Dematic Logistics Review - Issue 10

DEMATIC LOGISTICS REVIEW

Issue 10

L GISTICSREVIEW

DEMATIC INSIGHT How ASRS can transform F&B logistics

NEW MODULAR GTP Flexible, scalable goods-to-person picking

GLOBAL CASE STUDIES Smart ideas from around the world

HEILAN HOME: CHINAEfficient flat pack & hanging garment apparel distribution

FIRST WISE MEDIA, GERMANY ADVANCED GTP SMALL PARTS PICK, PACK & SHIP SOLUTION

FIRST WISE MEDIA, GERMANY ADVANCED GTP SMALL PARTS PICK, PACK & SHIP SOLUTION

HEILAN HOME: CHINAEfficient flat pack & hanging garment apparel distribution

COOP: SWITZERLANDPrecisely sequenced order assembly & despatch loading

COOP: SWITZERLANDPrecisely sequenced order assembly & despatch loading


ContentsCover Story: First Wise Media, Germany

Case Study: Polaris, USA

Insight: Food & Beverage Supply Chain Logistics

Case Study: Coop, Switzerland

Case Study: Blackwoods, Australia

Case Study: Heilan Home, China

Technology: Modular Goods-to-Person (GTP)

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Welcome to the 10th edition of Dematic Logistics Review, our customer magazine designed to give you an insight into the rapidly progressing world of Dematic and the success of our customers around the globe.

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WE OPTIMISE YOUR SUPPLY CHAIN WITH SMART, COST-EFFICIENT INTEGRATED LOGISTICS SOLUTIONS

Ulf Henriksson, President & CEO Dematic

Over the past few years, the pace of change in the supply chain has been remarkable. New technologies, supply chain strategies and ever evolving IT infrastructures are proving if you are not continually updating and improving your supply chain, you will quickly be left behind by competitors who do.

To better reflect what you, our customers, are asking for and help us provide the best service, support, information and advice for your indus-try, we have aligned our business with a clear focus on key vertical markets:

• eCommerce• Grocery• General Merchandise• Apparel• Food & Beverage• Parcel• Wholesale/B2B• Third Party Logistics• Durable Manufacturing• Non-Durable Manufacturing• Pharma/Healthcare• Document Management.

This market focus is designed to enable us to better react to the ever changing global trends and challenges you are facing today and can be reviewed in greater detail at www.dematic.com.

A key theme in this issue of DLR is Goods-to-Person (GTP) solutions for a variety of industries.

With benefits including high productivity, re-duced labor costs, increased inventory and or-der accuracy, plus lower land, building and op-erational costs, businesses throughout the world are increasingly adopting GTP order fulfilment strategies in place of the traditional person-to-goods approach.

Dematic is at the forefront of developing new, high performance GTP solutions across a wide range of business sectors. In this issue, we fea-ture two international case studies showcasing Dematic flexible, scalable and modular GTP so-lutions, highlighting how the introduction of GTP has helped transform our customers’ order fulfil-ment processes.

I hope you enjoy the case studies and technolo-gy reviews in this issue of DLR, all of which serve to illustrate that at Dematic, We Optimise Your Supply Chain!


About Dematic

Dematic is one of the world’s leading suppliers of logistics automation sys-tems and solutions. As a systems integrator, Dematic delivers a full range of technologies and services, from individual products and systems to complete turnkey solutions as a general contractor, as well as complete after-sales support and service. Dematic provides automated material handling products, systems and solutions for retail and wholesale distri-bution, consumer direct, grocery, food and beverage, and manufacturing industries. Dematic’s products and services are based on a tradition of industry expertise that the company has acquired over decades of com-mitment worldwide. Globally the company employs around 4,000 people.

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WE OPTIMISE YOUR SUPPLY CHAIN WITH SMART, COST-EFFICIENT INTEGRATED LOGISTICS SOLUTIONS


The telecom and consumer electronics markets continue to grow, with a constantly expanding range of electronic devices and gadgets, computers, smart phones and game consoles now commonplace in many German households. First Wise Media distributes around 5,000 products from small SD memory cards up to large speaker systems for PCs. It distributes goods from a range of leading IT and associated product suppliers including Belkin, Samsung, Samsonite, Dell, Edding and Creative to most major electronics retailers in Germany including Media Markt, Saturn, MediMax and Euronics. The business also supports online mail order distributors such as Amazon and Otto, as well as supermarkets like Real, Rewe and Famila.

FIRST WISE MEDIA WEERTZEN, GERMANY

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IT SPECIALIST MAKES WISE CHOICE WITH DEMATIC GTP PICKING

First Wise Media operates as a full-service pro-vider including re-stocking in store, re-orders, re-turns and complaints processing. Rapid growth in recent years forced the business to increas-ingly utilise costly offsite storage, with it having stock spread across eight separate logistics cen-tres, and picking taking place at three of them.

Consolidation became a necessity, with the busi-ness investing in a new purpose-designed logis-tics centre at Weertzen. A key feature is one of the first Dematic Multishuttle Goods-to-Person (GTP) picking systems of its type in the world.

Facilitating efficient and accurate sequencing of stock for small parts picking, the system proved so successful that two additional extensions of the Multishuttle and GTP systems were complet-ed within the first six months of operation.

Dematic’s integrated logistics solution

After researching its distribution options, First Wise Media engaged Dematic to implement its new Multishuttle and GTP systems, along with Dematic’s DC Director Warehouse Management System (WMS) and Material Flow Control (MFC) suite of integrated software.

A key goal was to identify any problems in pro-cess, in order to fix them right away. The aim was to reduce the error rate to less than one per thousand by using automated checkweighing at several steps during the order fulfilment process.

To fully exploit the high performance of the Mul-tishuttle system, Dematic’s software performs continuous order processing. This principle ap-plies to all processes starting with order handling, stock reservation and internal transport, right through to picking and shipping, and guarantees a high level of consistently high utilisation of all system components, enhancing the timeliness and cost-effectiveness of the new system.

Integrated logistics systems implementation

After receipt of incoming goods, the WMS de-cides in which area goods are to be stored. Larg-er quantities and goods for manual picking are transferred to euro pallets and transported by

DEMATIC LOGISTICS REVIEW 5

First Wise Media’s picking system displays a photo of the item to be picked and the quantity required, with each step verified by automated checkweighing.

reach truck to the weighscales and then to pallet storage.

Forklift drivers are directed via radio data termi-nals by the WMS, which forwards data directly to the system and allocates put-aways and pick-ing. Due to the checkweighing process in goods receiving, subsequent errors are consistently avoided. However, a very high quality of master data is extremely important for the accuracy of the checkweighing process.

To address this, a dimension-measuring device is located next to the pallet weighscale. Here new products can be measured, weighed and photo-graphed for the master data file. In today’s fast-paced computer and mobile phone industry, the lifecycle of products is often short and about 80 to 100 SKUs are continually removed from inven-tory, while around 120 new items are added.

Products which the WMS determines are for stor-age in the Multishuttle are initially repacked into containers at five incoming goods workstations.

After the picker scans the pallet, a display shows how many items must be repacked in total from the pallet into the containers. The picker takes an empty container from the lower conveyor line and scans it. After picking the displayed amount of items, the container is checkweighed for ac-curacy. If correct, the picker moves the container onto the conveyor system and continues with the next empty container.

The automated conveyor system transports the filled container to the upper floor where it is stored in the three-aisle Multishuttle system. Af-ter a few months, the system’s eight picking sta-tions were extended to 12, and 26 shuttles were added to the existing 34 in the Multishuttle sys-tem, further enhancing throughput and efficiency by enabling the use of one shuttle per level.

GTP order picking process

First Wise Media gathers each order of a market and then generates several orders from the avail-able positions - a pick-job – which is then trans-mitted to DC Director. The WMS then checks

whether the order contains full pallets or cases, which can be picked directly from the pallet ware-house, or whether split case picking is triggered from the pallet warehouse or Multishuttle.

If there is sufficient stock available in the target-ed areas, the system reserves the quantities re-quired from the appropriate containers, and as-signs the order to a picker or workstation where it is fulfilled. This assignment is made according to configurable priorities and parameters and fol-lows the basic principle of continuous order plan-ning and release.

APPARELGOODS-TO-PERSON PICKING

WHOLESALE/B2B SMALL PARTS DISTRIBUTION

6 DEMATIC LOGISTICS REVIEW

FIRST WISE MEDIA WEERTZEN, GERMANY

“ “ The sequencing of items in the precise order in which they must be put on the shelves later by our staff is a great advantage for us.

Tim Jöllenbeck, Executive Director, FWM

Each of the 12 picking stations has a buffer for up to 12 containers, which are delivered by the Multishuttle in a precisely defined sequence.

When starting a customer order, the system sug-gests one of three different sized shipping cartons to the picker, to which a barcode label is attached for identification. The system screen displays a photo of the article that is to be put into the ship-ping carton along with the quantity required. Each step is verified by the automated checkweighing system. If the required quantity and total weight match the order, the picker confirms the order by updating the screen and pushing the container back onto the conveyor system.

If the checkweighing system recognises a devia-tion, the picker must check immediately if they have picked correctly, or if there is another rea-son for the discrepancy. If the shipper is full, the picker can create a delivery note for the remain-der of the order, print a shipping label and contin-ue picking the order with a new shipping carton.

When a customer order is completed, the sys-tem triggers printing of shipping documents and asks the picker to place these together with any required fill material in the box and close it. The final shipping cartons are pushed onto the con-veyor system, which transports them to the ship-ping area on the ground floor.

While it is still on the conveyor, the carton is strapped and photographed to prove the integ-rity and correct labelling of the carton.

Shipping staff remove the cartons from the con-veyor, scan them one last time and stack them on pallets according to the order or parcel service. After final checkweighing, each pallet is wrapped before it is handed over to the appropriate parcel service or forwarding agent.

Smart solution delivers outstanding results

Currently items from around 20,000 pick posi-tions are picked per day in the new logistics cen-tre. A position can include any amount – single items as well as an entire pallet. A visualisation of the entire system in the DC’s control centre allows staff to monitor the reliability of all compo-nents at any time. The checkweighing validation has reduced the error rate to less than one per thousand and increased customer satisfaction.

“We had very specific ideas about how the pro-cesses should be organised in our warehouse and how IT should support distribution. Dematic has done outstanding work during the design and creation of our logistics centre,” said Tim Jöllen-beck, Executive Director, First Wise Media GmbH.

“The sequencing of items in the precise order in which they must be put on the shelves later by our staff is a great advantage for us,” added Mr Jöllenbeck. “Plus the ratio between travel time to picking time has improved tremendously through the use of the Multishuttle system. We are now well placed to handle further growth,” he said.

First Wise Media System Benefits

• More efficient labour utilisation through goods-to-person (GTP) picking

• Shorter walking paths and picking times, plus capacity for further growth

• Less picking errors due to checkweighing directly at the pick stations

• Error rate below one per 1,000, with significantly increased customer satisfaction

• Sequencing of the products when picking takes place in a sales-oriented order

• DC’s control centre allows continuous system monitoring, enhancing reliability


WHOLESALE/B2B SMALL PARTS DISTRIBUTION


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To accommodate the high expectations of its dealers and ensure that orders are processed with speed, accuracy and efficiency, Polaris needed a solution that could optimise the pick, pack and ship process. According to Paul Eick-hoff, Director of Operations for Polaris: “Our win-ning advantage is our innovative culture, opera-tional speed and flexibility, and passion to keep improving the parts distribution supply chain.”

The Eastern US DC, located in Wilmington, Ohio, supports 1,100 dealers, accommodates over 7,000 SKUs, with capacity for up to 20,000 SKUs, maintains order accuracy of over 99.9%, and fills 99%+ of orders on a same-day basis. “We embrace the spirit of the perfect order, delivered on time, with the right part number, the correct quantity, and the relevant documentation,” ex-plained Mr Eickhoff.

Previously, Polaris provided parts, garments and accessories to its dealers in the eastern region of the United States from its DC in Vermillion, South Dakota. To optimise service and response time for these dealers and support future company growth, a new distribution facility was required.

NEW DC DRIVES POLARIS LOGISTICS

From a network efficiency standpoint, Ohio was determined to be the ideal geographic location. An existing building was acquired and the new Polaris DC was created.

Split case pick module

The DC design uses a strategic inventory location plan to optimise operational performance. Polaris parts that are picked in cases are centralised in the full case pick module. Parts that are picked as “pieces” are centralised into the split case pick module. Low-velocity, large and non-conveyable items are located together on pallets in racks, with the SKUs slotted within these areas by velocity.

The zone-routing split case pick module brings the order container to the picker. Pickers remain in an assigned zone; efficiency is gained since they do not roam the warehouse searching for items, but instead are focused on picking a seg-ment of the inventory located in a compact area.

The split case pick module is configured with four zones, with SKUs staged on flow racks or shelv-ing. The zones are slotted based on attributes such as part family, velocity or cube utilisation.

Polaris Industries, a manufacturer of motorised off-road and on-road vehicles, snowmobiles and motorcycles, has designed, built and implemented a new distribution centre to service its network of dealers in North Eastern United States.

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We embrace the spirit of the perfect order, delivered

on time, with the right part number, the correct

quantity, and the relevant documentation.

Paul Eickhoff, Director of Operations,

Polaris Industries

POLARIS OHIO, USA

APPARELZONE-ROUTING SPLIT & FULL CASE PICKING

DURABLE MANUFACTURING SPARE PARTS DISTRIBUTION

DEMATIC LOGISTICS REVIEW8

The operational method is to route the order con-tainer only to zones where picks are required.To support the zone-routing system pick method, a conveyor network controls the flow of order cartons into and out of the zones. One picker is stationed in each zone; however additional pick-ers can be added during peak periods. Or, during periods of lower order volumes, one picker may operate across multiple zones.

The conveyor layout features an accumulation conveyor spine which travels through the entire split case pick module with an exit and a siding for each zone. Each exit point consists of a bar-code scanner and a right angle transfer to divert the order container into the pick zone.

When the picks are completed, the operator pushes the order carton back onto the central conveyor spine. If more picks are required, the order travels to another zone(s). If no other picks are required, it travels directly to packing on the conveyor spine.

An order start workstation is located upstream of the conveyor spine in the split case pick module. A worker applies a unique barcode label to each carton, forms the carton and enters it onto the in-line tape applicator. The carton proceeds on the conveyor spine to the zone where inventory for the order is located.

Pickers stationed in the zones use portable RF hand-held devices to obtain picking instructions. When an order container arrives at the pick zone, the picker scans the barcode on the order con-tainer using the RF device. Next, pick instructions appear on the screen. At the pick location, the picker scans the SKU barcode on the product to confirm it is the correct SKU. The items are picked and placed into the order container, which is then pushed back onto the conveyor spine.

Each split case order container is conveyed to the pack and ship sub-system, where the order is checked for accuracy, weighed for shipping cost calculation, a shipping label applied and the carton sealed. These finished split case order cartons are conveyed to the shipping area where a sorter automatically diverts the cartons to the appropriate shipping dock for loading onto truck trailers. The cartons for LTL shipments are auto-matically sorted to a manual palletising station.

Full case pick module

The full case pick module consists of pallets of stock located on racking. Via instructions from a hand-held RF device, a worker travels to a pal-let location and picks the case(s) onto the trans-portation conveyor that operates in the centre of the full case pick module. A pre-printed label is attached to each case. Cases from the full case pick module are conveyed to shipping and auto-matically diverted to the appropriate truck trailer for loading or to LTL palletising and shipping.

Warehouse Control System (WCS)

The WCS manages the automated operation of the conveying and sorting network, directing the flow of the split case order containers into the appropriate pick zones. Using data from the bar-code scanners, the software activates the right angle transfer devices allowing cartons to auto-matically divert into the pick zones.

The WCS also directs the operation of the full case pick module conveyor sub-system, packing workstations, and shipping sorter sub-system. Real-time information is available regarding car-ton location on the system, divert/sort statistics, barcode read rates, and carton re-circulation. A graphic of the system layout displays real-time information about the status and performance attributes of each sub-system: picking, packing, packing merge, trash line and shipping.

Delivering fast, accurate order fulfilment

The modular system design facilitates opera-tional efficiency, order processing speed, and order accuracy while providing the flexibility to accommodate changes in daily requirements. Order processing capacity can be scaled up by increasing the number of workers in the split case and full case pick modules during peak pe-riods. During periods of slow activity, fewer work-ers can be assigned to support the order volume. Furthermore, work stations and shipping door diverts can be placed into or taken out of service depending on daily activity. Current activity is ap-proximately 500-700 orders per day (6,000 lines) with about 150 re-stocking orders. The overall system capacity is 25,000 lines.

Picking staff are not required to travel through the warehouse to locate inventory for picking. In-stead, the smart system design positions work-ers in pick zones where the inventory is arranged in a high density, compact configuration. This al-lows workers to walk less and accomplish more picks per hour. In addition, the zone-routing sys-tem directs order containers only to zones with picks, thereby reducing order processing time.

The systemised approach, combined with auto-mated conveying and sorting brings discipline, process improvement and labour productivity to the pick, pack and ship process. The system is designed to accommodate growth; for example, diverters are pre-installed into the shipping layout. Whenever additional capacity is required, modu-lar down-line conveyors will be connected and the pre-configured software activated.

Right (from top):

Case forming Overview of zone-routing pick module SKU scanning to confirm pick accuracy Pick-to-belt full case pick module Pop-up wheel sorting system

POLARIS OHIO, USA

APPARELZONE-ROUTING SPLIT & FULL CASE PICKING

DURABLE MANUFACTURING SPARE PARTS DISTRIBUTION


INSIGHTFOOD & BEVERAGE LOGISTICS

ASRS AND ITS ROLE IN ADDRESSING SEVEN KEY CHALLENGES IMPACTING F&B SUPPLY CHAIN LOGISTICS

David Rubie, Manager Industry Logistics at Dematic Australia, discusses why increasing numbers of Australian food and beverage (F&B) manufacturers and distributors are taking advantage of ASRS’ compelling performance-to-cost ratio compared to conventional manual warehousing for fast, reliable, cost-efficient automated pallet handling, storage and order fulfilment.

Introduction

The Food and Beverage (F&B) sectors are chang-ing rapidly in most countries, with new trends and drivers creating new challenges for manu-facturers. Grocery retailers are putting pressure on suppliers’ margins, consumers are becoming more price conscious while at the same time ask-ing for a greater range of products, input costs including labour, raw materials and energy are increasing, and safety and product tracking reg-ulations are becoming more onerous. All these trends pose significant challenges to F&B manu-facturers’ supply chain and logistics operations.

Leading Australian F&B manufacturers are in-vesting in warehouse automation to address these challenges and deliver significant and lasting competitive advantages to their supply chains and businesses. They are taking advan-tage of lower costs and the latest developments in automated storage and retrieval systems (ASRS) – driven by modular design and reduced subcomponent costs – to increase productiv-ity and reduce costs, improve storage capacity and consolidate manufacturing and distribution operations, as well as maximising service levels, system flexibility and operational resilience.

1. Cost pressures: the need to reduce costs and maximise productivity

The imperative to optimise productivity and re-duce costs in supply chains has never been greater for F&B manufacturers. While labour costs continue to rise and drive the need to in-crease productivity, these cost pressures are being compounded like never before by the in-creasing concentration of the grocery retail mar-ket, and increasingly price conscious consumers. Let’s look at each factor in turn.Highly concentrated grocery retail market putting pressure on manufacturer margins

In most countries, the big guys on the block just keep on getting bigger. This means retail-ers are in a unique position of strength and this has major implications for F&B manufacturers.

In Australia, the market share of the two top gro-cers stood at 73% in 2013, and the Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC) forecast it to consolidate to 80% by 2020. Major grocers worldwide are also consolidating market share in the liquor retail sector. Australia’s two major gro-cers – with the introduction of big box liquor out-lets and aggressive pricing – now control 57% of the local alcohol retail market.

The grocers have leveraged this market position to drive strong agreements with suppliers, erod-ing suppliers’ margins and enabling them to offer low store prices that smaller outlets find very dif-ficult to compete with. They are also using their position to drive their own private label ranges at the expense of branded products.

Grocery retailers pushing inventory back to manufacturers

Major grocery retailers are also pushing inven-tory back towards suppliers, increasing logistics costs for manufacturers, especially those that have outsourced their distribution to third party logistics (3PL) providers. With grocers pushing inventory back on suppliers, the 3PLs are hold-ing higher levels of inventory with consequently higher costs for many of their customers.

As a result, manufacturers are increasingly look-ing to insource their logistics operations and build supply chain competence back into their own business. For many, the timing of this pres-ents an ideal opportunity to optimise their distri-bution activities.

Price conscious consumers

The Global Financial Crisis and concerns about jobs and unemployment mean consumers re-main highly price conscious, and are favouring low-cost supermarkets over convenience stores. Consumers are also increasingly open to pur-chasing an expanding array of private labels. In a survey of Australian consumers in 2010, 46% of consumers considered private labels as good alternatives to brands, with 42% believing they were of equivalent quality.

FOOD & BEVERAGE ASRS SOLUTIONSSUPPLY CHAIN APPLICATIONS


The AFGC forecasts that the penetration of pri-vate labels will increase from around 15% of dol-lar share to potentially reach 40 to 50% of total supermarket sales by 2020, in line with other de-veloped markets like the UK.

These two trends place further pressure on F&B manufacturers’ margins. Volumes are shifting to-wards lower-margin grocery retailers at the ex-pense of higher-margin convenience and small food retailers, with manufacturers also facing increased competition from private labels.

Labour: rising costs, decreasing availability

The rising cost of labour and decreasing labour availability – the latter primarily driven by an age-ing population and a workforce increasingly reluc-tant to work in warehouses, especially cold stores

– has major implications for distribution costs.

While manufacturers have automated their pro-cessing lines, for many their distribution and warehousing operations remain highly labour-intensive.

In recent years, many companies across differ-ent sectors have increased labour productivity through human resources measures.

Many now recognise that having implemented these measures to their full extent, the next step-change in improving productivity will be through investment in productivity-enhancing technology.

ASRS: increasing productivity, reducing costs

ASRS fully automate the process of product stor-age and handling, eliminating ‘touches’ by op-erators, greatly reducing warehouse labour and operating costs.

Although highly dependent on the specific inven-tory profile of a manufacturer, productivity gains of up to 20% - 30% can typically be realised with ASRS.

ASRS also reduce waste, product and rack dam-age associated with forklift trucks, and typically have lower maintenance requirements in com-parison to forklift leasing and maintenance costs.2. Consolidation of production and distribution: land availability implications

There is a growing trend for manufacturers to consolidate their production facilities in response to cost pressures, reducing the number of nodes in their networks to lower warehousing and transport costs.

As part of this consolidation, F&B companies are building their distribution operations adjacent to their manufacturing lines, eliminating the costly and labour-intensive process of shipping finished goods from a processing facility to a warehouse.

However, the limited availability of land next to manufacturing facilities and the increasing cost of land – at least in high-density population cen-tres – can make this prohibitive with conventional manual storage and handling solutions.

Increasing storage density and reducing land requirements with ASRS

By maximising storage density and allowing heights up to 35 m, pallet ASRS systems require up to 60% less space compared to conventional pallet storage.

With a reduced building footprint, ASRS can make it feasible for manufacturers to build fin-ished goods distribution facilities adjacent to their manufacturing plants, even where land is limited. And, by consolidating distribution into an ASRS warehouse, manufacturers can reduce safety stock holding requirements and total in-ventory costs.

ASRS is also a very cost-effective solution for conventional warehouses that are running out of space. Replacing conventional pallet racking with ASRS significantly increases pallet storage capacity extending the life of the existing build-ing, reducing costs and eliminating the costs and disruption associated with constructing a new facility or relocating.

3. Ensuring superior customer service levels

In such a competitive, consumer-driven market it is imperative for F&B manufacturers to get the right product in the right quantity at the right time to customers, more so than in any other industry. Grocery distributors are less tolerant of missed delivery windows or incorrect products that lead to out of stock store shelves, imposing penalties for late or incomplete deliveries. Manufacturers’ distribution operations need to ensure they have the correct product in the required stock quantity, and that orders are complete and accurately des-patched in a timely manner. They also need suf-ficient redundancy and tolerance to operational disruptions. Just as importantly, distribution func-tions need to ensure they are not causing bottle-necks for operations, which can lead to produc-tion lines being stopped. And all this needs to be achieved in the most cost-effective manner.

Optimising service levels with ASRS

By completely automating the processes of put-away, storage and retrieval, ASRS eliminate potential operator errors and ensure optimal in-ventory availability and maximum order accuracy. Operations know exactly what is in stock and customers’ orders are correct.

ASRS also deliver significant benefits for staging and despatch applications and for consolidated production and distribution facilities’ processing lines – all critical elements in ensuring customer orders are fulfilled on time and in full.

Efficient staging and despatch with ASRS

In a manual staging and despatch area, pallets need to be staged in trailer-load quantities to ensure trucks can be quickly loaded. Having a large enough despatch area is critical for deal-ing with daily operational fluctuations; however



many dock areas have limited floorspace and the headroom is usually underutilised (as opposed to an ASRS). In the event of a disruption, such as a truck breakdown on the way to the facility, stock for orders is often left in despatch until the problem is rectified. This can lead to potential bottlenecks for other orders which can cascade into disruptions to upstream operations, with sig-nificant impact on customer delivery.

A very effective alternative is extending the use of ASRS to staging and despatch. With ASRS deliv-ering faster cycle times than manually operated forklift trucks, pallets of stock can be retrieved from the system so they are ready for loading when the transport vehicle arrives in the yard. The use of ‘golden zones’ within ASRS for pre-stag-ing orders, further facilitates quick and efficient shipments by providing the quickest access to storage locations. This ensures customer orders consistently meet ever tighter delivery windows.

Automated Guided Vehicles: Integrating pro-cessing lines and ASRS for increased reliability

For consolidated production and distribution fa-cilities, automating the complete process from end-of-processing line palletising through to an ASRS increases the system’s redundancy and resilience, eliminating potential bottlenecks to critical operations.

This can occur in manual systems, for example, if an operator leaves accumulated pallets at a pro-cessing line outfeed.

While pallet conveyors and monorails provide ro-bust and reliable links between production and automated storage, the ideal solution for opera-tions that are looking for maximum redundancy and flexibility are Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs). Apart from providing reliable and cost-effective pallet transport, the inherent flexibility of AGVs means that as throughput requirements and pickup and delivery destinations change, pathways can be easily adjusted and additional AGVs readily added to the fleet.

4. Dealing with increased SKU proliferation and order complexity

Consumers are demanding a wider range of products, driven by tastes and food fashion trends, fitness and health concerns.

Just one example of this is the shift away from mainstream beers, milk and soft drinks, and the associated increase in the consumption of craft beers, cider, soy milk and health drinks.

Manufacturers are responding by introducing many new products. The impact on F&B manu-facturers’ supply chains is continuing SKU prolif-eration and the need to stock an ever-increasing variety of product. For manufacturers who are also producing private labels for retailers, this only adds to the SKU complexity they manage.

In a manual warehouse system, the implications

of handling additional SKUs means that every-thing has to get larger – more pallet storage and picking locations and more travel, which leads to slower and less efficient operations, in bigger, more expensive warehouses.

ASRS deliver greater storage capacity for han-dling higher numbers of SKUs.

By offering greater storage density and the op-portunity to go higher, ASRS provide operations with significantly more storage locations for han-dling additional SKUs without increased travel.

And with order profiles changing, including varia-tions in throughputs of individual SKUs as they shift from slow to fast movers and vice-versa, ASRS can readily reslot product to ensure fast movers are located closer to outfeed zones, in-creasing system responsiveness.

5. Managing occupational health & safety (OH&S)

OH&S is regularly cited as the number one prior-ity for many F&B manufacturers. The movement and storage of heavy pallet loads, and potential breakages and spills, all pose dangers to op-erators. Many DCs require complete operational separation of MHE and personnel to ensure operator safety and compliance with new work safety requirements.

Apart from the human factor, Lost Time Injuries (LTIs) are becoming increasingly costly to opera-tions. And an ageing workforce only increases the imperative to address OH&S challenges. A further safety factor, Chain of Responsibility, takes into account axle loading, and it is up to warehousing operations to ensure compliance.

ASRS minimise OH&S risks

By eliminating the need for operators and forklift trucks in storage and staging applications, ASRS significantly reduce the OH&S risks associated with manual handling.

ASRS deliver precise put-away and retrieval from storage locations, removing the risk of product, pallet, or rack damage. With regards to Chain of Responsibility, ASRS can deliver pallet loads to a trailer in the precise sequence specified by a host system according to axle load requirements.

6. Rising energy costs driving the need to improve efficiency

Rising energy costs are also impacting on F&B manufacturers’ margins; this has particular sig-nificance for manufacturers with energy-inten-sive cold store operations.

Reducing total energy consumption with ASRS

By maximising storage density and reducing the footprint, ASRS reduce energy requirements for cooling or warming the storage cube. This is particularly significant in temperature-controlled facilities where reducing the volume required to cool translates to significant reductions in energy use. ASRS systems also require significantly less

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While manufacturers have automated their processing lines, for

many their distribution and warehousing

operations remain highly labour-intensive.




lighting, further reducing energy consumption. Equipped with energy recovery technology, De-matic ASRS also conserve energy during opera-tion. For example braking energy is regenerated and used by the lifting motor, enabling Dematic ASRS to consume up to 29% less energy than conventional non-regen ASRS.

7. Tracking requirements

Food standards authorities in many countries require food to be tracked through all stages of production, processing and distribution (also known as farm to fork). The aim is to enable quick and effective corrective action in the event of something going wrong, resulting in a product recall, and prevent contaminated product from reaching consumers.

Supply chain management systems need to cap-ture sources of raw materials, additives and oth-er ingredients and all other inputs, and provide product batch or lot identification, production and expiry dates.

In addition to meeting Food Standards Code re-quirements, F&B companies recognise that prod-uct traceability systems help protect their brands by enabling a rapid and effective response to any incident. Apart from batch and lot tracking, Warehouse Management Systems need to effec-tively manage inventory and FIFO (First In First Out) rules; in many cases, major grocers will only accept consecutively numbered batches and ex-piry dates.

ASRS and WCS provide comprehensive tracking and responsiveness capabilities

ASRS can be fully integrated into an operation’s Enterprise or Manufacturing Resource Planning, or Warehouse Management System via a Ware-house Control System (WCS). The Dematic WCS provides precise tracking of product movement and storage locations in real time.

As part of its comprehensive inventory tracking capabilities, the WCS manages batch and lot tracking of products and, in conjunction with the host, manages FIFO and FILO rules.

The WCS also seamlessly integrates other sys-tems in the warehouse, including palletising, conveyors, monorail and AGV pallet transport, and picking technologies including robotics and voice-directed systems, providing complete sys-tems management and visibility.

In the event of an incident, such as a product recall, management can immediately identify the specific batches or lots in question and task the system to take appropriate action, such as bring-ing out the product to a specific location.

Conclusion

The latest developments in ASRS and associated materials handling and software solutions pro-vide significant benefits for F&B manufacturers looking to address the latest challenges facing their distribution operations.

ASRS provides distinct and lasting competitive advantage by reducing labour touches and im-proving productivity by up to 30%, increasing service levels, minimising OH&S risks, enhancing operational flexibility and resilience, while deliv-ering comprehensive tracking, visibility and op-erational management capabilities – and ASRS achieves this using up to 60% less space com-pared to conventional storage solutions. ASRS allow F&B companies to review their complete manufacturing and supply chain networks and look at where they can consolidate storage and distribution to reduce total costs and deliver su-perior operational capabilities.

And with the cost of automation falling signifi-cantly in recent years, the business case and return on investment for ASRS has never been greater.

“ “

ASRS allow F&B companies to review

their complete manufacturing

and supply chain networks and look at where they can

consolidate storage and distribution to reduce total

costs and deliver superior operational

capabilities.



COOPBERN, SWITZERLAND

MULTISHUTTLE DRIVING ORDER ASSEMBLY AT COOP

Previously in Coop’s Bern distribution centre, goods from the ultra-fresh section – products with a use-by date of less than three days – were manually picked and loaded into the rolling containers in the evenings from 6 pm to around midnight, and the meat section from midnight to 10 am in the morning. Personnel levels for this labour-intensive task were high and, with order assembly taking place within a cold storage en-vironment, unpleasant for the staff.

The challenge was to come up with an automat-ed solution that would fit within the 30 year old DC, which had a low ceiling height of just 4.8 m. The variety of different pack types and sizes and the need to continue deliveries to the sales out-lets during the testing and commissioning phase, was another significant challenge to the imple-mentation partners.Space-efficient integrated system solution

Dematic’s integrated system solution comprises an automatic depalletiser, a six-aisle Multishuttle warehouse with 54 shuttles for the storage and sequential removal of trays, as well as a station for the automated stacking and loading of the rolling containers, with individual sections of the system connected by conveyors.

Leading Swiss retailer Coop has implemented a compact, six-aisle Dematic Multishuttle system in Bern for the precisely sequenced picking and despatch of meat, dairy and ultra-fresh products to its network of 135 sales outlets. From afternoon till early morning, the Multishuttle is continually retrieving trays of yoghurt, meat, pasta and sandwiches, which are then loaded for delivery to stores by an automated rolling container loading system.

Initially the system for the 1,700 m2 area was set up for processing Coop’s ultra-fresh and meat products.

The ability to also process its milk products via the Multishuttle system has further improved system utilisation and efficiency.

The product ranges are complementary, as the dairy products do not need to be picked until the afternoon.

This means the system’s return on investment will be significantly shorter, even though the Mul-tishuttle system needed to be larger.

To make optimal use of space and to be able to equip all six aisles of the Multishuttle with nine levels, Coop installed low profile ventilation ducts in-house. This provided sufficient headroom for a 33 m long by 4.5 m high Multishuttle system with 6,500 storage spaces for double-deep storage of 600 x 400 mm size trays.

Order picking and assembly

Coop works with various pack types that are pro-cessed automatically and need to be transported by the system. In addition to the three different in-ternal Coop pack types, other packs include meat boxes and different packs for the dairy products.

GROCERY RETAIL DISTRIBUTION AUTOMATED ORDER FULFILMENT


In the incoming goods section are two feed points – one for automatic unloading of pallets and one for rolling containers. Installed in direct proximity to this is a manual infeed for products which cannot be palletised, placed into storage or identified.

The rolling containers reach the depalletising sta-tion via a chain conveyor, with a buffer station for a maximum of three further trolleys. Here, a gan-try robot receives the goods, initially in stacked form, before a transfer forklift deposits the indi-vidual layers onto the conveyor, where the packs are separated.

Whether the articles are depalletised in one or two layers depends on their weight as well as the pack type, and the resulting height of the two-layer pack.

To fill the Dematic Multishuttle warehouse opti-mally, the system strives, where appropriate, to place the articles into storage stacked up to six deep. In this process, every storage compart-ment is assigned only the articles or goods that are intended for the same outlet.

Despatch order processing

From 3 pm, outward storage movements are ini-tiated for the dairy products, with the Multishuttle system simultaneously feeding three outgoing goods levels, each equipped with a packing fork-lift and a rolling container loading station. Rolling containers are loaded complete and in sequence for each level.

The high performance of the Multishuttle system permits the loading sequence in which the arti-cles are to be packed onto the rolling containers to be created directly on the transfer runs.

This means that no downstream technology is required for sequencing. This simplifies the pro-cess, saves space, and any errors can be more easily rectified so that only packs for the same rolling container are transported on a line.

The final rolling container loading is then pro-cessed via a vertical storage pack forklift for each outgoing goods section and a pusher that slides the stack onto the rolling container. An em-ployee then secures the rolling container with a lashing strap and pulls it off the conveyor.

The system, refrigerated continuously to between 3 and 5 °C, has been in full operation since May 2012. Its operation is controlled by Dematic’s Warehouse Management System (WMS), which is interfaced to Coop’s ERP system.

During the construction phase, Coop tempo-rarily transferred the crossdocking process for meat goods into a nearby building. The high turnover, ultra-fresh product range was the first to be loaded into the system, followed by Coop’s meat products. In the third and final phase of the commissioning process, dairy products were in-ducted into the system.

14

Above: Multishuttle precisely sequences SKUs for order assembly.Left: Automated depalletising of incoming goods.Right: Automated stacking and loading of rolling containers for delivery.

COOPBERN, SWITZERLAND


Flexibility and high throughput rates

The system offers considerable flexibility – this means that changes can be made quickly and easily.

This was of benefit to Coop during the commis-sioning phase. Each of the three outgoing goods areas can carry out 800 movements an hour.

With a stacking factor of 1.5, the system has an output of 3,600 trays per hour.

The Multishuttle system achieves the best output levels when things are really buzzing in the DC. In daily operation, it has been shown that when the volume increases, the stacking factor and throughput rates also increase without additional personnel being required.

This means that on quiet days, Coop has a stack-ing factor of 1.1 or 1.2 and, on busy days, such as Fridays, a stacking factor of 1.5 or even 1.7.

The experience that Coop was able to gain from this automation project has been very important for further restructuring processes and commis-sioning projects in its other distribution facilities in Switzerland.

Commenting on the project, Domenico Repetto, Head of the Bern Logistics Region at Coop, said:

“After checking the proposals we compared the solutions from the various logistics automation suppliers and, in Dematic, we ultimately found a partner who was able to handle the project de-spite the DCs ceiling height limitation.”

Domenico Repetto, Coop’s Head of Logistics, Bern Region

15

Above: Multishuttle precisely sequences SKUs for order assembly.Left: Automated depalletising of incoming goods.Right: Automated stacking and loading of rolling containers for delivery.

“

“

After checking the proposals we compared the solutions

from the various logistics

automation suppliers and,

in Dematic, we ultimately

found a partner who was able to handle the

project despite the DCs ceiling

height limitation.

Domenico Repetto, Head of Logistics

Bern Region, Coop

GROCERY RETAIL DISTRIBUTION AUTOMATED ORDER FULFILMENT


Blackwoods, the largest business in Wesfarmers Industrial and Safety Division, plays a vital role in Australia’s industry, servicing sectors as diverse as mining and manufacturing through to retailing, health and education. It distributes one of the widest product ranges in Australia, despatching up to 300,000 different SKUs each year.

A key feature of its new distribution centre at Greystanes in Sydney’s western suburbs, is the first Multishuttle 2 Goods-to-Person (GTP) order fulfilment system of its type in Australia.

“With customer expectations that are just as var-ied as our product range, our on-going goal is to fulfill all customers’ workplace needs by deliver-ing exceptional customer service and satisfac-tion through dynamic and innovative sales and service solutions, backed by efficient and timely distribution,” said Blackwoods General Manager NSW/ACT, Tony Pantilas.

Above: The Multishuttle system’s 27,200 totes house 35,000+ SKUs. Centre: The GTP system enables up to six orders to be picked at a time. Right: A GTP workstation is also used for replenishing stock.

BLACKWOODS GTP LIFTS PRODUCTIVITY, ACCURACY & SAFETY

“We’ve been working hard and investing in our people, technology and resources to make it eas-ier for customers to deal with us, and by changing with and anticipating the needs of the industries we serve,” explained Mr Pantilas.

“A key facilitator in achieving our delivery promise is our constantly evolving supply chain network, a key feature of which is our new DC at Greystanes in Sydney, featuring the first automated GTP picking system of its type in ANZ,” he said.

Dematic Multishuttle

Dematic’s Multishuttle has revolutionised the storage and sequencing of totes in split case or-der fulfilment. Blackwoods’ Multishuttle 2 system

– the first of its type in Australia – operates at up to twice the speed of the first generation model, further increasing productivity and throughput. The system includes two aisles, with totes stored double deep over 25 levels high.

Australia’s first Multishuttle 2 Goods-to-Person (GTP) order fulfilment system was a winner in the recent 2014 Supply Chain and Logistics Association of Australia Awards.

BLACKWOODS SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA


The Multishuttle is capable of supplying around 1000 totes/hour to the GTP workstations.

Stock is retrieved from the Multishuttle and deliv-ered to the GTP workstations in the precise se-quence required for order assembly – heavy items first, fragile items last, by family group or in what-ever sequence needs dictate – ensuring very high productivity and throughput rates.

Dual-purpose Goods-to-Person workstations

Each GTP workstation is dual-purpose, enabling Blackwoods to run some for picking and others for replenishment depending on the workload, op-timising flexibility. The workstations are designed to process up to 500 picks/hour but, in practice, Blackwoods’ value-adding activities during pick-ing can reduce this to around 200 picks/hour.

Blackwoods’ GTP workstation configurations – in which a single stock tote and multiple order totes are presented to the operator – eliminate time wast-ed travelling, locating and identifying stock, and enables multiple orders to be fulfilled concurrently.

With clear, easy-to-follow visual guides and pick-to-light displays, picking errors are virtually elimi-nated. An integrated weighscale checks expected weights, enhancing accuracy and ensuring any errors are identified and corrected on the spot.

Staff work in parallel at multiple picking stations, unaffected by each other’s pace, and pick sta-tions can be opened and closed according to vol-umes on a shift. The system provides full redun-dancy as orders can be processed at any location, with all stations operating independently.

Blackwoods GTP workstations enable up to six orders to be picked concurrently. The worksta-tions also include an additional order location for urgent orders, such as customer pick-ups. This location can also be used to replenish urgently required stock to the Multishuttle storage buffer.

Orders are typically launched at the GTP work-station. After the GTP portion of the order is com-plete, the operator pushes the order tote onto a conveyor, which transports it through Pallet Live Storage (PLS), longspan shelving and Carton Live Storage (CLS) areas to complete the order.

SKUs not suitable for GTP

Slower-moving SKUs and goods not suitable for storage within the Multishuttle are stored within PLS, longspan shelving, CLS and selective rack.

Each aisle is serviced by two elevators, one feed-ing totes into the aisle and one retrieving them, with each elevator capable of handling two totes at a time, doubling the throughput for every cycle.

To accommodate Blackwoods’ wide range of SKUs – from small nuts to large industrial fittings

– dividers in the totes enables two, four or eight SKUs to be stored in each tote, with the system’s 27,200 totes housing 35,000+ SKUs.

The Multishuttle system software is self-learning, and stock locations are controlled on a dynamic basis. Each time a SKU is retrieved, the system examines how often the SKU is required, and puts the tote away accordingly, with fast-moving SKUs stored towards the front of the system and slower-moving SKUs stored towards the rear.

“

“

The GTP has been in place for over four months, and

we’re very pleased with the output. It’s delivering to what Dematic said it would

from a pick rate and productivity perspective, and

the system has also been very reliable.

Tony Pantilas, General Manager

NSW/ACT, Blackwoods


WHOLESALE/B2B INDUSTRIAL SUPPLIES


Above: Tony Pantilas, General Manager NSW/ACT, Blackwoods Below: Voice-directed case and pallet picking modules

18

Blackwoods System Benefits

• Consolidation of two DCs totalling 23,000 m2 into one new 14,000 m2 DC

• Multishuttle provides very high productivity and throughput rates: 1000 totes/hour

• Delivers SKUs to GTP workstations in exact sequence to optimise order assembly

• Lighter weight, low voltage Multishuttles use less energy, provide quieter operation

• Self-learning software for tote put-away constantly improves tote retrieval efficiency

• Improved inventory management, with ongoing checkweighing and cycle counting

• Error-free put-away process ensures inventory accuracy, reducing stock-outs

• Space reserved for extra aisle provides future flexibility, reduced initial investment

• Dual-purpose GTP workstations suitable for both picking and replenishment

• GTP system enables fast picking of urgent/customer pick-up orders in 15 minutes

• Intuitive, easy-to-learn, with just one hour of training required by new operators

• Aiming for 75% of SKUs to be handled by GTP, with a 95% reduction in errors

• GTP system provides full redundancy as orders can be processed at any location

• Enhanced OH&S with increased separation of staff and forklifts

• PickDirector WCS seamlessly integrates with Blackwoods’ WMS for total visibility of picking, and real-time system performance and order status data.

After all the required SKUs from the GTP system have been picked into the order totes, the sys-tem’s integrated conveyor system transports the order totes to the raised storage level PLS and longspan shelving picking module, where any additional SKUs from this area are picked and added to the order.

To ensure accuracy, the order totes are scanned and all picking in the PLS and longspan shelving picking module is voice-directed.

When all of the items for an order have been picked in the PLS and longspan shelving areas, the order tote is pushed onto a central conveyor, which transports it to the ground level CLS pick-ing module, where any final items required for an order are picked. After items required from the CLS picking module have been placed into the order tote, it is pushed onto the central take-away conveyor, which transports the order tote to the DC’s conveyor sorting system, where the orders are automatically sorted to the appropri-ate shipping lane for checking, packing and des-patch.

Integrated system software

Dematic’s PickDirector Warehouse Control Soft-ware (WCS) controls the real-time flow of the GTP workstations, as well as voice-directed picking in the PLS, shelving and CLS areas, and the flow of orders through the system to despatch.

Dematic’s Manager Direct & Wholesale Distribu-tion, Darren Rawlinson, said: “Our PickDirector Warehouse Control Software integrates with Blackwoods’ WMS to provide total visibility of all picking operations within the warehouse, and provides Blackwoods with real-time system per-formance and order status data.”

Blackwoods GTP system performance

“The GTP system has now been in place for over four months, and we’ve been very pleased with the output,” said Tony Pantilas.

“It’s delivering to what Dematic said it would from both a pick rate and productivity perspective, and the system has also been very reliable.

Mr Pantilas added: “When we first started, we didn’t have all our products in the Multishuttle sys-tem and around 25% of our throughput was com-ing from the GTP system. That’s now increased to around 50% and we expect it to increase to 75% as we move more products into the GTP system.

“One of the benefits of the GTP system is that it is easy to operate,” said Mr Pantilas.

“We have had multiple people using the GTP from forklift drivers to packers. In fact all of our staff are very keen to work on the GTP. It’s easy, it’s clean, it’s safe, and it also gives them another skillset.

“Obviously there’s got to be some sort of training prior to going onto the GTP, and we have pre-pared a training package which explains how the system works. A team leader typically spends an hour or so training a new team member. It’s a very simple process and, within an hour or so, most people are comfortable and proficient with the requirements,” explained Mr Pantilas.

Flexibility for responsiveness and future growth

Mr Rawlinson said the major challenge Dematic faced in coming up with the most appropriate in-tegrated order fulfillment solution for Blackwoods was the incredibly diverse range of SKUs and the very high service level it provides to customers.

“Our system design had to be very flexible in re-gards to Blackwoods’ product range, provide very high levels of accuracy and also be respon-sive to its customers’ changing needs,” said Mr Rawlinson. He added: “Accordingly, our layout was designed with expansion in mind.

“Space has been reserved for a future aisle, which would provide 50% more storage capacity, to-gether with additional GTP workstations to en-able Blackwoods to further increase throughput.”

BLACKWOODS SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA


WHOLESALE/B2B INDUSTRIAL SUPPLIES


Heilan Home is located in Xinqiao, Jiangyin, Ji-angsu Province in China.

As a major clothing company, it focuses on man-aging brands, producing and distributing high-end woolens, suits and business clothes under four key brands – Heilan Home, Eichitoo, Bett-sale and Sancanal – creating its distinctive brand

“Heilan Home - Men’s Closet”.

Driving business transformation

Operating under a “brand and platform model”, Heilan Home retains responsibility for product development, brand management, supply chain activities and sales network management, while outsourcing clothing manufacture and shipping.

SMART LOGISTICS A GOOD FIT FOR HEILAN

Significant investment in smart logistics and IT systems has helped leading Chinese clothing distributor Heilan Home expand rapidly in recent years, with its turnover increasing by 50% to 12.7 billion RMB in 2013.

During the logistics transformation project, Heilan Home has been continually building its supply chain competencies to support growth, with its Intelligent Warehouse System (IWS) featuring high levels of logistics and IT automation.

Heilan Home operates a growing network of chain stores. This enables the business to unify and manage store presentation, supply chain and service standards, with franchisees sharing sales income with Heilan Home.

Importance of logistics

Heilan Home Chairman, Zhou Jianping, places a high priority on supply chain efficiency.

In Huashi, Jiangyin, Heilan Home’s Logistics Park is located opposite its R&D facilities and compris-es 24 warehouses, picking and sortation centres and delivery halls.

The buildings cover 800,000 m2 and represent an investment of 1.6 billion RMB, including Demat-ic’s Intelligent Warehouse System (IWS), which went live in November 2013. The IWS comprises two ASRS, three delivery halls, and one distribu-tion centre. Heilan Home’s Logistics Park has a design inventory of 14,640,000 cartons and the storage capacity is 80 million products.

Infeed and outfeed capacity can both reach up to 320,000 pieces per day. Zhang Judi, Director of Heilan Home Storage & Delivery Centre, said the IWS is the largest and most advanced automated logistics system in the Chinese apparel industry.

Above: Overhead carton conveyor and packing station. Left: Pallets are conveyed into the ASRS.

HEILAN HOMEJIANGSU PROVINCE, CHINA

APPAREL RETAIL DISTRIBUTION INTEGRATED LOGISTICS SYSTEM



Initially Heilan Home’s Logistics Centre consist-ed of single storey warehouses, which were run manually. As the business grew, the single storey warehouses were modified into two-storey facili-ties, while newly-built warehouses were designed with three or four levels.

Integrated logistics systems

Two ASRS are located in Buildings 9 and 10, a picking zone in Building 16, hanging garment sys-tems in Building 17, returns processing in Build-ings 18, 19 and 20 and delivery halls in Buildings 21, 22 and 23.

Dematic’s 27 m high ASRS contains 73,200 pallet locations serviced by 30 SRMs, 274 pallet con-veyors, 8 shuttle cars and high-rate sorting sys-tems.

The IWS covers automated storage, batch pick-ing, automated sorting, delivery and returns pro-cessing and comprises ASRS, voice picking, case conveyors, spiral conveyor systems, crossbelt and pop-up wheel sortation systems.

With each item identified by a unique barcode, the company can accurately manage storage, distri-bution and sales. The IWS also supports Helian Home’s growing online business activities, with automated checkweighing in its eCommerce warehouse eliminating costly delivery errors, en-abling the business to achieve online order deliv-ery accuracy of close to 100%.

Logistics operations

Being the only DC for Heilan Home, the Logistics Park never really has peaks or low seasons. As Heilan Home is responsible for suppliers’ inven-tory management, products constantly flow into warehouses.

At the same time, Heilan Home needs to replen-ish goods to stores in a timely manner to maintain required stock levels, which means processes like infeed and outfeed basically never stop.

Garments in Heilan Home are largely picked from cartons, which accounts for about 70% of sales,, with the remainder picked as hanging garments.

Infeed storage

After delivered goods have passed QA checks on receipt, they are inducted into the ASRS in Build-ings 9 and 10.

Staff take goods out of cartons, scan the product barcodes one by one, and put the stock into Heilan Home standard cartons. To optimise space, over-head conveyors are used in the Receiving Zone for carton replenishment and recycling.

Three scanning and repacking lines contain 36 workstations and can handle up to 160,000 prod-ucts per day. Operators then palletise cartons, scanning the carton code and pallet barcode. Pal-lets are then transported to the conveyor lines in front of the ASRS by forklift for put-away.

Picking and outfeed

Packaged garments pallets from Warehouse 9 and 10 are retrieved by SRMs and fed out onto the fourth floor. When pallets arrive at conveyor lines in front of the ASRS, operators retrieve cartons from the pallets and put them onto case conveyors, which transports them to a picking zone.

After fast-moving SKUs are outfed, they are trans-ferred by inclined case conveyors to the third floor of Warehouse 9 and 10, where items are picked using voice-directed picking.

Medium-slow moving goods are outfed on the fourth floor for replenishment of floors 4-6 of Ware-house 16.

Two crossbelt sorter lines across three levels can process orders for up to 500 stores simultaneously, handling up to 40,000 items per hour.

Sorted orders are sealed, labelled and wrapped. Orders and goods from the repacking zone are merged onto case conveyors and transferred to three delivery halls covering an area of 36,000 m2.

HEILAN HOMEJIANGSU PROVINCE, CHINA


Products are then sorted by pop-up wheel sorters to the appropriate despatch lanes and loaded onto trucks for shipping.

Two shipping waves occur every day – one in the morning, and one in the afternoon.

Heilan Home achieves an on-time delivery rate of over 98%, with stores in Yangtze River Delta re-ceiving goods same day, and deliveries to its most remote stores in towns like Wulumuqi taking up to five days.

Hanging garments

Hanging garments are stored and picked in two seven-floor automated hanging garment ware-houses, with each level linked by conveyors.

The warehouses use an overhead rail conveyor system with a total capacity of 1.2 million products.

Taking Warehouse 23 as an example, the first floor is the delivery hall, the second floor is a sortation zone, and the third to seventh floors are utilised for receiving and storage.

A total of 183 rail tracks were installed in the hang-ing garment warehouses, enabling batch picking for up to 183 stores.

Before outfeed, hanging garments are taken off hangers and put into cartons, which are merged with flat-packed goods in the delivery hall.

They are then consolidated for shipping.

The automated hanging garment warehouses are also equipped with empty-carton conveyors and automated wrapping machines. All outwards prod-ucts flow into delivery halls where they are loaded onto trucks for shipping to different regions.

This means that goods from different warehouses have to arrive at the same time in the delivery hall.

Processing returns

Unlike other clothing companies which typically wholesale their goods, Heilan Home owns the op-erating and managing rights of its stores.

When product sales cycles end, last season’s SKUs are returned to the Logistics Centre where they are processed into sizes and styles, enabling the re-maining stock to be consolidated for sale. Because of this, Heilan Home handles a lot more returns processing than many other clothing companies.

All incoming returns are scanned at Warehouse 18 to update inventory levels and are then put into totes. When the stock enters Warehouse 19, a QA inspection checks for any damage that may make the goods unsuitable for sale.

After product pre-sortation, where clothes are sort-ed into different types like trousers, shirts and T-shirts, the stock is buffered before being automati-cally sorted into batches in Warehouse 20.

IWS benefits

Dematic’s IWS has supported the rapid growth of Heilan Home, and delivered multiple benefits:• Integrated logistics systems which deliver

Goods-to-Person, have significantly increased operating speed and accuracy with order fulfil-ment now taking eight hours instead of 24.

• With seven times the capacity of a conventional warehouse, the introduction of ASRS has opti-mised space efficiency and reduced land costs.

• Batch picking has enabled the business to significantly decrease manual picking, reduc-ing labour costs by more than 60%. The good working environment also attracts higher qual-ity workers, with students and college gradu-ates making up a large percentage of staff.


Above: 27 m high ASRS with 73,200 pallets.

Left: Hanging garment rail system.

Right: Orders are automatically sorted for truck loading.


TECHNOLOGYGOODS-TO-PERSON (GTP)

22

MODULAR GOODS-TO-PERSON ORDER FULFILMENTA new pre-engineered and pre-configured Goods-to-Person (GTP) order picking solution with fast implementation, high productivity and rapid ROI for a wide variety of small to mid-sized businesses distributing from 200 to 1,000+ order lines per hour.

Issues including the lack of a reliable, willing and available workforce, increasing employment costs, workplace safety and the need for greater flexibil-ity to cope with ongoing business uncertainty are driving the development of new, highly efficient and cost-effective logistics automation solutions.

Key among these is automated Goods-to-Person (GTP) picking solutions, but traditionally the ROI has not been compelling for small to medium-sized operations. Enter Dematic’s new, Modular GTP System – a flexible, off-the-shelf picking so-lution, which can be scaled up or down as your business changes or as seasonality dictates.

Ultra-high productivity

A single Dematic Modular GTP System pick sta-tion operator can achieve very high rates of up to 1000+ items per hour, with minimal errors.

Stock is delivered to picking stations in the precise sequence required for order assembly – heavy items first, fragile items last, by family group or in whatever sequence needs dictate – ensuring high productivity and throughput.

Ultra-high accuracy

Light-directed, one-to-two pick station con-figurations – in which a single stock tote and two order totes are presented to the opera-tor – eliminate time wasted waiting for stock, and enable multiple orders to be fulfilled concurrently.

An integrated weighscale at the pick location checks expected weights, further enhancing ac-curacy and ensuring that any errors are identified and corrected on the spot.

Flexible operations

Staff work in parallel at multiple picking stations, unaffected by each other’s pace, and pick sta-tions can be opened and closed according to vol-umes on a particular shift.

The system provides full redundancy as orders can be processed at any location with all stations operating independently. The system throughput can be doubled or tripled by adding extra aisles and picking stations.

Pre-configured, off-the-shelf picking solution

A key advantage of the new Modular GTP System is that it requires minimal customisation, reducing costs and enabling rapid installation and start-up.

This makes it a flexible picking solution for a wide variety of small to medium-throughput order fulfil-ment applications. All of the hardware including storage systems, Multishuttle, GTP picking sta-tions, and software is pre-configured.

The only systems integration requirements are connecting the high density Multishuttle inventory buffer store to a conveyor network, to transport orders out of the system, and to interface the sys-tem’s software and controls with the user’s ware-house management system (WMS).

Modular GTP system applications

• eCommerce • Electronic goods • Mechanical and electrical components• Hardware, tools• Spare parts• Pharmacy, cosmetics • Niche retailers, convenience stores• Third party logistics


MODULAR GOODS-TO-PERSON (GTP) MULTISHUTTLE INVENTORY BUFFER WITH GTP PICK STATIONS

23

DEMATIC MODULAR GTP SYSTEM BENEFITS

One aisle – One pick station

Two aisles – One pick station

Two aisles – Two pick stations

Three aisles – One pick station

Three aisles – Three pick stations

Rapid installation and start-up Modular, pre-engineered design reduces risks, cuts lead times, speeds installation and ROI

Ultra-high productivity and accuracy Very high pick rates of more than 1000+ items/hour with minimal errors at a single pick station

Scalability improves flexibility, lowers initial cost Scalable from 4,000-40,000 totes, provides future flexibility, reduces investment, building/rental costs

Fast ROI – from as little as three years Productivity savings, reduced errors, lower building/leasing and operating costs add up to a quick ROI

Dematic 24/7 service and support One of the world’s largest integrated logistics and IT systems service and support networks

MODULAR GOODS-TO-PERSON ORDER FULFILMENT

VALE PETER TROTTER

Peter Trotter, General Manager of Mar-keting at Dematic in Australia, passed away recently after a short illness.

Peter worked at Dematic (formerly Colby) for 34 years and was Dematic’s longest serving employee.

An extremely creative and strategic mar-keter, Peter was a key contributor to the success of Dematic in the region.

He was greatly respected and admired by colleagues and peers, and seen by many as an elder statesman of the industry.

Peter also had a successful international wheelchair racing career in which he set five world records and won gold medals at two Paralympics.

He was also a significant contributor to the development of wheelchair sports in Australia. Peter served on the National Committee on Sport and Recreation for Disabled People, the Elite Sports Com-mittee of the Australian Institute of Sport, and The Australian Olympic Commit-tee’s Sport for All Commission.

In 1991 he was awarded the Jan Bens Memorial Prize for his inspiration of, and contribution to, the disabled community. In 2000 he was awarded the Australian Sports Medal by the then Prime Minister, John Howard.

Peter’s contribution to our industry, sport and the community was prolific.

He will be sorely missed by all.


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Dematic Logistics Review - Issue 10

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