Over 1 million books shipped every week

Publishers —

Infrastructure investment

Over recent years Macmillan has invested heavily in MDL's physical infrastructure. More than £10million has been spent in the course of providing a sophisticated conveyor system incorporating voice picking for the 65,000 current titles in stock at any one time, 35,000 full pallet equivalents in a hi-bay environment and a new goods-in/goods-out marshalling area.

The unit also benefits from a state of the art VNA (very narrow aisle) racking system serviced by the latest “man-up” turret trucks and also boasts 6 electronically controlled dock-levellers and 2 level entry access doors to service all types of inbound deliveries.

Publishers —

Benefits

The forward picking area incorporates weight check technology. This enables MDL to monitor the net and gross weight of each carton, allowing us to double check all orders which fall outside the expected weight of the carton.

Radio Data Terminals allow real time stock movements and scanning of parcels to give accurate despatch information.

A perpetual inventory system facilitates efficient stock control and ensures the warehouse is open all year round.

Any added value work e.g. shrink-wrapping or stickering can be undertaken to a high service level.

The warehouse has the ability to process customer orders to required delivery dates be they daily and weekly stock orders or scheduled deliveries of sensitive or new publications.

A sophisticated warehouse management system enables enhanced service levels as a result of further improved stock control and flexibility in prioritisation of order processing. Stock accuracy is routinely in excess of 99.6%.