Case Studies

Company Background

Ackerman’s is a South African chain of clothing retail stores with over 700 stores across Southern Africa. Ackerman’s has seen substantial growth throughout the years and in 2017 they completed the construction of a state-of-the-art DC (distribution center) which would act as its primary centralized hub to distribute product to its network of stores countrywide. This DC handles on average 850,000 units per day and has the capacity for more.

Project Scope

• Primarily due to Covid-19, and in part, to the July 2021 protest action, there was a large demand backlog which added extra pressure on the DC’s to distribute seasonal stock on time.
• The project, named DC in a box, focused on providing an alternative short term means to distribute this extra demand and alleviate the pressure on the existing DC’s. Dizani’s role focused on the design, implementation, and management of the Pop-up DC.
• The design phase included the layout of the facility, line balancing for picking lines, consulting with the system team to ensure all areas (receiving, induction, picking, QC and invoicing) where catered for and identifying all necessary resources needed for implementation.
• For the implementation Dizani Consulting took on a project management role, that included communicating with necessary contractors, arranging the resources, conducting training, and finalizing the implementation of the DC.
• Once implemented Dizani was responsible for the day-to-day management of the Pop-up DC which also included identifying and assisting with resolving issues and creating improvements to assist operations.

Project Outcomes

• It took one month from design to implementation of the pop-up DC.
• The Pop-up DC was a success and was able to remove pressure from the supply chain by providing another avenue of product distribution, and as a result the DC was able to distribute on average 80,000 units a day.
• The Pop-Up DC solution has been well documented for future application.

Impacts

The successful implementation and project management of the Pop-up DC resulted in a fully functional Distribution Centre that could help ease the pressure placed on the supply chain from the backlog of demand. This project has become a strategic solution for Ackermans as they can easily roll out this Pop-up DC when needed.

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