As part of its annual Month Of Visitors Event (MOVE), warehouse automation specialist, KNAPP, hosted more than 60 customers, prospective clients and members of the press from the UK, Scandinavia and Benelux at its headquarters in Graz, Austria, on 2nd and 3rd October.
As well as an overview of KNAPP’s multichannel solutions – including insightful presentations from UK clients, Boots and John Lewis – guests experienced KNAPP’s latest technologies at first hand in its fully functioning showroom, including a first glimpse at Pick-it-Easy Robot, a state-of-the-art robotic picking system, and Pick-it-Easy Move, an innovative semi-automated picking solution with the potential to revolutionise grocery warehouses.
Award-winning solution for Boots UK
In a fascinating presentation, Daniel Wallace, Head of Fulfilment for boots.com, explained the multichannel system supplied by KNAPP to Boots UK’s new distribution facility in Burton-upon-Trent, which opened in February 2012. Mr Wallace explained that the pharmacy-led health and beauty retailer had experienced rapid growth in its online operations, driving a move from its outsourced, largely manual operation in Birmingham to in-house fulfilment in the new Burton Service Centre. The warehouse not only supports order processing for the 28,000 product lines of the company’s e-commerce operation, but also its Christmas gift ranges (some 2,500 product lines) and its international distribution, which prepares orders for Boots stores abroad. Alliance Boots invested over £50 million in the facility, which included the purchase of the existing 460,000 sq ft building – the area of six football pitches – its total refurbishment and the automated handling systems.
At the heart of the solution are 12 of KNAPP’s OSR Shuttle™ systems, which provide automated storage combined with goods-to-person order picking at eight ergonomically designed Pick-it-Easy workstations. Ideal for slow- and medium-moving goods, the OSR Shuttle™ systems process the majority of the inventory at Burton. Fast-moving products, meanwhile, are picked in a flow rack area at one of eight workstations that utilise pick-to-light technology. KNAPP also supplied its KiSoft WMS (warehouse management system) and KiSoft WCS (warehouse control software) to optimise all warehouse movements and processes. In addition, Boots UK contracted KNAPP to provide a team of resident engineers in order to maintain the handling solution.
The system handles up to 75,000 order lines per day, with small orders being batch picked and manually packed. KNAPP was awarded the accolade ‘Technology & Logistics Supplier of the Year’ at the 2012 Grocer Gold Awards for the system it supplied to Boots UK, which has increased time efficiency by 65% compared to the previous manual operation, while also improving order traceability. Although yet to experience its first Christmas peak, Daniel Wallace concluded that the solution was already providing a significant reduction in variable costs. He also stated that the system provided a platform for further growth by having a modular design.
Retail looms large in current KNAPP projects
Having built its success and global presence on projects for the pharmaceutical supply chain, it is in fact retail that is now the fastest-growing sector for KNAPP in the UK, according to Gerald Hofer, KNAPP’s new CEO. He explained that the projects currently in progress and under discussion in the retail industry were both highly sophisticated and large in scale. The demand of the retail industry to focus on B2C, said Mr Hofer, translated into a need for higher flexibility and accuracy in logistics. With B2C business making the order well much less predictable and the pick window getting ever smaller as cut-off deadlines become later, warehouse performance is proving absolutely key to success. KNAPP, Mr Hofer explained, is using its experience and expertise acquired in the pharma supply chain to improve accuracy and throughput in the retail sector – in particular, VISION technology is being used to make human pickers more reliable.
Mr Hofer went on to say that the UK is one of the three most important markets for KNAPP, not only in Europe but worldwide. While KNAPP has been a strong player in Europe, the USA and South America for some time, Eastern Europe is becoming increasingly important to the group, along with Australia and Asia.
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