New Warehouse Technology Comes to Dan Daniel DC

With the most modern warehouse technology, fashions are now being sent from the Dan Daniel DC to Exchanges around the world.

The Exchange flipped the switch at the Dan Daniel Distribution Center Nov. 5 on the most modern technology to prepare fashions for shipping to stores throughout the world.

“We had a great first day,” said David Adams, director of IT Omni Channel-Logistics Services. “The DC staff performed beyond our expectations with the new system. We had many successes.”

Logistics experts from headquarters tested the system Oct. 20. By next year, the technology will be used throughout the Dan Daniel DC, which, at 1.4 million square feet, is the largest of the Exchange’s 11 distribution centers.

Improve efficiency, speed shipments

The Exchange’s Logistics Directorate installed the JDA warehouse management system as part of the multimillion-dollar Logistics Enhanced Distribution (LED) program.

In 2017, more than 785,000 packages of fashions were processed and shipped from the Dan Daniel DC in Newport News, Va., to Exchanges around the world.

The software is already used in California’s West Coast DC, the Waco DC in Texas, the specialized distribution center at HQ in Dallas and Germany’s Germersheim DC.

Besides reducing costs, the warehouse management system aims to improve efficiency and speed shipments of merchandise to stores and online orders to customers according to retail industry standards and postures the organization as an omni-channel retailer in an intensely competitive environment, Adams said.

Needed technology for immense fashions operations

At Dan Daniel, the logistics team wanted to work out any kinks in the fashion system before going live Nov. 5. Coincidentally, in 1997, Adams helped install the technology that Dan Daniel will soon retire.

“The system is in great shape and will provide us with the technology we need to efficiently handle our immense fashions operations,” Adams said. “The present system is more than 20 years old and it’s way, way beyond the end of its life.

“It’s never been a question of if it will break down; it’s always been when will it break down and will we be able to get it back up.”

Seasonal products

In 2017, more than 785,000 packages of fashions were processed and shipped from the Dan Daniel DC in Newport News, Va., to Exchanges around the world.

The fashions are one-time buys, such as the latest in swimsuits for summer and other seasonal products. Other types of clothes, such as underwear and socks, are handled differently.

Dan Daniel fulfills general merchandise to the stores, e-Commerce orders to customers, and fashions. Adams and his team tested the warehouse management system first on fashion processing before it expands to general merchandise and e-Commerce fulfillment by mid-2019.

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