Kellogg’s selects Exel for warehousing development
Exel, has just helped Kellogg’s develop and open a major new warehouse – the latest step in Kellogg’s strategy to achieve logistics excellence for its customers and suppliers now and well into the future. (7/8/2003)
The new 300,000 sq ft facility, in Trafford Park near Manchester, has just become fully operational after an intensive nine-month project that Kellogg’s says could not have gone better.
Exel and Kellogg’s had worked together for a number of years when, in 2001, Kellogg’s appointed Exel sole supplier of its external warehousing needs due to both its strategic and operational track record as well as its strength of scale and resources. An immediate issue was the rationalisation of Kellogg’s existing Trafford Park warehousing centres in order that operations could be re-organised through just two facilities – the brand new hub and one of the existing warehouses – to ensure even better control and agility in meeting changing supply chain models.
Exel and Kellogg’s formed a project team with the designers and contractors and together they transformed a wasteland site to a purpose-built centre, designed to unlock productivity improvements and customised to meet the specific requirements of Kellogg’s supply chain. Working groups were employed to identify best practice and complete process mapping was undertaken to examine every aspect of the future operation.
The new centre, known as KW1, has 35,000 pallet spaces, 20 loading bays, four ground level bays and four automatic intake beds. It has been designed to be rail connectable, highly flexible to cope with the significant peaks and troughs in Kellogg’s logistics cycle and to provide generous assembly space for case picking and managing full vehicle loads. Throughput will be in the order of 1,700 inbound and outbound pallets as well as 34,000 cases picked each day all on a 24/7 basis. Warehouse operations are supported by a new fleet of mechanical handling equipment (MHE), sourced and procured by Exel. One hundred and fifty permanent staff are employed at KW1 with the addition of temporary staff to cover peaks.
The cereals and snacks come mainly from three plants in the UK, including the largest cereal manufacturing plant in the world, and already the benefit of KW1 is being felt in its ability to factory clear much more quickly than the previous centres. Kellogg’s is also highly confident that its currently high standards of service to retailers will be further enhanced not just through the inherent flexibility of the new facility but due to the on-site infrastructure supporting such added-value activities as co-packing and re-packing that will be managed by Exel.
