MHD WAREHOUSING
LEADING AUSSIE MANUFACTURER MEETS WAREHOUSE WIZARDS
Sleep Corp is an iconic Australian brand manufacturing the best in mattress protectors and associated sleeping products. Having decided to overhaul its manufacturing and warehousing operations, it turned to Fuzzy LogX’s team of warehouse design experts to help turbocharge its operations as it enters a new and exciting future.
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yland Joyce, Operations Manager at Sleep Corp, says that the company’s history stretches back 45 years to the owner and founder’s initial creation of a waterproof mattress protector. Since then, the company has expanded into new markets and products, although along the way the current iteration of the brand, Sleep Corp, elected to double down on the Australian market and focus on being an Australian manufacturer and distributor of mattress protectors and related products. “One of the core goals of our business since then – and especially in the last 10 years – is focusing on ‘Australian Made’,” Ryland says. “50 per cent of our products have been Australian made for the last decade.” But roughly four years ago, Ryland says Sleep Corp decided to set its sights on the future. “We recognise that we own the market when it comes to mattress protectors,” he says. “We invented the product and are the leader in that space. But there are a lot more opportunities in the sleep space where we know we can add value in offering extraordinary products and brands. We’ve been around for 45 years, so what does the next 50 look like?” Ryland says that there were two major projects that had to be undertaken to position Sleep Corp for a strong future – one was updating its manufacturing processes, and the other its warehousing and distribution capabilities. “For the manufacturing side, it was about automation and everything that came with it,” he says. “Now we’ve got
30 | MHD APRIL 2022
Ryland Joyce, Operatios Manager at Sleep Corp.
the equipment and machinery, as well as the systems and intelligence supporting it. It’s not just about the robotics, it’s the Industry 4.0 technology, an automated manufacturing execution system that uses AI and intelligent awareness around the product to make it more efficient.” The upshot of this new manufacturing capability is that with the same number of people working at Sleep Corp, it will be able to double its output of Australian-manufactured products by May of this year. This is certainly impressive, but as Ryland notes, updated manufacturing must be complemented by advanced warehousing. “If I have double the number of products being manufactured but my warehouse can still only output the old number, that doesn’t help anyone,” he says. “The demand for our
products is there – that is clear. But without a sophisticated and automated warehouse, those products are going nowhere fast.” And that’s where Fuzzy LogX and its team of ‘Warehouse Wizards’ come in. “The transformation of our warehousing has taken us from Industry 1.0 to Industry 4.0 and beyond,” Ryland says. “Previously, we had MHE and systems that were literally 30 or 40 years old. We weren’t even scanning barcodes three years ago. So, we had a lot of catching up to do – and looked to experts to help us take that next step.”
ENTER FUZZY LOGX Ryland says that choosing Fuzzy LogX started off as simply as Googling for solutions providers. He was taken in by Fuzzy LogX’s website and style, and reached out to Jeffrey Triantafilo, Fuzzy LogX’s
