with overflow stock held in the larger facility.
With approximately 120 active clients (the majority of which are based in Europe) APD source parts from over 50 suppliers, 65% of which are based within the UK. APD place more than 250 purchase orders with suppliers each week, the excessive volume due to an inability to consolidate purchase orders within their current ERP system.
Following their significant growth and at the time, being unable to consolidate orders, APD asked The Warehouse Management Consultants at Gideon Hillman Consulting (GH) to assist with optimising their current process in terms of product receipt management, warehouse throughput and facility layout.
APD wanted to ensure that they would have the capability to accommodate planned future growth in an optimised warehouse environment.
Gideon Hillman Consulting conducted a review of the primary APD warehouse and distribution centre operations to include a complete end to end process review of order processing, goods receipt, goods storage, pick/pack consolidation, despatch, returns and value added flows.
The Specialist Logistics and Warehouse Consultants optimised APD’s current warehouse processes; whilst simultaneously providing recommendations for measures to improve productivity and capacity of their future facility.
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