Orgill’s new Rome, N.Y., DC is up and running
Orgill’s new Rome, N.Y. distribution center is up and running, in what the distributor calls the fastest start-to-finish completion of a ground-up distribution center in the company’s history.
The DC is fully operational and will begin servicing customers in an eight-state region in the coming weeks.The Rome site is Orgill’s eighth distribution center, joining existing facilities in Tifton, Georgia; Inwood, West Virginia; Sikeston, Missouri; Kilgore, Texas; Post Falls, Idaho; Hurricane, Utah; and London, Ontario.
The new site effectively doubles Orgill’s distribution capacity in the region.
[Read the HBSDealer exclusive dispatch from Rome, N.Y. here.]
“We are extremely pleased that our Rome distribution center is now online to provide even better service, speed, and responsiveness to our customers,” says Boyden Moore, Orgill’s president and CEO.
Randy Williams, Orgill’s executive vice president of distribution, says the state-of-the-art Rome facility will serve as a proving ground for new distribution and logistics best practices that Orgill can learn from and roll out to other DCs in the future.
For example, the Rome distribution center was designed using what’s known as a very-narrow-aisle (VNA) layout. As the name suggests, this uses aisles that are more narrowly spaced and special equipment to navigate those aisles. The narrower aisle spacing allows for more merchandise to be stocked in less space.
The VNA layout is just one example of Orgill’s commitment to implementing leading-edge distribution practices and technology to better service its customers, according to Mark Scanlon, Orgill’s vice president of Northeast distribution.
“In addition to the VNA layout, the Rome facility also takes advantage of features such as utilizing a multi-tiered conveyor system instead of the traditional spiral conveyor. The multi-tiered system is more efficient and helps reduce any unwanted slowdowns if there are any issues with the conveyor,” Scanlon says. “The DC was also designed with receiving docks on one side of the main aisle and shipping docks on the other side. This will reduce congestion and create a more natural product flow.”