Background
Subaru of New England is an independent distributor of Subaru vehicles and spare parts in the 6 states of the New England region of the United States. In 2014, Subaru of New England built a new 15,300m² factory in Norwood, Massachusetts, as their headquarters, as well as their training and distribution center. The building includes an 8,800m² warehouse, which is 42% larger than the previous warehouse. They need to improve distribution efficiency.
Pain Points
Subaru of New England stocks thousands of spare parts for the Subaru brand and serves 64 Subaru dealerships throughout New England. These 64 dealerships send Subaru of New England spare parts orders every day, which must be processed quickly and accurately on the same day and delivered the next morning.
The warehousing facility Subaru of New England’s old factory had a hard time fulfilling their needs for same-day delivery orders. In the end, they chose Modula VLMs as the storage equipment of the new factory for the storage and picking of spare parts.
Solution
In order to better store auto spare parts and improve the picking system, Subaru of New England installed 9 Modula VLMs in the new factory to store various spare parts.
9 Modula VLMs provide Subaru of New England with a storage space of 1,637 m², housing a total of 11,000 SKUs and occupying an area of only 83.2m², which allows Subaru of New England to save more space for other investments.
9 Modula VLMs are divided into groups of 3 and work on 3 areas respectively. With the use of the Modula Put-to-Light system, Subaru of New England can now process 60 order lines at the same time, handle more than 1,600 order lines per hour, and easily deliver all dealer orders within one day.
At the same time, since the Modula VLMs adopt the “good to man” picking mode, operators do not need to walk around, climb ladders, or bend down to pick and carry spare parts, creating a safer and more humane working environment for operators.
