Autoparts & Diagnostic (APD) has had its central warehouse operation for the UK transformed by a BITO Storage Systems Installation that gave it extra capacity and a more efficient picking operation through greater density of storage. APD has been enjoying consistent growth over the last 9 years; therefore it needed a building that could accommodate its future plans.

“Carton Live Storage and the drive through racking were a core part of the project that we developed with BITO to maximise the space and integrate with the way we want to work,” said Charlie Baker, Operations Manager at APD.

Due to the BITO installation, orders are picked as soon as goods arrive, with incoming pallets placed straight on the warehouse floor in the middle of the building. Once a pallet for an order is complete, it’s wrapped, labelled and put into a customer-specific area of the drive through racking, ready for customer collection. The narrow aisles are served by an articulated forklift truck, saving space on the counterbalance lift truck / wide aisle combination of the old facility. BITO’s drive through racking design accommodates different pallet sizes and also allows double stacking, when possible, which reduces the overall number of lifts by up to 60%.

The Carton Live Storage (CLS) provides 11 bays of flow lanes, giving small parts storage for 16 customers per bay on the opposite side of the warehouse to the racking. APD spent time with BITO to find the right height for the flow lanes and to select the right container to match its products, which turned out to be the BITO XL 800 mm x 600 mm x 320 mm high storage container. BITO retrofitted the carton live flow lanes onto racking brought over from the old warehouse.

“We now have a facility that we are proud to show to customers. The BITO installation has allowed us to change our processes, which has made us a lot leaner. The new warehouse design has allowed us to change our strategy and be able to adapt to changing requirements,” concluded Charlie Baker.