Case Study with Trade Furniture Supplier

Client Overview

The client is the UK’s leading trade kitchen and joinery supplier with over 800 depots nationwide.

Project Objectives

Recent sales growth, weekly delivery schedules, a broader product range and the promise of being ‘always in stock’ meant depots were filled to capacity and increasingly had to transfer stock between locations to fulfil orders.

Howdens engaged BoxLogic to fully understand the inter-depot stock transfers and assess alternative network solutions that could reduce transfers while improving customer service. The project focused on product ranging and fulfilment options.

Project Approach

• Analysed the level of stock transfers and the variation between regions.
• Identified depot clusters to understand the causes of the inter-depot transfers.
• Held workshops with Trade to define future ranging and fulfilment requirements.
• Assessed network options for feasibility, operating cost and service impact.
• Selected a preferred solution and launched a live trial across 20+ depots.
• Reset trial depot inventory, prioritising deeper stock of fast-moving product lines.
• Introduced next-day fulfilment and reviewed performance across key metrics of sales, inventory, service and cost.

Project Results

• Revised ranging focused on holding faster-moving and fit-critical SKUs in greater depth in depot, driving stock turns.
• Confirmed that next-day rapid delivery was needed to significantly reduce inter-depot stock transfers.
• Selected location and sizes of cross-dock centres to enable next-day delivery from central warehouses to depots.
• The trial reduced inter-depot stock transfers, improved customer service and transformed the ways of working in-depot.
• Defined the controls to maintain the sustainability of the new rapid-fulfilment network.
• The rapid fulfilment service since has been rolled out across the entire network.