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The Challenge
Halfords is the UK’s largest retailer for auto parts and for cycle and leisure equipment.
The company has 426 stores across the country, served from three distribution centres.
Two of these, based in Redditch, near Birmingham, are operated by Halfords, while the
third, in Cowley, Oxfordshire, is run by Unipart. Halfords’ customers can also shop
online at www.halfords.com, so the warehouses are also required to support the
fulfilment of orders placed via the Web. The company’s legacy warehouse management
system dated from the era when Halfords was still part of the Boots Company plc.
Being largely manual, the system was complicated to use and had become increasingly
difficult to support technically.
Halfords needed a new solution that would allow for growth and expansion without
requiring major modifications in the future. Any solution had to be flexible enough to
handle seasonal fluctuations in demand: sales of many Halfords products are, in the
short term, affected dramatically by the weather. Although demand for “hard” parts
such as air filters and brake pads is reasonably consistent, demand for products such
as anti-freeze, wiper blades and light bulbs, for example, increases greatly in any cold
snap. Any new system also had to cope with differences in the requirements of the
distribution centres, each of which supplies a particular type of product.
The Solution
Halfords chose Manhattan Associates’ Warehouse Management solution to manage
all three of its distribution centres. The Manhattan Associates solution interfaces with
Halfords’ enterprise resource planning (ERP) system from SAP, which is in place at all
three distribution sites, and the new solution is also fully integrated with radio frequency
barcode scanning technology from LXE.
“We wanted a system that had proven results,” said Mark Shirley, distribution centre
operations manager at Halfords. “We are risk aware, and insisted upon a partner who
could demonstrate system functionality that really worked. It was also key to us that the
new system should interface easily with our mini-load system, so that data could pass
between the two. Manhattan Associates was able to demonstrate an impressive breadth
of experience in integrating warehouse management systems with complex materials
handling equipment. This was a significant factor in our decision making process.”
Halfords
Customer Success Story
Facts at a glance:
Number of stores: 426
Number of warehouses: 3
Location of warehouses: 2 (Redditch, near
Birmingham, UK)
1 (Cowley, Oxfordshire,
UK)
Platform: Open Systems
Number of SKUs: 11,000
Manhattan Associates Warehouse Management
solutions: Slotting Optimisation
RF equipment: LXE
Other equipment: Integration with SAP
Halfords goes from multi-site to multichannel
with Manhattan Associates
“The warehouse management system
that Manhattan Associates implemented
has increased our availability, cut down
lead times and can handle any peaks in
demand through our supply chain. We’ve
got greater visibility across our three
sites, and with the slotting function we
can also look at improving our picking
processes. Currently the system is
showing us that it will be able to flex with
our business needs, irrespective of how
ambitious our growth strategy becomes.”
Mark Shirley
Distribution Centre Operations Manager
Halfords
Retail
www.manh.com
© 2007 Manhattan Associates, Inc.
The Implementation
The project was delivered on time and on budget, with no
interruption to service in the stores. Halfords first deployed
the Manhattan Associates system in its two Redditch
distribution centres, and then completed the implementation
at the Cowley site. Although the management platform
was essentially the same at each distribution centre, the
implementation at the second and third sites was not simply
a case of repeating the process used for the first. Each facility
has an entirely separate set of stock-keeping units (SKUs).
“Each warehouse has been configured very differently,”
explained Shirley. “Manhattan Associates’ solution was flexible
enough to adapt easily to the variations in environment and
specific requirements that exist at each of the facilities.”
The next step for Halfords was the transfer of its e-commerce
function onto the Manhattan Associates platform. “The benefit
of that is that we can pick everything in a single hit,” said Shirley.
“We can use our existing pickers, so we are realising benefits in
terms of picking efficiency and avoidance of double handling.
We will shortly introduce an overnight service.”
The Benefits
Halfords has successfully optimised its supply chain across the
three distribution centres and is now running a multi-channel
operation. Specific benefits from the implementation include
improved visibility, greater inventory accuracy and a faster
“store order to delivery” cycle time.
“The warehouse management system that Manhattan Associates
has implemented has basically increased our availability, cut
down our lead times, and can handle any peaks in demand
through our supply chain,” said Shirley. “We’ve got greater
visibility across our three sites, and with the slotting function we
can also look at improving our picking processes. Currently the
Manhattan Associates system is showing us that it will be able
to flex with our business needs, irrespective of how ambitious
our growth strategy becomes.”
The Future
Halfords continues to grow its UK operation and is piloting
expansion into Central Europe with the opening of three stores
in the Czech Republic. The fulfilment of the company’s online
orders is now running smoothly alongside the management of
goods destined for the stores. Both companies hope that the
relationship will develop as the company grows.
“Would I expect it to go well?” asked Shirley, speaking of
Halfords’ future relationship with Manhattan Associates.
“Yes I would, because past performance shows that anything
we’ve done together with Manhattan Associates has rolled
out very effectively. “
Halfords is the UK’s largest retailer for auto parts and for cycle and leisure equipment.
The company has 426 stores across the country, served from three distribution centres.
Two of these, based in Redditch, near Birmingham, are operated by Halfords, while the
third, in Cowley, Oxfordshire, is run by Unipart. Halfords’ customers can also shop
online at www.halfords.com, so the warehouses are also required to support the
fulfilment of orders placed via the Web. The company’s legacy warehouse management
system dated from the era when Halfords was still part of the Boots Company plc.
Being largely manual, the system was complicated to use and had become increasingly
difficult to support technically.
Halfords needed a new solution that would allow for growth and expansion without
requiring major modifications in the future. Any solution had to be flexible enough to
handle seasonal fluctuations in demand: sales of many Halfords products are, in the
short term, affected dramatically by the weather. Although demand for “hard” parts
such as air filters and brake pads is reasonably consistent, demand for products such
as anti-freeze, wiper blades and light bulbs, for example, increases greatly in any cold
snap. Any new system also had to cope with differences in the requirements of the
distribution centres, each of which supplies a particular type of product.
The Solution
Halfords chose Manhattan Associates’ Warehouse Management solution to manage
all three of its distribution centres. The Manhattan Associates solution interfaces with
Halfords’ enterprise resource planning (ERP) system from SAP, which is in place at all
three distribution sites, and the new solution is also fully integrated with radio frequency
barcode scanning technology from LXE.
“We wanted a system that had proven results,” said Mark Shirley, distribution centre
operations manager at Halfords. “We are risk aware, and insisted upon a partner who
could demonstrate system functionality that really worked. It was also key to us that the
new system should interface easily with our mini-load system, so that data could pass
between the two. Manhattan Associates was able to demonstrate an impressive breadth
of experience in integrating warehouse management systems with complex materials
handling equipment. This was a significant factor in our decision making process.”
Halfords
Customer Success Story
Facts at a glance:
Number of stores: 426
Number of warehouses: 3
Location of warehouses: 2 (Redditch, near
Birmingham, UK)
1 (Cowley, Oxfordshire,
UK)
Platform: Open Systems
Number of SKUs: 11,000
Manhattan Associates Warehouse Management
solutions: Slotting Optimisation
RF equipment: LXE
Other equipment: Integration with SAP
Halfords goes from multi-site to multichannel
with Manhattan Associates
“The warehouse management system
that Manhattan Associates implemented
has increased our availability, cut down
lead times and can handle any peaks in
demand through our supply chain. We’ve
got greater visibility across our three
sites, and with the slotting function we
can also look at improving our picking
processes. Currently the system is
showing us that it will be able to flex with
our business needs, irrespective of how
ambitious our growth strategy becomes.”
Mark Shirley
Distribution Centre Operations Manager
Halfords
Retail
www.manh.com
© 2007 Manhattan Associates, Inc.
The Implementation
The project was delivered on time and on budget, with no
interruption to service in the stores. Halfords first deployed
the Manhattan Associates system in its two Redditch
distribution centres, and then completed the implementation
at the Cowley site. Although the management platform
was essentially the same at each distribution centre, the
implementation at the second and third sites was not simply
a case of repeating the process used for the first. Each facility
has an entirely separate set of stock-keeping units (SKUs).
“Each warehouse has been configured very differently,”
explained Shirley. “Manhattan Associates’ solution was flexible
enough to adapt easily to the variations in environment and
specific requirements that exist at each of the facilities.”
The next step for Halfords was the transfer of its e-commerce
function onto the Manhattan Associates platform. “The benefit
of that is that we can pick everything in a single hit,” said Shirley.
“We can use our existing pickers, so we are realising benefits in
terms of picking efficiency and avoidance of double handling.
We will shortly introduce an overnight service.”
The Benefits
Halfords has successfully optimised its supply chain across the
three distribution centres and is now running a multi-channel
operation. Specific benefits from the implementation include
improved visibility, greater inventory accuracy and a faster
“store order to delivery” cycle time.
“The warehouse management system that Manhattan Associates
has implemented has basically increased our availability, cut
down our lead times, and can handle any peaks in demand
through our supply chain,” said Shirley. “We’ve got greater
visibility across our three sites, and with the slotting function we
can also look at improving our picking processes. Currently the
Manhattan Associates system is showing us that it will be able
to flex with our business needs, irrespective of how ambitious
our growth strategy becomes.”
The Future
Halfords continues to grow its UK operation and is piloting
expansion into Central Europe with the opening of three stores
in the Czech Republic. The fulfilment of the company’s online
orders is now running smoothly alongside the management of
goods destined for the stores. Both companies hope that the
relationship will develop as the company grows.
“Would I expect it to go well?” asked Shirley, speaking of
Halfords’ future relationship with Manhattan Associates.
“Yes I would, because past performance shows that anything
we’ve done together with Manhattan Associates has rolled
out very effectively. “