IKMX Magazine_Vol.indd
Transcription
IKMX Magazine_Vol.indd
record R Mathis Brothers Refurnishing the Furniture Giant How Interlake Mecalux and Mathis Brothers combatted the elements and refurbished the furniture company’s operations. by Annie Newby 58 •interlakemecalux• NEWS Mathis Brothers R Y record ou could say furniture is in Bill hemoth to his sons, Larry and Bill. started working at the family fur- and Larry Mathis’s blood. You The brothers became the owners niture store. “I don’t recollect not could also call them the Mathis and operators of 410,000 square coming to the business,” Bill re- Brothers, but they would dispute feet of warehouse in Oklahoma plied (my emphasis). As boys they that. “So many people think we City. Fast forward 25 years and spent their weekends and summers are the Mathis Brothers, but we the brothers have expanded the at the store mowing the grass, op- are not the original Mathis Broth- empire to Tulsa, Oklahoma; Indio, erating soda machines, and clean- ers,” Larry said in a 2006 inter- California; and Ontario, California ing view with News OK. and have attained a spot on Furni- tasks that were perhaps made up ture Today’s Top 100 Retailers list for by the budding of their media at number 21. careers. Bill became the star of the In fact, the first Mathis brothers were their father, Don, and their the trash cans—mundane furniture commercials at the age of uncle, Bud, who started the family A sprawling warehouse and a 14, shortly followed by Larry, and business in 1960 in Oklahoma City. decades-old business the two brothers were the face of Just seven years later, in 1967, Don might be a daunting endowment Mathis Brothers for decades. Only Mathis bought his brother’s por- for most, but not for Bill and Larry recently have they stepped down tion of the company. Then in 1988 Mathis. A local newspaper asked in favor of younger spokespeo- Don bequeathed the furniture be- the brothers when it was that they ple—their own children. furniture www.interlakemecalux.com• 59 record R Mathis Brothers “When our car turns in the park- stepped up to the plate. Inter- ing lot, crosses that asphalt, lake Mecalux would help Mathis we look around: it seems like Brothers expand their showroom, home,” Larry said of coming in revamp their warehouse, and revi- to work. Mathis Brothers really talize their distribution processes. is the quintessential family busi- 60 •interlakemecalux• NEWS ness. It only makes sense, then, IRONING OUT THE DETAILS that when the family enterprise An expansion project for any busi- needed to expand its Tulsa ware- ness is good news, and it certainly house, another family company was for Mathis Brothers. The com- Mathis Brothers R record pany had spread into Tulsa from Oklahoma City in 1993, and in the spring of 2012, they were itching to expand their showroom. Expanding the showroom also meant expanding the warehouse to house more pieces for the showroom. But as Mathis Brothers General Manager of Retail Sales, Brad Woessner, pointed out, the furniture company quickly realized they had to change their plan. “The original thought process of the expansion was to have enough warehouse capacity to service the additional showroom space. Then as we began adding more stores we adjusted the showroom [size] and expanded the racking capacity.” At 140,000 square feet, the new Mathis Brothers showroom is unmatched in Oklahoma. www.interlakemecalux.com• 61 record R Mathis Brothers Though the showroom had started The result is a 100,000 square have the largest selection of fur- out as the top priority, warehouse foot expansion. The expansion in- niture in the state of Oklahoma,” storage soon caught up. As more cludes 60,000 square feet for the said Woessner. “It will range from and more Mathis stores popped up warehouse and 40,000 allocated high end to moderately priced in the Tulsa area, the warehouse, as part of the showroom addi- furniture.” Overall, the project which serves as a distribution cen- tion—the rest of the showroom doubles Mathis Brothers’ storage ter for all the Tulsa stores, saw in- space coming from the original fa- capabilities, establishes a show- creasing demands. cility. “The Mathis showroom will room unparalleled in the furniture 62 •interlakemecalux• NEWS Mathis Brothers R record TECHNICAL DETAILS: Type of Rack: Bolted Selective Pallet Rack Installation height: 36 feet Number of beam levels: up to 9 Storage Area: 100,000 sq. ft. Max beam capacity: 9,370 lbs. Storage capacity: 55,000 items Layout: combination of 2-deep and back-to-back just what Mathis Brothers needed. Interlake Mecalux Selective rack Interlake Mecalux Selective Pallet was also chosen because Mathis Rack was the unanimous choice. Brothers was hoping to reduce When asked why IKMX rack was damage done to furniture. Fur- recommended for the installation, niture damage is likely the larg- Greg Young, Managing Partner of est thorn in the side of furniture Russell Industries, laughed and makers, retailers, and distributors. replied simply, “Because we like Furniture is bulky, heavy, awk- [Interlake Mecalux]!” Enough said. ward, and not easy to ship. There are seemingly endless opportu- As for why Selective was the best nities for damage, which means way to go? “The benefit of [Selec- there are just as many opportuni- tive] rack is the unlimited options ties for dissatisfied customers. In you have in storing merchandise,” fact, in a 2011 review by the U.S. Woessner explained. “It gives you Better Business Bureau (BBB), re- flexibility to adjust as furniture tail furniture ranked 9th for most styles evolve.” Not only that, but customer complaints. Of the more business, and sets the tone for a Selective aptly provides greater se- than bright future. lectivity than a lot of rack systems. against furniture retailers that And since Mathis Brothers stores year, it is estimated that 20 per- Among these other goals was the all different models, shapes, and cent were over broken or damaged need to improve and upgrade their sizes of furniture, as opposed to furniture. Selective, with its many rack. Russell Industries, the distrib- storing much of the same item, be- uprights and high load capacities, utor, and Southern Material Han- ing able to access each particular is a structural colossus, and can dling Company, the supplier, knew piece is extremely important. play a part in protecting against 13,000 complaints filed www.interlakemecalux.com• 63 record R Mathis Brothers this damage. “They felt more the IKMX Selective rack, Mathis comfortable going with this,” Brothers’ furniture isn’t going Young commented regarding the anywhere—except to customers. choice of IKMX Selective rack. A LITTLE BIT OF THIS, A Dealing with Damage: How Much Are You Willing to Spend to Save? For extra support, Russell Indus- LITTLE BIT OF THAT tries also provided particle board. As for fitting the new warehouse Selling furniture means transport- The wooden slabs nestle in be- with rack, Mathis Brothers “pretty ing furniture. Transporting furniture tween the beams, providing “a much knew what they wanted,” means tackling the logistics of mov- smooth surface to slide multiple said Terr y Milan, Allied Sales ing hundreds of pounds of wood and furniture products back and forth,” Manager at Southern Material upholstery, ideally without damaging said Young. Between this and Handling. “They had 100,000 it. This is no small undertaking. And certainly not one furniture stores “We had amazing support from Interlake take lightly. and Southern Material. If we had a question “The slightest scratch can cause the or concern they were on premises or Robert Masters, Senior Vice Presi- here in minutes.” – Woessner 64 •interlakemecalux• NEWS customer to refuse the delivery,” said dent of Manna Freight Systems, in Mathis Brothers R record “The benefit of [Selective] rack is the unlimited options you have in storing merchandise,” Woessner explained. “It gives you flexibility to adjust as furniture styles evolve.” square feet of warehouse and shelf and the height of the shelf is but the construction of the new they knew how much they want- different,” noted Milan. warehouse was behind schedule… ed to fill with rack.” The job of significantly. What do you do with SMH and Russell Industries, then, The racking, then, is as diverse as 160 tons of homeless steel rack? was to figure out how to maxi- the stored products. The installation “It has been interesting,” laughed mize that space with rack. features some back-to-back, some Tim Crow, Mathis Brothers’ Tulsa double deep, and beam lengths Warehouse Manager. Designing rack for furniture is un- ranging from 84” to 144”. And all like designing rack for standard, of this is mingled together. From Young blamed weather for the palletized goods. All the various one row to the next, the rack can building delays and explained dimensions, weights, and heights have vastly different dimensions. how they overcame the inconve- have to be assessed and rack or- nience. “We had to store some of ganized to suit all of these dis- MAKING IT WORK the rack outside. We had to cover parities. Mathis Brothers stores Pick the rack: check. Design the rack: it, and of course we had to move a wide variety of products—from check. Install the rack: pending. it a couple times before we could boxed goods to upholstery to mat- start moving the rack in [the fa- tresses. “Depending on which one The collaboration met its first hur- cility].” Ramps were built to off- they’re [storing], the depth of the dle when the rack arrived on time, load freight so that it would avoid an interview with Inbound Logistics. the manufacturers, carriers, ware- Once furniture is damaged, it is either “Worse,” he continued, “a consign- houses, distributors, and retailers. costly and time-consuming to repair ee may refuse a 10-item shipment ShockWatch, Inc. conducted a study and then reship, or it is impossible to because one piece is damaged.” In that proved such programs typically mend. In which case, the cost of the fact, returns account for 20 to 25 reduce damage by 30-70 percent. damaged piece is simply absorbed. percent of sales. The cost of this They also determined that most Neither scenario is ideal. By investing slip-up is almost incalculable, both in damage occurs during loading and more in packaging and also inspect- dollars and time lost. Not to mention unloading, and is in fact not caused ing goods thoroughly before delivery, customer satisfaction. by the freight carriers as much as by companies can largely protect their dealer mishandling. Dealers often product and their wallets. This kind But how to ensure the safety of your remove protective packaging when of preemptive strategy is just what furniture en route? Many compa- trying to fit furniture into smaller Mathis Brothers was after when they nies are investing more money, even trucks, thus making the pieces more switched from their old rack to the just a few extra dollars, in packag- vulnerable to damage. By monitoring new IKMX Selective Rack. They trust ing. A few bucks up front can save the entire course a piece of furniture the sturdiness of IKMX rack. They hundreds on the back end. Another travels, with the help of technology, trust it will keep their furniture dam- solution is to establish a comprehen- problem points can be pinpointed age-free. They trust it will help keep sive monitoring program involving and remedied. their customers happy. www.interlakemecalux.com• 65 record R Mathis Brothers construction. Basically the whole was going to be so they could put ent areas of the warehouse, and crew worked together to mini- the lights and sprinklers in the sometimes we had to work at mize the problem. “[We were] just right place.” night.” It was a process that required, as Young put it, “lots of working with the general contractor on a daily basis to stay out of On top of installing the Interlake their way and [for them to] stay Mecalux Selec tive Pallet Rack, out of our way,” said Young. Mathis was moving some cantile - “And [Mathis] needed to be able communication.” ver rack from the old warehouse to pick orders and receive mer- While managing this obstacle, the into the new one. Navigating the chandise all through this,” Milan team had countless other duties sprinkler systems with this rack pointed out. “It involved daily to stay on top of. Not the least of proved more complicated. “The working together not to disrupt which was assuring that the sprin- sprinklers had to be removed the process.” Which, all in all, klers and lighting would align from the cantilever in the old they did successfully. “Mathis was with the rack once it was in place. warehouse so they could move great to work with,” said Milan. “Well, the first thing is that the that in the new warehouse. feed lines for the sprinkler system When we put the cantilever in Once all the construc tion was had to line up with the flues of the new warehouse, they had to completed, it was time for the our back to back racking,” said put the sprinkler system back in rack to make its way into the Milan. “And they were wanting to the cantilever rack,” Milan said. new facilit y. “There were a couple of changes in the layout as have the feed lines installed prior to the racking. We just had to get Young added, “We had to switch we star ted put ting the rack up, them lined up on where the rack back and for th bet ween dif fer- that Mathis Brothers requested, 66 •interlakemecalux• NEWS Mathis Brothers R record and we accommodated,” noted did not af fec t the materials list, tial. “It’s a big projec t,” Young Milan. They were what he called but simply the layout. “It was a mused, indicating that there are “configuration” changes. Hav- head-scratcher,” recalled Milan, bound to be hiccups and ob- ing reviewed the dif ferent t ypes “but we were able to do that.” stacles. It’s really all about how of furniture they were going to The projec t is ultimately a testa- you face them, and if you are be storing, and adjusting to the ment to what organization, team- able to work as a team. “We had ever-changing improving work, and the countr y’s top pro- weekly meetings where we had business climate, Mathis deter- and vider of steel rack can accomplish. amazing suppor t from Interlake mined that they needed more of and Southern Material,” recalled a cer tain t ype of rack than they Interlake Mecalux, Southern Ma- Woessner. “If we had a question had originally planned. “There terial Handling, Russell Indus- or concern they were on premises were some rows that were double tries, and Mathis Brothers came or here in minutes.” back-to-back and they changed a together couple of those and added anoth- furniture icon’s distribution pro- Upon wrapping up this projec t, er aisle.” Luckily the alterations cesses and to optimize its poten- Crow reflec ted on what is to to revolutionize the Overall, the project doubles Mathis Brothers’ storage capabilities, establishes a showroom unparalleled in the furniture business, and sets the tone for a bright future. come for Mathis Brothers. “We’re expanding as much as we can, as much as the economy allows us,” he said. And the economy seems to be accommodating. An expansion of the Oklahoma Cit y warehouse is already in the works. The dif ferent par ties will reunite for a projec t three times the size of the Tulsa expansion, featuring all IKMX Selec tive rack. Interlake Mecalux rack has “improved [our processes] tremendously,” Crow said, so they will keep this nex t projec t in the family. “We make decisions based on [the question], ‘How would the best furniture store do it?’” said Woessner. In terms of storage and expansion, that means par tnering with Interlake Mecalux. • www.interlakemecalux.com• 67