The opening of the new central UK Parts warehouse has revolutionised parts handling at Saxham, where as the business has increased over the years, this resulted in parts needing to be stored in five individual buildings.
The new building has a floor area of 4,336 square metres, which is equivalent to 17 tennis courts, and a total capacity of 42,000m3, so making it capable of holding enough malting barley to enable local Bury St Edmunds brewers, Greene King, to brew around 357 million pints of their best selling Old Speckled Hen bitter!
Now, under one roof the new building is more than capable of accommodating the 47,000 line items or 850,000 individual items that are held in stock by Claas UK, with space to spare for future expansion. For larger items there is now 45 metres of cantilever racking and the amount of bulk racking has been doubled, while a mezzanine area holds 70% of the total contents of the previous warehouse over three levels. All parts are identified and located using a scan and bar code system and a new ‘Serpentine’ row system has been installed to provide improved pick rate accuracy and efficiency.
For greater efficiency and increased flow of parts through the building, the ‘Goods In’ area is 60% larger than before, the ‘Packing’ area has been doubled, and ‘Dispatch’ is 40% bigger. The secure customs area for airfreight to Ireland has also been doubled.
