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Homebase is one of the leading Home DIY and Garden Centres in the UK. The
company has more than 285 stores throughout the UK and Ireland. To
serve these stores, Homebase operates five main warehouses, one in
Swindon and four in the Northampton area. The company, founded in
1979, had a 2001 turnover of £1.4 billion.
Homebase’s Challenge
Homebase distributes a variety of highly seasonal horticultural
products and hard goods, such as garden furniture, which creates a
number of key challenges that the Catalyst WMS has helped to meet.
Homebase is the UK's largest supplier of horticultural goods and its
distribution operation has to handle a complex combination of
products that are seasonal, come in various shapes and sizes, are
easily damaged and are perishable. This means that an extremely
well-planned and implemented solution is vital to ensure the smooth
distribution of these products.
Homebase is also one of the first UK home and garden stores to
introduce Direct Global Sourcing. This allows Homebase to purchase
products directly from manufacturers throughout the world giving
the company considerable savings in terms of sourcing products.
Prior to the installation of Catalyst, Homebase operated a batch
paper pick operation and the challenge of implementing barcodes
throughout the depots to create a full real-time RF environment
posed a considerable challenge.
Homebase’s Goal
To meet the demands of these challenges, Homebase has opened
several new warehouses and has implemented the Catalyst WMS to run
them. This network of warehouses needs to handle the massive
increase in product flow-through to meet the requirements of its
stores and the rapid overall growth of the company. One of
Homebase's key requirements for its non horticultural supply
chain, is to have a stock sharing capability whereby if demand
exceeds available stock then the system apportions fairly what is
available to each store. In addition it is important that the
order-picking sequence matches the vehicle despatch times. Catalyst
has shown great flexibility in enabling these specific modifications
to be achieved successfully.
The Catalyst Solution
Catalyst WMS was first selected for Homebase's Lydiard Fields
Greenfield site warehouse in Swindon in 1996. The system was
initially installed in 1997 and all the sites have since been
upgraded and are now running Release 7.2. The Catalyst WMS was
chosen because it was a mature, tested and proven product that had
the power to handle existing requirements as well as having the
flexibility and scalability necessary to expand with the business.
In addition, real-time functionality with radio frequency (RF)
equipment was essential.
Homebase's bespoke ERP system is currently
running on an SAP R/3. The Catalyst WMS is running on an HP K-Class
system using the Oracle 8 RDBMS and the RF equipment used is LXE
Narrow Band and Symbol Spectrum 24 Spread devices. Homebase has
recently added Catalyst's FlowTrak Warehouse Optimisation system.
The system will integrate fully with Catalyst WMS and will allow
Homebase to increase the overall efficiency, productivity and
cost-effectiveness of its distribution operations. FlowTrak Warehouse
Optimisation software provides analysis and recommendations
to ensure that inventory is stored, picked, distributed and
replenished using the most cost-effective and productive means
available.
Homebase's Return on Investment
Catalyst WMS has given Homebase much greater stock accuracy and
operational flexibility. The company can now reserve stock for
special ordering and uses RF for real-time management in many
key areas of the business, adding to both the efficiency and
productivity of the company's distribution operations.
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Adobe
Acrobat Reader |
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Installer |
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To properly view the downloadable files
on this page, it is necessary to have a version of Adobe
Acrobat installed onto your computer. If you do not already
have this application, a free version is available for
download above. |
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“Catalyst has real-time functionality at the core of its system and
this has been vital in Homebase's on-going developments, Catalyst's staff
are very knowledgeable and experienced and have been instrumental in
ensuring each implementation project has been a success.”
- Homebase
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