IKEA was planning to develop one of its distribution centres for home delivery fulfilment, dealing with mail orders and orders via the internet. A number of plans had already been prepared by IKEA’s internal teams but it was decided to take advice from external warehouse design experts.

The Logistics Business was asked to review the existing facility, to review the various options that were being considered for development and to make recommendations for the most appropriate way forward. These recommendations had to take into account constraints within the building, the proposed third party operating contract and plans for significant levels of growth in home delivery orders.

The work undertaken by The Logistics Business raised a number of important issues resulting in IKEA re-thinking its layout plans based on a solution that was considered to be much more effective.