As published in Toledo Business Journal - October 1, 2015
Left to right: US Senator Rob Portman and Craig Menear, Home Depot chairman, CEO, and president
Home Depot completes 1.6M sf facility
Executives from Home Depot traveled from Atlanta to northwest Ohio in mid-September to celebrate the opening of its new distribution facility located in Troy Township in Wood County. Hundreds of employees and guests gathered to participate in a very spirited session with a rock band providing an added touch of excitement from the elevated stage.
The Troy Distribution Center general manager, Lance Hunt, opened the ceremony and thanked employees for the hard work that had gone into getting the facility ready for its opening. He introduced Craig Menear, Home Depot chairman, CEO, and president, who addressed the excited crowd. “It is appropriate that we have a football game day theme. Today is game on,” stated Menear.
“This is the largest, most complicated distribution facility in our supply chain network. You are the third direct fulfillment facility and now the largest. We have one in California, one in Georgia, and now one in Ohio. It’s been a long road to get this building to where we are today.
“With the opening of this facility we will be able to hit 90% of the country with parcel shipments within 48 hours or less,” Menear explained.
Initial plans for the new distribution center aimed at hiring over 250 new associates. Home Depot expects to eventually have 500 jobs at this location. The Troy Township site does offer the company the ability to further expand the facility in the future if growth requires such an action.
Menear then introduced US Senator Rob Portman. “Home Depot (management) could have chosen any state in the country. They chose Ohio and they chose Troy Township. We are all winners here today,” stated Portman. The Ohio senator shared information with the audience about his priority of assisting businesses in their efforts to grow and create jobs. He explained the need to remove regulations that kill jobs and that place new burdens and obstacles on large and small businesses. Portman congratulated the efforts of employees and welcomed the new facility to Ohio.
Online orders
Toledo Business Journal interviewed two of the Home Depot executives who traveled from Atlanta. Kevin Hofmann, president, online business, provided insight into the importance of the new facility. The 1.6 million square foot distribution center is completely focused on servicing orders from the company’s website. Home Depot has separate distribution centers that service the company’s stores. Home Depot’s large distribution center in Van Buren near Findlay supplies stores in a multi-state area.
“The new Troy Township center is part of our distribution network to support our online business. These orders now provide $3.5 billion of revenues to the company. In 2013, we increased online sales by $1 billion. In 2014, we again increased online revenue by another $1 billion. We are adding a billion dollars a year of new online sales to the company,” explained Hofmann. Online sales currently represent five percent of company revenues.
Scott Spata, vice president, supply chain development, discussed the geography that the new facility will support. “The Troy facility has been put in place to service direct fulfillment business in the northeast and central Midwest for our faster moving SKUs. It will service the entire country for our slower moving stock keeping units (SKUs),” Spata stated.
Hundreds of employees and guests gathered to celebrate the opening of Home Depot’s new distribution facility located in Troy Township in Wood County
Technology
“New technology is important to the Troy operations,” advised Spata. All of the forklifts at the center are hydrogen powered instead of being powered by batteries. Spata explained that it takes at least 15 minutes to change a battery while a hydrogen powered lift truck can be refueled in approximately 3 minutes. He discussed safety and environmental benefits that the new hydrogen powered forklifts also provide.
Spata also discussed voice technology that is used by employees as products are picked from inventory. Headsets are used and software has been put in place that provides information verbally allowing personnel to have both hands free for operations. There are multiple languages available for employees that are not fluent in English. The voice technology enables higher efficiency for the operations and increased safety for personnel.
Spata also discussed new “mail sorter” technology. Advanced software and facility automation has been put in place that increases the efficiency of fulfilling an order with multiple products that are stored in different areas of the facility. The technology enables all of the products to be efficiently gathered and placed in a single box and shipped to the customer.
New investments
Home Depot will officially open its new Marietta, Georgia Technology Center during October. It is a 200,000 square foot office complex for approximately 1,000 information technology associates. The company plans to eventually hire an additional 500 information technology jobs at this location.
In November, Home Depot will open a third online customer care operation in Tempe, Arizona bringing 800 new jobs to that community. This will be the third online customer service operation dedicated to the online business. In 2012, the company opened two other similar centers; one in Kennesaw, Georgia, an Atlanta suburb, and another in Ogden, Utah, just outside of Salt Lake City.
