Omni-channel retailers are facing a huge logistical challenge. Creating a seamless supply chain capable of replenishing stores efficiently and simultaneously coping with an ever-growing volume of internet sales calls for a radical rethink of the distribution centre. However, Dematic Group believes it has a ‘game-changing’ solution – as part of its expanded range of powerful new offerings for the e-commerce market.
Retailers can no longer afford to consider store and internet fulfilment as separate operations. Internet sales are growing at a phenomenal rate and, according to the latest figures from IMRG Capgemini, exceeded £100bn in 2014 with growth of 12% expected for 2015.
As the proportion of sales made over the internet continues to increase, retailers are facing up to the economic necessity to bring their internet fulfilment operations in-house – or at least, pull them in from a distant corner of the warehouse. Consolidating inventory and integrating processes offers considerable cost and availability benefits, but creating an Omni-channel fulfilment capability that has the flexibility to deal with store replenishment (picking in large numbers) and internet sales (picking in singles or small numbers) presents a major challenge.
Returns too, are increasingly significant and how they are handled can dramatically affect margin, as those in the fashion sector know well.
Stuart Stables, Managing Director – Dematic Northern Europe says, “Whilst you may be picking the same items, the order profiles are very different for store and internet channels. So, how do you suit both requirements?
“The answer does not lie in the automated hardware but in the intelligence of the software. You can’t solve a problem like this with pure mechanics. Automation is part of the requirement when you have scale, but the profiles are so different for each channel that it’s a matter of using innovative, intelligent software which can reduce the need for mechanical equipment such as buffers and sorters.”
Dematic Group has developed a new concept called RapidPut that uses ground-breaking software to remove the need for the high levels of automation normally demanded by e-fulfilment operations. In effect, the sophisticated software at the heart of RapidPut creates a dynamic ‘pick and put’ process – a wave-less or endless batching system that removes the requirement for sortation equipment.
Offering scalable solutions for businesses as they grow, RapidPut brings together ‘Put Walls’, conveyors and light or voice technology in an integrated solution capable of meeting the heavy demands of seasonal order fulfilment. The intelligent Dematic iQ software behind RapidPut considers picking and putting as part of a continuous integrated process, creating a dynamic batching solution without the need for a picking buffer. As Stables puts it, “the software is the buffer.”
“Intelligence designed into the RapidPut solution continuously monitors resource utilisation and dynamically adjusts and prioritises work orders and flows to reduce cycle time, labour and unit costs,” says Stables. “This helps to minimise the peaks and valleys associated with traditional wave-based fulfilment solutions.”
Tens of thousands of customer orders can be processed every day, on-time, and all to accuracy levels of 99.98%. Depending upon the SKU range and size of the products picked anywhere between 250 and 450 items can be processed per hour.
As RapidPut is a software based solution, it presents companies with a lower entry level for automated systems and provides a far more rapid return on investment – making it accessible for smaller ecommerce enterprises.
But RapidPut is just part of the story. In the last few months Dematic Group has significantly expanded its offering to the e-commerce marketplace with the acquisition of SDI Group Europe. As the leading global supplier of automated materials handling equipment, Dematic Group already had a wide portfolio of solutions for the retail sector, from storage and retrieval systems, conveyors and high-speed sortation systems, to goods-to-person item picking, pick- or put-to-light systems, and dynamic replenishment solutions.
Other innovative products in the Dematic range for e-commerce include, the ‘MonaLisa’ pouch sortation system, along with a range of mid to high-speed sorters, and Goods on Hanger solutions, which are all well suited to the fast moving fashion sector.
The MonaLisa pouch sortation system is a highly flexible, dynamic buffering and hanging pouch system that enables the carriage of both hanging and flat product in a single pouch. But where it has really taken off is in handling returns. In a sector where returns can be up to 50%, buffering returned items using MonaLisa dramatically cuts time and effort in processing goods for re-sale, creating a far more responsive returns process that drives sales and boosts margins.
But beyond all else, Stuart Stables sees intelligent software being at the heart of Omni-channel’s fulfilment revolution. “In the last two years Dematic Group has significantly invested in software development across the globe,” he says. “It will be intelligent software that will offer Omni-channel retailers the competitive advantage of being able to flex fulfilment to the needs of the business – allowing later cut-offs and scaleability for extreme peaks, such as ‘Black Friday’.”
Stables explains, “Apparel sites are often so large that there is a significant ‘dwell time’ for items passing through an automated system. But to hit the latest possible cut-off, a fast manual process may be required, and so intelligent software is needed to make better decisions on whether to use automation or manual picking – albeit at a higher cost.”
Stables concludes: “Dematic Group is a total service provider to the Omni-channel market. Our broader product portfolio enables us to offer a far more comprehensive package for our Omni-channel clients and allows us to provide a fully integrated IT platform with intelligence and flexibility designed in, creating a much simpler, seamless solution that can respond rapidly and appropriately to the daily changing dynamics of an Omni-channel fulfilment operation.
“For our clients, our holistic approach to creating and installing intelligent Omni-channel solutions ensures a far simpler, reliable and competitive result – and with just one capable supplier on the project the client has a single point of responsibility, which ultimately reduces the client’s exposure to risk.”
Dematic
Tel: 01295 274600
Email: info.uk@dematic.com
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