European Conveyor Systems has installed an automated conveyor system for a sat-nav company’s new distribution centre.
The company needed a system that could respond to rapidly expanding sales, reduce manual handling and walking in the warehouse and improve pick accuracy. Altogether, 850m of conveyor links 16 zones in the picking area with the dispatch area. 500 orders a week are completed for distributors and subsidiaries, and a further 900 items a week go to individual customers who have ordered online.
The products are stored in 12,000 sq m of warehousing space with 5,000 pallet locations, 1,500 bulk pick locations ?and 900 small pick locations. Each order is allocated to a specific tote by scanning the barcode with a hand-held scanner linked to the conveyor control system. The tote. which then holds its picking zone and dispatch destinations. is conveyed around the system to fulfil its order request.
At the pick stations. staff use RF wrist scanners to confirm correct product pick and quantity and provide live inventory control to the WMS. Once a tote fills up. staff at a pick station can add another via the conveyor control system. Completed orders are conveyed automatically to one of six dispatch lanes where they are checked and packed.
