By Shukry Rashid
NTUC FairPrice can be proud of the many things it has achieved, and will achieve, with the unveiling of the new FairPrice Hub on 16 September 2015.
The 1.2 million square feet hub itself stands 16 storeys tall, comes integrated with Joo Koon MRT station and a new bus interchange, and houses the High-Tech Distribution Centre.
The new Hub now houses the entire 600-strong FairPrice support team who were previously located in five different locations.
With 150,000 square feet of commercial space, visitors can look forward to eateries and the new Warehouse Club.
High-Tech Distribution Centre
The High-Tech Distribution Centre has six floors that spans over 650,000 square feet. It started operations at end-2014 and boasts many measures in a bid to increase productivity.
It features the Automated Storage and Retrieval System (ASRS) and the Caddy Pick System – the first of its kind in the Asia Pacific Region. It uses robotic technology and autonomous vehicles mounted on a monorail system for warehousing operations, enabling it to achieve high productivity of 200 cartons per man hour – twice the rate of a conventional distribution centre that uses manual pallet movers.
The ASRS is 40 metres high and is one of the largest facilities in Singapore. The system consists of high-bay racking and intelligent-controlled stacker cranes that enable automatic transportation of pallets of goods in and out of the high-density storage rack comprising 19 levels. The compactness and height of the system enables the Distribution Centre to fully utilise its space, doubling its storage space to over 52,000 pallets.
The ASRS can also receive up to 380 pallets of goods per hour, compared to a conventional warehouse that can only receive up to 120 pallets per hour.
Integrated into the ASRS is the Caddy Pick System that uses ‘within-the-aisle picking’, a concept unseen so far in Singapore. It enables the elimination of the multi-return process, hence increasing efficiency and allowing the system to pick up to 120,000 cartons per day.
All pallets and rollcages carrying goods are also equipped with Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and monitored by RFID readers that can be controlled automatically. This precise RFID tracking ensures the timely consolidation of orders, ensuring right orders are delivered to FairPrice stores on time.
These technological innovations in the High-Tech Distribution Centre will help FairPrice to manage increasing consumer demands for the next 20 years.
Warehouse Club
The Warehouse Club follows a membership-based retail format, a concept widely established in the United States, Japan and Australia.
Located on the second and third floor of the FairPrice Hub, the Warehouse Club spans over 80,000 square feet and is the seventh retail format by FairPrice.
Although items can be bought individually, they also come pre-packed in bulk – the bigger, the more savings customers get. Customers can expects savings of up to 20% for bulk buys, value packs and multipacks.
The club also offers popular housebrand products sourced from around the world like Costco, Tesco and Carrefour. About 30 per cent of products available in the Club are imported from overseas.
Good To Know
Warehouse Club membership is available at $35 (NTUC union members) and $50 (non-NTUC union members) for two years.
Visit www.warehouseclub.com.sg for more information.
Source: NTUC This Week
