Kyocera Document Solutions America, Inc. announced the opening of its new, state-of-the-art distribution centre in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania.
The inauguration of this new facility will streamline order fulfilment and strategically positions the company for sustained growth while ensuring it continues serving the needs of its partners and customers.
This move comes after the company outgrew its previous eastern facilities, necessitating expanded capacity to meet current business needs and accommodate future growth. The new distribution centre in Elizabethtown solidifies Kyocera’s supply chain and logistics network for its partners, the company said.
“We are extremely excited to open our newest distribution centre in Elizabethtown,” said Frank Zupa, Senior Vice President, Operations. “This has been a 14-month project that has involved dozens of employees to model, plan, and execute the opening of this location, which is now our largest distribution centre and will process approximately 70% of our outbound shipments in the U.S.”
He also commended Christian Mannino, Director of Logistics Operations, and his team for designing the workflow of this distribution centre (DC) to maximise efficiency and space utilisation.
“Their workflow design incorporates many new technologies that make it easier and faster to get shipments outbound to our customers while eliminating the chance to make common shipping errors during the outbound process,” Zupa said. “We plan to bring these logistic solutions to our other DCs as well.”
The Elizabethtown distribution centre, strategically located along major shipping corridors, boasts important features to increase Kyocera’s service capacity while optimising order fulfilment and transit rates to customers. The new distribution centre features:
- Pallet flow pick faces for fast-moving items: These enable increasing efficiencies in order fulfillment and reducing lead times from order receipt to ship.
- Automated pallet dimensioning system: Processing 35-45 pallets per hour, this system streamlines the processing of freight shipments and ensures the accurate capture of weights and dimensions. The system also captures high-definition photos of each pallet, facilitating smoother resolutions for freight claims and dealer inquiries.
- More than 60 dock doors: Inbound and outbound trucks can immediately be assigned to a dock door for unloading and loading shipments.
- Digital communication boards: These displays throughout the facility will be used to share live postings of operational metrics and goals, company announcements, and upcoming events.
Kyocera executives visited the new location last week to officially mark the opening of the distribution centre.
“The opening of our new distribution centre is an exciting milestone for our company and solidifies our position for growth in our industry,” said Oscar Sanchez, President and CEO of Kyocera Document Solutions America, after visiting the new facility. “This launch is a reminder of our commitment to being a reliable, efficient, and innovative partner. I extend my gratitude to everyone involved in bringing this project to completion.”
“We were able to open this centre on-time and on-budget because of the wonderful collaboration between Operations, Finance, HR, IT, Legal, and Marketing,” Zupa added. “It is a great example of what we can do as an organisation when we maniacally focus on a common goal and communicate effectively with each other. This new distribution centre represents a massive capital investment in our operations and our commitment to excellence as we aim to provide a superior customer experience for our partners and end customers.”
