Chalifour's new location.

Chalifour Canada Ltd gains operational efficiencies in moving 9 km (5.4 mi.) within Surrey to a former steel distribution centre in the Panorama Ridge community.

Chalifour reduced its land use to 3.55 acres from eight acres.

Chalifour Canada's national logistics manager Grant Harris says: "We purged obsolete and dead stock, reduced our inventory carrying of many 'C' and 'D' SKUs, and reduced some lumber and building material programs to less on-hand and more JIT deliveries from procurement.".

Chalifour Canada is the vertical distribution supply chain for Tim-Br Mart Ltd and its extended customers. Until January 2012, Chalifour Canada was known as the IRLY Distributors Ltd division of Tim-Br Mart.

In Surrey, Chalifour operates eight propane-powered Hyster counter-balance forklifts in the materials yard and seven warehouse units, including Raymond reach trucks and Crown man-up order pickers. One walkie pallet-jack is in service. "Our lifting capacities range from 400 lbs. to 11,000 lbs. (180 kg-4,950 kg)," Harris says. "We operate out of three buildings with a combined 91,000 sqft. (845 sqm) under cover."

Significant preparations preceded the move in May. Harris says the company used the project management principle - plan the work...then work the plan. A move committee team was established about a year before the physical move. "We met weekly and used Microsoft Project, a management software program, to organise ourselves and our tasks."

A task master was assigned to manage data and keep the project on track. "We walked with our people through the period of uncertainty and great change," Harris says. "We did not dictate the move. We engaged employee stakeholders who, in the end, executed a successful conclusion to our move event."

Based in Calgary, Alberta, the Tim-Br Mart group is a procurer for hundreds of independently operated Canadian building material and hardware retailers, commercial dealers and manufacturers. The member-owned group began operations in 1967.

Harris is a director of the Richmond, British Columbia-based Canadian Material Handling and Distribution Society (CMHDS). He will conduct a tour of the Surrey distribution centre for pre-registered CMHDS members from 3:30pm to 5pm on 16 October. A CMHDS tour of the previous Chalifour location occurred in October 2013.