Eliminate Touches for Fast, Reliable Fulfillment
Short delivery times. Returns rate over 40%. A broad and constantly changing range of goods. A global online retailer was challenged to consistently meet consumer demands for faster delivery.
The answer? A thoroughly modern pocket sorter that uses overhead space. Everything from clothing to shoes to accessories and more is dynamically conveyed, buffered and merged to quickly fill orders. The pocket sorter is part of a seamlessly integrated system that enables zero-touch item handling. Here’s how.
- The robotic shuttle system supplies picking robots with items.
- The robotic picking system auto-inducts items into pockets using an AI-powered vision and scanning system with retry functionality.
- A patent-pending pocket release mechanism automatically drops items with no loss in performance.
- RFID technology ensures 100% traceability.
- Intelligent matrix sortation software dynamically sequences and buffers items, including reserve/forward picking.
- Single items are automatically sent to pack stations in the right sequence by using matrix sortation and the new pocket into packet capability accelerates the process.
- Intelligent logistics software controls, monitors and optimizes all processes.
OBJECTIVES
- Enable more resilient operations
- Consistently meet SLAs
- Utilize space more effectively
DESICISION-MAKING PRIORITIES
- Cubic utilization
- Throughput
- Cost
- Lead Time
Dynamic zero-touch handling for a dynamic market
The dynamic buffer makes it possible to retrieve any article at any time from anywhere in the facility. That means there’s no single point of failure. It also contributes to the pocket sorter’s ability to process up to 50,000 items per hour. The pocket sorter enables faster and more affordable returns. Fully automatic induct stations place returns into pockets, where they’re stored in the dynamic buffer and immediately made available for resale.
A reliable solution for uncertain times
The automated pocket sorter gives the online retailer what it needs to meet service-level agreements (SLAs) today and free limited resources. When they need more capacity? The pocket sorter easily scales to meet demand. It’s ready to go as they grow.
