Increasing labour costs, less available space and frequent small orders with short delivery times; these are a few of the challenges today’s warehouses and distribution centres have to face. It’s a constant search for solutions that reduce operational costs, generate higher productivity, optimise space utilisation and enable high service levels. Vanderlande Industries provides these solutions. In this article we take a closer look at a few of them.
Vanderlande Industries is a leading supplier of automated warehouses and distribution centres, with a track record of over 1,000 satisfied customers in a wide range of industries. Through our in-depth understanding of business processes in warehousing and distribution, we provide competitive automated solutions for goods receiving, storage, order picking, consolidation and shipping. Our flexible solutions meet the changing market demands.
Increase storage density
Automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS) are a key technology in modern warehouse logistics, and are beneficial in a range of warehouse processes: bulk storage, order picking and order consolidation. AS/RS systems enable storage density to be increased by up to 60%. Vanderlande Industries offers the QUICKSTORE range of AS/RS systems. The QUICKSTORE range includes various miniloads, the HDS shuttle system and the Microshuttle. QUICKSTORE AS/RS systems can be equipped with many different load handling devices. QUICKSTORE AS/RS systems are developed and manufactured by Beewen, a Vanderlande Industries company which is one of the leading European suppliers of AS/RS systems.
Flexible Microshuttle
Microshuttles are not dedicated to one storage level but can move between different levels in the racking via a lift. This type of system is referred to as a ‘roaming shuttle’. The shuttles have ‘on-board energy’ by the use of capacitors and use wireless communication. Each Microshuttle system can grow with the business and throughput of the customer. For example a system with 12 levels can start with 2 shuttles, keeping the initial investment low. As throughput requirements increase, shuttles can be added individually. For a closer look at our Microshuttle; take a look at our video.
Efficient and accurate order picking
Order picking accounts for up to 60% of warehouse costs. Processing customer orders quickly and accurately also has a direct impact on customer satisfaction. Automated order picking systems can increase your productivity up to 1,000 lines per man-hour, improve your picking accuracy up to 99.99% and enable you to deliver higher customer service levels. Selecting the best order picking system for your business depends on the characteristics of your operation and products. We offer a broad range of order picking systems for loose products, cases and pallets, including zone picking systems, goods-to-man systems and batch picking systems, right up to fully automated case picking and tote picking systems.
Ergonomic solutions
Our customers want to offer their employees an attractive working environment while at the same time achieving high productivity and short learning curves. Vanderlande Industries is aware that workstation design is a critical success factor to achieve high employee engagement. That’s why we developed the @EASE workstation range: its proven ergonomics enable operators to maintain high productivity for sustained working periods.
PICK@EASE improves performance
Our PICK@EASE is a good example of such a workstation. With this process products, stored in standard-sized plastic containers, are retrieved from storage racks by automatic cranes (AS/RS systems) and brought to the operator via a conveyor system. The operator picks the required amount of products out of the product container and places it in another standard-sized plastic container, representing a customer order. The operator workstation plays a crucial role in such a system. A single order picker working with the new system can replace up to 9 ‘traditional’ order pickers. The new system also improves the performance of the overall warehouse, as it significantly improves picking accuracy, ensuring the customer gets the correct order at the right time.
See for yourself
The PICK@EASE workstation was developed in close cooperation with TNO, Europe’s largest Institute for technological and strategic research and consultancy with expertise in ergonomics. See how it works after implementing? Watch our video about Onninen, a family-owned company from Finland that operates in northern Europe. The company provides comprehensive materials services to contractors, industry, public utilities and technical product retailers. Vanderlande Industries designed and implement the material handling system (including warehouse control system) for its new order fulfilment centre in Hyvinkää, Finland.
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