Spotlight

“It’s not just the consolidation. It’s a couple of different things coming together. It’s the way things have been setup,” says Khanduja. “We’ve implemented bar coding, we have a wireless warehouse management system. We’ve changed the way we pick orders; we use electronic order pickers and parts are stored by popularity, so the people who are picking the orders are very efficient. All of these things in combination have really made a difference.”

Automann showed off its new, approximately 84,000-square-foot facility in Somerset, N.J. to about 130 distributors and service providers during an open house event last month. The new facility serves as the company’s headquarters and houses about 60 employees. The new location – which combines three former locations in the Mahwah, N.J. area – includes the offices for sales, purchasing, customer support and other areas. Automann also has a warehouse facility in Turlock, Calif.

While the new location has been operational for nearly a year, Khanduja said they timed the open house to wait until the move was more complete and the company was settled, no small task with an inventory of more than 8,000 active SKUs among nine primary product lines.
The wireless warehouse management system is integrated with the company’s enterprise management system (ERP). All products are bar coded upon arrival and order pickers are guided through their routes.

“The order pickers have scanner guns and all the information is real time on them,” says Khanduja. “So when they need to pick an order, they just take the gun and it tells them how to route themselves and pick the order.”

In addition to optimizing their routes through the warehouse, the bar-code scanning provides greater inventory accuracy. Khanduja says there is a crew that fills the bins every night so the order pickers can concentrate on fulfilling customer orders rather than looking for products and replenishing inventory.

The facility was built from the ground up in what was previously a cornfield. The construction design allows for future expansion. Ceiling heights are in excess of 40 feet, there is a mezzanine above the offices for additional storage and the floor can withstand 20,000 foot-pound point loads.

Skylights are located throughout the warehouse which the company says enhances employee morale and conserves energy over electric lighting. Though the open house was held under rainy, overcast skies, Khanduja says on a sunny day there is enough natural light to operate with the building’s electric lights completely off.

Another energy-saving feature of the new facility is motion-activated overhead lights which illuminate individual warehouse aisles when an employee enters the corridor.
Inventory is stored in a high-density racking system that holds 13,000 pallet positions. The Raymond Turret Truck is guided down the aisles through buried cables, helping prevent collisions with racks and improving safety.

Shipping and receiving is done through eight bays, two of which are drive-in style.
During presentations to open house attendees regarding the company’s product lineup and future plans, Khanduja said, “We want to add depth to these product categories rather than add new product categories.” The company’s nine primary product lines are: air brake and wheel; air springs; driveline; fifth wheel; leaf spring; polyurethane; shock absorbers; steering; and suspension.

He adds the company is focusing its product development efforts on being as comprehensive as possible in the categories it offers, rather than expanding into new lines. For instance, he says, the company currently has a solid lineup of suspension offerings, and is focusing on “taking a leadership approach in suspensions.”

Additionally, he says, Automann will pursue “engineering products that will help the customer rather than just being an aftermarket replacement provider.”