NXP

NXP: keeping New Zealand Businesses running

You may not have heard of NXP, but you’ve likely used one of its products: safety gloves, A4 paper or a tin of Milo for the staff kitchen. It’s a business supplies company, and, as a critical link in the supply chain for thousands of New Zealand businesses, NXP has to get the basics right – operating efficiently behind the scenes so other businesses can succeed.

Future-proofing the floorplan

When NXP first moved into its current Auckland warehouse, the business looked very different. It operated under a different name, with a smaller product range and lower order volumes. That was 17 years ago.

Many businesses would have relocated at least once during that time. Instead, NXP has taken a more strategic approach – reconfiguring the space it already had. And, with Goodman’s support, the team has continually found new ways to use their footprint more effectively.

That’s meant redesigning the warehouse around how orders actually flow: bringing high-reach picking down to floor level, repositioning racking to shorten travel distances, and extending and reorganising pack lanes so picked items move smoothly from trolley to dispatch.

“Our pickers used to walk about 16,000 steps a day,” says Kelly. “Now they do about 8,000 – almost half the steps a day, which is really cool. “And, by reducing that racking and getting it closer together, we got 3,000 products out of high-reach picking down to floor-level picking,” she adds.

Those improvements haven’t just made the warehouse more efficient – they’ve made it a better place to work. In recent years, staff turnover in the warehouse has dropped significantly. “We have such a low turnover now,” Kelly says, “especially in the warehouse.”