Horizon quick-ship program aims to halve lead times

Thomas Russell -- Furniture Today, January 29, 2013

LAS VEGAS - Case goods manufacturer Horizon Home is launching a new quick-ship program here this week that is aimed at cutting lead times in half on popular items in its line.
The new Express Program aims to ship 50% of the goods in the line in two weeks from its factory in Guadalajara, Mexico, which is a 15-hour drive from the U.S. border. This will allow retailers to get those items within 30 days of the initial order, the company says.
"We have had a lot of success with the product line over the last 12 months, but the biggest challenge is keeping up with the demand and lead times," said Felipe Orozco, vice president of sales, noting that the program is geared for customers that buy less-than-truckload shipments.
He added that the program will cut lead times in half, and will help his customers control their inventory levels.
To get the program off the ground, Horizon Home had to reconfigure the layout of its production facilities. To resolve bottlenecks in the wood processing area, it relocated its rough mill to its former packaging area in November and moved the packaging and shipping area to a facility across the street that is about 2.5 times larger than the original space.
In addition to holding more product, the new packaging area also has more trailer capacity. The other facility only had two loading docks, but this one has four.
He said the transition caused a slowdown in November but that the company got caught up in December.
"Now we have all the bugs worked out of the move, and we are ready to rock," Orozco said. "We can build inventory and hold it at the factory."
Horizon Home, which produces bedroom, dining room, occasional and accent furniture, is showing new and existing goods available in the Express Program this week in World Market Center space B-125.
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