For omnichannel distribution centres, as well as the warehouses of pure play retailers, logistics efficiency means achieving a balance of the lowest handling cost with the greatest flexibility and – given the high cost of returns – exceptionally high levels of accuracy. Through a number of major installations – including handling systems for John Lewis and Marks & Spencer that went live this year – KNAPP continues to demonstrate how warehouse automation is unrivalled in meeting the supply chain needs of both traditional retail and e-commerce.

E-tail technologies

With e-commerce characterised by a large number of orders but a small quantity of items per order, and with pick windows being squeezed as online ordering deadlines become later, the case for automation to maximise warehouse performance becomes compelling. Controlled by intelligent software, automated handling systems allow retailers to achieve economies of scale through batch picking of orders and yet synchronise flows of goods to fulfil individual orders.

KNAPP’s OSR Shuttle™ system – which combines shuttle storage technology with ergonomically designed picking stations – is a solution that lies at the heart of many KNAPP solutions for the retail sector. Here, pick-tolight technology is used to pick goods into multiple totes, with light curtains able to detect when goods are placed into the wrong tote.

Another increasingly popular technology for the sequencing of batch-picked goods is KNAPP’s Pocket Sorter system. This solution consists of hanging pockets – suitable for flatpacked clothes, shoes, accessories, books, DVDs or toys – that are conveyed to a matrix sorter so that they arrive at the packing stations in the correct sequence to collate each customer’s order. With each pocket featuring an RFID tag, the Pocket Sorter can process up to 10,000 items an hour and, crucially, allows flat-packed goods and hanging garments to be processed on the same system.

JOHN LEWIS

2016 saw the handover of the automated material handling systems in John Lewis’ new MP2 DC at its Magna Park campus in Milton Keynes. The retailer’s original 650,000 sq ft warehouse at the site – Magna Park 1, or MP1 – was kitted out with an automated handling system by KNAPP when it went live back in 2009. Now John Lewis has added another 675,000 sq ft warehouse – MP2 – that is connected to MP1 by a bridge. Together, the facilities serve John Lewis’ 48 stores nationwide and thriving online business, supporting total sales in excess of £4 billion. At peak, Magna Park replenishes some 3 million units of stock to stores each week, as well as delivering about 50% of the £1.1 billion online business, either directly to the customer or via click & collect.

High-bay pallet store

The new MP2 warehouse went live in stages between July 2015 and September 2016. It features a high-bay pallet store with five automatic stacker cranes that operate to a height of almost 20m, in aisles that are 130m long. With 11,544 locations for pretoted buffer stock, the high-bay store significantly increases the stockholding capacity of the Magna Park campus.

Hanging garment automation

MP2 also features an automated handling system for hanging garments supplied by KNAPP group member, Dürkopp Fördertechnik. This solution facilitates the consolidation of clothing on hangers with other goods for both store replenishment and direct-to-customer orders. Arranged over six levels to a height of 20m, the hanging garment storage area comprises three levels of static storage and three levels of dynamic storage. The static area has a storage capacity of approximately 1.4 million single items and is served by Dürkopp’s trolley-less conveyor system. The three levels of dynamic storage feature 126 dynamic buffers using the Dürkopp ‘rolladapter’ technology – a standardised adapter with a large opening which allows the use of a wide range of plastic or metal hangers – providing capacity for some 380,000 items.

Shuttle store

The new warehouse also has a tote store that features KNAPP’s new YLOG-Shuttle system, which enables shuttles to travel in both directions through the use of swivelling wheels and an innovative power supply system. The system at MP2 has 72 shuttles that serve 71,345 tote locations, with modular design ensuring that the solution is easily scalable. The YLOG store serves three ergonomically designed picking stations equipped with pick-to-light technology.

Resident engineers

KNAPP’s resident Customer Service team, present on site since the automation at John Lewis went live in 2009, takes care of the logistics automation in both MP1 and MP2. The resident team is able to fix any issues immediately and also ensures that all scheduled preventative maintenance is carried out effectively.

M&S

Marks and Spencer’s national distribution centre in Bradford went live in April of this year. Known as DC2 Bradford, the footprint of the facility exceeds 1 million sq ft and the automated handling solution at the site is the first collaboration between M&S and KNAPP.

Efficient store replenishment

Operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year, DC2 Bradford can pick up to 450,000 items on busier days.

Designed to complement the operations of the M&S DC at Castle Donington, which includes fulfilment of the company’s online orders, the Bradford facility enables M&S to optimise the efficiency of its store replenishment.

High level of automation

DC2 features a high level of automation for goods-in, decanting and dispatch. There are four routes for inbound goods, with cartons being barcoded and passing through a scan tunnel to record their weight and dimensions at a rate of 1200 units per hour. After decanting of goods into trays on the mezzanine level, the containers are then stored in the OSR Shuttle™ storage system, which forms the heart of the automation at DC2.

350 shuttles

The OSR Shuttle™ store features 270,000 locations over 25 levels, with totes being stored and retrieved fully automatically by 350 shuttles. Serving KNAPP’s ergonomically designed Pick-it-Easy goods-to-person workstations – which feature pick-to-light technology – the OSR Shuttle™ system takes care of fulfilment for all medium- and slowmoving products in the warehouse. In addition, there are 5,000 locations for manual storage, with operators using wristmounted RF devices.

Customer Service team

In addition to the handling equipment and the warehouse management system (WMS), the contract awarded to KNAPP by M&S also included the provision of a team of resident engineers to ensure maximum system availability. The crew at M&S is KNAPP’s second largest resident engineering team in the UK.

KNAPP UK LTD

01844 202149

sales.uk@knapp.com

www.knapp.com

Comments are closed.