DC Expansion and Retrofit for Knitwell Group

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Facility Retrofit and Expansion for Knitwell Group

Knitwell Group, formerly Ascena Retail Group, Inc., is an American retailer of women’s clothing that owns the Maurices, Justice, Dressbarn, Lane Bryant, and Catherine’s clothing store brands, and is the parent company of Ann Inc., operator of Ann Taylor and Loft stores.

Project Objectives/Challenges

Knitwell desired master planning and project management assistance with a planned expansion to its distribution center in Etna, Ohio, to support all of its retail distribution.

Subsequently, Knitwell asked Sedlak to oversee a retrofit for e-commerce at its Greencastle, Indiana, facility to consolidate 5 brands being served by separate third-party logistics providers.

Project objectives included: reduced operating cost, increased capacity, improved service level, optimized footprint and flexibility to support growth. It was paramount to maintain live operations throughout implementation of these initiatives.

What Sedlak Did

We provided full life cycle project support regarding the facility and material handling systems design for both locations.

Etna Expansion

•   Developed optimal sizing, operations design, and facility layout for a 370,000 sq. ft. LEED certified expansion
•   Created building criteria and equipment specifications and managed competitive bidding
•   Planned and managed office and data center expansion
•   Incorporated carton ASRS, high-speed sortation and fluid unloading

Greencastle Retrofit

•   Finalized facility and MHE design to convert an operational 450,000 sq. ft. retail replenishment operations to e-commerce fulfillment
•   Developed detail design of equipment and building modifications, created RFP packages and managed vendor bidding
•   Incorporated multi-shuttle mini-load, high-speed and cross-belt sortation
•   Provided WMS/WCS functional design and integration support and implemented a labor management system

Project management support for both facilities included schedule and budget maintenance, vendor compliance, issue tracking and resolution, stakeholder communication, risk mitigation. Sedlak also developed a phased transition plan by brand to successfully transition each retail operation from Greencastle to Etna.

Results

Retail operations were successfully transitioned from Greencastle to Etna, and the e-commerce operations were moved from the 3PL providers to Greencastle in phased go-lives to maintain live operations across all brands and channels throughout implementation.

E-commerce orders received by 3:00 p.m. ship the same day. Cost per unit was reduced by 50% and overall capacity was significantly increased.

Operations include the ability to integrate additional brands.

Labor management program increased productivity and employee motivation.

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Sedlak and Knitwell Group, formerly Ascena Retail Group, have a trusted business relationship that starts but does not end with our conversion of their retail replenishment facility in Greencastle, IN, to ecommerce fulfillment for multiple brands currently being serviced out of five 3PLs.