Toyota Parts Distribution delivers with state-of-the-art warehousing

Toyota Australia is delivering more parts, faster and more efficiently than ever before with a new world-class warehousing and distribution centre in Melbourne.

The new centre was opened last year, and together with existing facilities in Sydney, Brisbane and Darwin, provides Toyota with the largest automotive parts distribution operation in Australia storing more than 4.6 million parts and shipping over 75,000 parts per day to dealers across country.

Among the advanced technologies employed in Melbourne for safety, efficiency and to assist with growing customer demand are automated-guided vehicles, hydrogen fuel cell forklifts and, in a global first for a Toyota warehouse, a zero-high rack.

Toyota Australia’s general manager of the aftersales development and distribution division, Heather Box said the new technologies employed in Melbourne and Sydney ensured customers were able to get fast efficient delivery of parts through to 305 Toyota and Lexus dealer outlets across Australia ensuring their cars were always fully maintained.

“These technologies are truly state-of-the-art and enable us to not only provide a more efficient service but also ensure the safety of our workforce,” Box said.

“In Melbourne for example, we have been able to significantly improve delivery accuracy with the right parts delivered where and when they are needed, while the separation of people and machine means that we have driven even more improvements to our safety environment,” she said.

New zero-high racking reduces forklift usage by employees and keeps stock storage height below 2m, improving safety and eliminating stock falling hazards.

Autonomous vehicles have improved stock efficiencies within the warehouse by reducing manual conveyance of stock and eliminating manual processes and material handling.

These technologies have helped improve efficiency in receiving operations compared with the previous parts centre in Melbourne, with an increase of up to 18% in the number of parts processed per hour through the system.

The new technologies have also helped reduce mishaps that occur when an incorrect part or number of parts are distributed to a customer to a level of less than 10 parts per million.

Both the 50,000sqm facility in Melbourne and the 38,000sqm facility in Sydney have been designed with the latest environmental technologies in mind with the Sydney facility incorporating a 605kW solar array that will help the centre achieve its goal of being a zero-emission facility by mid-2021.