TJ Morris (Liverpool, UK), one of Europe’s fastest growing general merchandise and food retailers, has awarded WITRON (Parkstein, Germany) the contract to design and implement a massive 79,000 square meter (850,350 sq. ft.) DC in Warrington, UK. Upon completion in 2023, the DC will store 12,000 different dry goods items in 470,000 pallet, tray and tote storage locations. It will include more than 100 stacker cranes and have more than 15 km (9.3 miles) of conveyor systems. The daily picking capacity will be 646,000 cases, which will be sorted into roll containers and totes to service the chain’s projected growth to 1,000 retail locations.
As a general contractor, WITRON will develop all IT, control and mechanical components. The DC will be controlled by a multi-functional warehouse management system featuring integrated “end-to-end” supply chain intelligence that will span TJ Morris’ entire logistics network from supplier to end consumer. The DC will feature WITRON’s highly dynamic OPM (Order Picking Machinery) with 32 COMs (Case Order Machines), DPS (Dynamic Picking System), and semi-automated CPS (Car Picking System). It will also include a fully automatic shipping buffer that intelligently decouples order picking from the shipping area so all are units available for loading in the dispatch area via stacker cranes and heavy duty lanes. This will facilitate JIT deliveries sorted by routes and stores in the optimal trailer loading sequence, and maximized storage space utilization.
The DC will be the most modern facility of its kind in the UK, with 95% of its throughput handled automatically, or semi-automatically thanks to WITRON’s OPM. Upon completion, it will be the first implementation of the OPM system in the United Kingdom.
for more information, visit www.WITRON.com
