The C&A success story began in 1841 as a textile warehouse in Holland.
Since then, the company has grown into a large European enterprise with some two million people visiting more than 1,575 C&A shops daily in 21 countries worldwide.
The Bertalsmann subsidiary arvato SCM Solutions processes all the orders placed through the C&A online shop from several European countries at its centre in Langenhagen, Germany. Hidden from the customer are the steps that take place between clicking on a selection at home and receiving the goods – it is for this stage that arvato uses Dürkopp technology to provide reliable, fast delivery.
The Dürkopp pocket system
The pocket system sorts articles such as shoes, books and film-wrapped textiles – in fact, anything that would fit into a shopping bag and is not breakable.
Warehouse operators take goods out of the transport container and pass them over the integrated scanner. When the barcode is read, a confirmation is displayed and from this moment on, the unique article data is allocated to the pocket’s RFID transponder and used to track and identify the item in all the processes which follow. Parts that cannot be transported lying flat, such as coats and dresses, are hung by hanger on the pockets which have a special attachment.
Returns given priority
C&A offers many different products to the consumer and the quick handling of returns is naturally very important. Returned goods are checked and repacked and then put back into the system at special goods-in stations. With the introduction of the pocket system at arvato, the manual sorting processes were eliminated and walking distances decreased with faster delivery speeds and higher picking performance achieved.
The restructuring programme, which was carried out during ongoing commercial operations, did not impede day-to-day business in any way and after the pocket system was successfully installed, C&A received very positive feedback regarding the faster processing times.
“For the C&A online shop logistics, we planned and installed the innovative Pocket Sorter System with our partner, Dürkopp. With the system, we can meet our constantly growing demands,” said Michael Sorge, Director Operations at arvato in Langenhagen.
Visitors to IntraLogisteX are warmly invited to visit the KNAPP/Durkopp stand No. 195, located in the AMHSA zone, to hear about the latest fully integrated retail solutions.
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