STORAGE, HANDLING & DISTRIBUTION
TRIO OF PROJECTS COMPLETED
AMH MATERIAL HANDLING
AMH Material Handling increases e-commerce
throughput for Selfridges & Co at DHL facility
AMH Material Handling has completed
a total of three projects for DHL with a
combined value of £600,000 at its Hams
Hall site in Birmingham. The 400,000
sq ft site handles the receiving, storage,
packing and distribution of products for
Selfridges & Co. The Hams Hall facility
services Selfridges’ four UK stores, its click
and collect service as well as its worldwide
e-commerce operation.
AUTOMATING PACKING AND
SORTATION FOR E-COMMERCE
DELIVERY
In 2016, AMH Material Handling was asked
to produce a solution to increase speed,
accuracy and throughput capacity by
automating the process of packing and
despatch over the three floor mezzanine
site.
In order to automate the facility, AMH
installed belt conveyors on level 2 to
accommodate packing desks on either
side. Personnel are able to package orders
and then place them straight onto the
conveyor belt without the need to manually
move packaged deliveries. Items on level
2 travel towards the end of the mezzanine
floor where they are automatically inducted
into a powered decline spiral conveyor.
A SOLUTION TO ACCOMMODATE
E-COMMERCE GROWTH
In 2018, AMH Material Handling was asked
by DHL to complete additional work to the
Hams Hall site. Assam Khan, operations
manager at DHL explains: “Selfridges’
e-commerce operation is continuously
growing each year. As a result, we needed
to expand on AMH Material Handling’s
initial installation in order to keep up
with the demands and meet worldwide
customer delivery times.
“Selfridges approached us and said they
needed to increase their e-commerce
throughput. As a third party logistics
provider, it was down to DHL to source the
equipment to achieve this. We realised
that we needed to expand the number
of workbenches on-site to increase
throughput and therefore commissioned
AMH to complete the additional work to
accommodate this.
FUTURE-PROOFING FOR
CONTINUED GROWTH AND PEAK
PERIODS
“This year, Selfridges came back to us
and predicted another significant increase
in e-commerce throughput for 2019. In
order to prepare for this year’s CCE week,
AMH came back onto site and replaced
old obsolete belt conveyors on level 2
and installed new replacement conveyors
to feed the powered decline spiral
conveyor. This has allowed us to make
both the ground floor and level 1 our main
processing floors with the option of opening
up level 2 as we need it. During peak
periods all three floors run at full capacity
for 24 hours a day.
AMH MATERIAL HANDLING –
A CONSISTENTLY RELIABLE
PARTNER
“AMH managed the whole process for us
from start to finish for all three projects.
Once timelines had been agreed, they
brought their own project team on-site and
managed the installation with no disruption
to the e-commerce operation. They also
took on the roles of both principal contractor
and principal designer, managing and
coordinating all other trades during the
project.
“DHL had a really good working relationship
with AMH Material Handling throughout the
three projects and found them to have a
very professional approach the whole time.
The team was always very accommodating
whether it was managing health and safety
on-site during installation or incorporating
any design change requests throughout the
process.”
SYSTEM SUPPORT - 24 HOUR
MAINTENANCE AND SERVICING
“In order to keep the system fully operational
and avoid any unnecessary downtime which
would be detrimental to meeting delivery
deadlines, we have a maintenance and
servicing agreement with AMH Material
Handling. This includes planned preventative
maintenance throughout the year to ensure
the system is running to its full capacity as
well as a rapid response call-out agreement
for any issues if they arise. During our CCE
week, we actually have an AMH engineer
based on-site so any issues can be rectified
immediately.
For further information, please visit www.amhmaterialhandling.com
176
PECM Issue 43