Poster
Client Context
Williams-Sonoma, Inc. (WSI) is an American consumer retailer specializing in luxury kitchenware and home furnishings. With 625 storefronts internationally and over $5.7 billion in annual revenue, WSI is one of the world’s largest specialty retailers. WSI’s distribution centers provide multiple services, including Direct-to-Store Delivery (DSD) – a service dedicated to both replenishing storefront inventory and fulfilling in-store pickup orders. This project focuses on the DSD unit at WSI’s Southeastern distribution center (SEDC) in Braselton, GA.
Project Objective
Until two years ago UPS managed Direct-to-Store Deliveries for SEDC. However due to rising costs, they chose to not renew their contract. This left SEDC with two weeks to create an in-house DSD unit at the expense of a 175% increase in operating costs. SEDC’s heuristic workforce planning has led to over-hiring – adding avoidable staffing expenses. Such decision making also resulted in the unnecessary contracting of truck drivers, further increasing transportation costs. Additionally, the DSD floor layout changes on an ad-hoc basis – increasing task complexity for associates, which significantly slows the item sorting process. Ultimately, the objective is to enable DSD to perform at a high efficiency rate with decreased operational expenses
Design Strategy
Three project opportunities were identified to reduce DSD’s operating costs: labor demand planning, outbound scheduling, and warehouse layout redesigning. Each individual opportunity yields substantial savings, but implementing them concurrently will significantly lower operational expenses.
Deliverables
The project deliverables consist of four tools: (1) a seasonal workforce planner that recommends the ideal full-time associate headcount (2) an ad-hoc workforce planner that recommends a team size based on daily demand (3) a dynamic routing application which identifies opportunities to pool store deliveries and reduce subcontractor usage (4) an interactive graphical interface which enables associates to quickly transition between tasks, according to a specified floor layout. Additionally, WSI will be provided with three recommendations: (1) having two full-time associates given their current demand, (2) a new weekly fixed sorting & delivery schedule to increase pooling opportunities, and (3) an improved fixed layout based on best practices.
Project Information
Student Team
Adithi Anil, Akash Dalal, Nathan Greene, Kristof Kovacs, Spencer Schiavo, Zafir Sharif, Jared Williams, Ellen Zwartkruis
Faculty Advisor
Faculty Evaluator
