Sweden, Malmö. We Take Games Seriously™. When American computer games retailer EB Games says this, it really means it. With the establishment of its new distribution
centre in Malmö, Sweden, the ultimate goal of logistics is well and truly within their sights: a highly optimised time-to-market process which allows EB Games to lead the
pack in releasing brand new interactive games.
Materials flow accelerated. Picking times halved. And another ace up the sleeve. Interroll Carton Flow provides serious competitive advantages.
| First a kiosk. Next, the world!
When it started out in 1977 selling digital watches and pocket calculators in a 40 sq. m. kiosk in the suburbs of Philadelphia, it would have been hard to imagine that EB Games
would eventually emerge as a retailing powerhouse with more than 1600 EB Games shops around the world. And this success story also extends to northern Europe. Beginning with just
seven modest outlets in Denmark in 2001, the company now has 57 stores throughout Scandinavia, with plans for between 120 and 150 shops by 2005. A crucial factor in maintaining
this forward momentum was the decision in 2004 to move the company's central warehouse facility from Copenhagen, Denmark, to nearby Malmö, Sweden. This was the best
course of action in terms of revolutionising the storage and distribution of goods.
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| The first race has already been won
EB Games decided against using a traditional rack system at the Malmö facility. Instead, working together with system integrator Constructor, the company opted for a truly
dynamic and innovative solution at all levels, the prime objective being to outsmart the competition. Speed is of the essence at any distribution centre, and Carton Flow by
Interroll offers tangible benefits in this race against time. Just two weeks after commissioning the new centre, it became clear that the new picking process - a critical factor
in any distribution centre - was 50% faster than the previous solution. What's more, there is plenty of scope for improvement! After all, thanks to the ergonomic design
of the Carton Flow order picking racks, order picking performance can be increased by around 75% on average.
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| Time's up for order picking mistakes
The Interroll Carton Flow rack provides up to 2380 container spaces (180 flow levels with 28 integrated roller tracks each) for storing between 1600 and 1800 active EB Games
items. Alongside accommodating future plans for expansion, there are a number of other important operational reasons for having this reserve capacity: every day some 35 to 50
video games and accessories leave Malmö for each shop. In the run up to Christmas, however, this figure rockets to around 300 to 500 items! The entire material flow principle
from the incoming-goods stage to dispatch management is carefully planned and designed down to the smallest detail. Incoming pallets are first stored temporarily in conventional
pallet racks. The decision to store the computer games in Interroll Carton Flow racks for the purposes of order picking, is made at night. Computer systems analyse store-specific
sales of the previous day and use this as the basis for the following day's shipment. Each flow channel is also marked with a barcode, which isused to help the picker
allocate items to the relevant shop. This practically eliminates mistakes in orders because Carton Flow is based on the FIFO principle - the cornerstone of a modern order
picking system.
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A game plan for the future
The Interroll Carton Flow solution in Malmö ensures high levels of operational reliability and radical cost savings thanks to the gravity principle, as well as another
crucial competitive advantage. Carton Flow makes optimum use of the available space because only two aisles are required: one for picking orders and one for replenishing stock.
Benefiting from this approach, EB Games can double its storage capacity whenever it needs to.
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