Improved Material Handling for Costco

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Improved Material Handling Costco

Costco Wholesale is a multi-billion dollar global retailer with warehouse club operations in eight countries.

Project Objectives/Challenges

Costco was struggling to meet targeted throughput in using new automation and systems in their eCommerce facilities. They needed to develop realistic throughput targets for the new operation. They also needed to identify equipment, procedural and/or systemic improvement opportunities and determine the optimal approach and integration steps to achieve their new targets.

What Sedlak Did

We used a combination of on-site operational flow observations, management interviews and data analysis to gain an understanding of the current operation

Our team incorporated an interactive and collaborative approach with the COSTCO team to:

Perform analysis and confirm operational throughput rates
Determine system capabilities and identify capacity limitations
Identified several areas impacting optimal throughput performance
Developed an immediate go-forward action plan

Results

Enhanced flow management and dashboard
Improved material movement and inventory tracking due to WMS
Upgraded Profiling (Slotting)
Advanced Replenishment practices
Expanded Picking strategies / disciplines
Enhanced Sorter induction throughput optimization
Enriched Waving strategy and controls

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