| Programs |  |
With millions upon millions of apparel items moving in and out of the Spiegel, Eddie Bauer, Newport News Distribution Center near Groveport each day, one might imagine the chances for error in customer delivery to be enormous.
Not so, according to Mike Milenovic, facilities engineer at Distribution Fulfillment Services, Inc. (DFS), who says, “While we are always shooting for 100 percent, we are at about 99.96 percent of order accuracy.” This figure is even more impressive with DFS’s goal of anywhere-in-the-country delivery of five days, which actually stands at 3.6 days with a target of 3.5.
Milenovic, co-chair of the Central Ohio IFMA Chapter’s Program Committee, provided members and guests with a tour of the massive 1.7 million-square-foot facility Nov. 20. Dean Shelato, vice president of engineering; Jim Annable, senior facility manager; Mark Doss, Groveport maintenance manager; and Mike Devenney, senior project engineer, ably assisted him.
As the group relaxed with coffee and doughnuts, Shelato said, “If you haven’t been here—in the Rickenbacker area—in the last five years, you will see some big changes. There are distribution centers of all kinds here, and we all are excited about the development here.
“Of course, we are proud of our facility. It was opened in 1994 and is a world-class distribution center and the distribution arm of Spiegel companies—Newport News, Spiegel catalog, and Eddie Bower. The facility is fully automated and is one of the largest hanging garment storage facilities with the capacity for storing some 2.3 million hanging garments.”
Shelato said that while the facility offers a “high degree of sophistication,” it is quite similar to other distribution facilities.
“However, we do have too many geese out front in our pond, people who write on the walls in washrooms occasionally, and 25 highly-skilled trained technicians who keep the place up and running to enable us to get our goods out as we promise—a five-day delivery to any place in the country,” he said.
The facility covers 25 acres and has more than 25 miles of conveying systems that move boxed merchandise throughout the building. It also features 40 miles of hanging rail for garment storage and the internal trolley system. At peak capacity, the state-of-the-art systems can ship some 40,000 items each hour, or 160,000 packages per day, or 40 million per year.
The two-story center with about 1,000 employees is divided into some 15 major areas, ranging from carton receiving where merchandise arrives by trailers in boxes or on hangers to shipping where orders are sent to customers by UPS and the U.S. Postal Service. Some 19,000 packages can be shipped per hour.
Between receiving and shipping, merchandise is entered into the facility’s system and inspected, sent either to the hanging garment or carton backstock areas, or placed in the proper picking areas for order filling, and packing. Any orders that require hemming, cuffing, monogramming, or gift rapping go to a special services area before they are forwarded to the packing employees.
But even as DFS works toward a 100 percent shipping accuracy and reducing delivery time, the fickle consumer still rules the roost, and one in four packages is returned. As these items come in, customer accounts are credited; the returns are then inspected for quality and repackaged. The items are not resold as new, but are sent to the company’s outlet stores and vendors where one consumer’s “loss” is another’s gain.
The chapter has two events scheduled for December. The annual President’s Dinner will be at 7 p.m. December 6 at the Blackwell Inn at Fisher College at The Ohio Sate University, 2110 Tuttle Park Place. Members and guests will enjoy an evening of dining and dancing with music by Arnett Howard’s Creole Funk Band.
Members also will assist the Community Relations Committee with the annual Adopt-a-Family program, the purchase and delivery of Thanksgiving and Christmas gifts and food to four families selected through St. John Community Center.
Mark Haberman, committee co-chair, said preparations are well in hand for the Thanksgiving delivery and for the purchase of gifts and food for Christmas. He said the committee is always in need of assistance with the Christmas delivery December 23. Members who would like to participate in this event should contact Haberman at 466-5959. Delivery will begin at 3 p.m. from Chemical Abstracts Service, 2540 Olentangy River Rd.