On Thursday 15th Oct 15, Best Practice Network organised a presentation and site visit to the Linfox Coles DC at Truganina. This attracted 30 participants from a broad cross section of industry.
The presentation was hosted by the DC Manager, Phil McInerney. After the initial introductions, Phil detailed the 20 month journey that Linfox, as the site operator, had been on. Of particular note was the IR journey for this particular site relating to the management of absenteeism, overtime and work practices.
The site tour was excellent. The site covered 80,000 m2 and employs around 640 personnel over 3 shifts and 7 days per week. The site managed the difficult issue of interaction between pedestrians and mobile machinery particularly well. We observed different methods of receiving stock from different supply channels. I was impressed to see that they had been through several iterations of layout and process.
Two things were of particular interest to me:
I saw manual unloading of a container using an extendable conveyor. Had never seen this in the flesh before.
The picking area for the top selling products – was mirrored, having the same products on both sides of the picking lane, enabling pickers to pick and load from either side and to reduce congestion. Very clever thinking!!
I’d like to thank Phil and his team for hosting this presentation and site.
Greg Dunn Operations and Supply Manager, Porta