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People just can’t stop buying mobile phones and all their must-have fashion accessories. On average we’re keeping our mobiles for less than a year before we trade them in for a new model with even more gadgets.That’s good news for Carphone Warehouse, whose sales around last Christmas were running at more than 40 per cent above target.

Growth of this kind can be achieved only if the company’s 500 stores receive excellent service from the national logistics centre in Wednesbury, from which the entire product range of about 3,500 items is despatched.

With every operation under scrutiny to achieve maximum efficiency, the company took the decision to install six Diamond Phoenix horizontal carousels to handle picking of all product accessories.

Carphone warehouse’s head of warehouse operations Shaun Tymon says efficiency rates have rocketed: “We have gone from 50 lines per hour per operator to more than 200 lines per hour, including scan verification of pick and data capture. And we have saved an absolute mountain of space.

“Instead of single order picking, one store at a time, we are picking 12 stores at a time. This means there is a significant reduction in the number of times we visit a specific storage location, which in turn increases picking efficiencies massively.”

Mr Tymon continued: “We have been able to reduce the number of picking operators by 40 per cent and staff from the picking team are being deployed in other areas of the business, adding value to operations by doing tasks like putting kits and demonstration packs together. A significant amount of work which used to be outsourced has now been brought into the warehouse because we now have the time and resources to do it ourselves.”

Each day the warehouse picks orders for about 200 stores split into 22 routes covering the country. Each route has a specific number and the Diamond software allows Carphone Warehouse to pick orders by priorities, making sure the most distant routes are fulfilled first.

The whole accessory product range of about 600 items is split across six carousels, configured in three pods. A pick and pass system is operated, where every order starts at pod one. Two carousels make up one pod.

“We download a batch of orders from our host system through the Diamondware interface. The operator then scans in up to four totes in the workstation associating an order with a particular tote. The carousels rotate to the first pick location, the pick to light system indicates the shelf level, position and quantity to be picked for the entire batch of four orders. Once the operator has picked the displayed quantity they are directed by a light display above each tote where to place the picked items.

“The whole system is replenished through the night so we can pick from 8am to 10pm five days a week. We have maintained our picking accuracy rate of 99.8 per cent, which is fantastic,” Mr Tymon said.

“We are being supported by the Diamond Phoenix in the UK and the States. When the guys in the States start work in the morning we have gone through half a day’s picking and we have an idea of what issues we are facing that day. We can get on to them if we need help to resolve any problems. There is also a 24/7 helpdesk but, touch wood, we haven’t used it yet.”