In just under 12 months SSI Schaefer has completed the design, supply, manufacture, delivery and installation of a fully functioning Automated Order Fulfillment System for Office Depot’s new distribution centre in Leicester. Located at Bursom Business Park, the system plays host to two main business operations processed within the warehouse; Viking Mail Order and Office Depot Contracts and is designed to allow Office Depot to process 75,000 order lines over a 12-hour period with a daily picking capacity of 36,000 cartons.
Simon Brammall, Senior Project Manager, Office Depot Leicester, said: “The new Leicester project was built to consolidate some of the existing supply chain of older systems that had become less efficient resulting in lower productivity levels. Amongst other important factors, it was built in Leicester in order to retain the knowledge base of the existing workforce.”
The contract for Office Depot Leicester followed the successful implementation of Schaefer’s automated technology in warehousing and picking processes within Office Depot’s new distribution warehouse in Manchester. It was important that Schaefer took all aspects of the Manchester project that worked well and incorporated them into Leicester and equally important that any issues that arose in Manchester were not repeated.
David Hibbett, Group Development Manager at SSI Schaefer, said: “The completion of the new distribution warehouse in Manchester was a first for the Office Depot Group which now serves as our basis for future distribution centres across the world.”
A number of key ‘learning’ meetings took place between Schaefer and Office Depot, including all key stakeholders from the Manchester project, to ensure that all parties involved moved forward with a complete understanding of what was needed in order to make the Leicester project even more successful than previous installations.
Office Depot has a very quick turnaround of customer orders, which are either delivered the next day or even the same day. It would be impossible to turn around such a large amount of diverse orders without automation, which is why Schaefer’s Automated Order Fulfillment System was the best possible option. Brammall said: “Automated order fulfillment is a tried and tested technology within the Office Depot supply chain and one that we are constantly evolving as technologies improve, provided this can be justified as a cost saving initiative.”
Office Depot is committed to providing sustainable solutions within the business. Therefore, sustainability was a vital element of the build, resulting in the new order fulfillment system being designed using energy saving measures whilst utilising several new technologies to provide a sustainable building for years to come. The Leicester branch has since gone on to win a Green Apple award and obtained a BREEAM rating of ‘Very Good’ for both the office and warehouse which shows Schaefer and Office Depot were successful in their combined efforts for a sustainable build.
Schaefer also applied a ‘shutdown system’ during lean periods that closes sections of the conveyor automatically until a carton is detected entering a section.
Summarising the project, Hibbett said: “Overall the system is required to convey cartons from an infeed storage area, to a dispatch area, via a number of picking faces according to a pre-determined route communicated from the Office Depot host system.”
A manual carton induction process with automatic leaflet/flyer insertion has been provided and induct stations are inclusive of ink jet coding stations for printing, unique brand logos and possible additional messaging. Erected cartons are then discharged from each machine onto a take-away conveyor and automatically directed into size specific accumulation lanes. Schaefer also chose to use continuous spiral belt conveyors to reduce blockages and improve maintenance access.
However, as a proposed next step, the system has been designed to allow for automatic carton induction with on-line printing of picking lists using automatic carton erectors capable of producing multiple carton footprints with different heights assembling 1200 cartons per hour.
A split case picking system on multiple levels complete with carton / tote recirculation ensures no system gridlock. The system operates a throughput of 2400 cartons per hour to different areas of the picking system and all pick zones are equipped with Schaefer’s pick by light system to deliver efficiency and accuracy simultaneously. Each operate at the required optimum of 1800 cartons per hour and come with an individual picking loop and progressive check weighing facility to check for errors at source.
Schaefer’s Auto Dispensing Unit, A-Frame, capable of a minimum performance rate of 1200 cartons per hour while handling over 800 products, is responsible for handling small regular sized products such as pens, post-it pads and ink cartridges and automatically dispenses products into split case cartons.
At 11 metres high Schaefer provided an Automatic Storage & Retrieval System that consists of eight commissioner cranes and two pick to tote stations. The cranes deliver the required performance of 1000 put away and 1000 tote retrievals per hour and the two pick to tote stations are capable of handling 500 lines per hour.
Real time statistical display screens, including maximum number of cartons allowed and current number of cartons etc have been placed at key locations throughout the installation to give an ‘at a glance’ view of the workload around the system to allow additional staff to be allocated as necessary.
Upon completion of the picking operation, the carton/tote is conveyed to a manual/visual checking area on a powered conveyor to be manually removed by the operator and following checking the operator replaces the carton back onto the main transportation conveyor. Throughout all the picking areas there is a series of belted waste conveyors installed that deliver waste to an outside compactor for recycling.
Once all items are picked for an individual order the final stage of handling is the checking, lidding and labeling operation. Hibbett explained: “For the first time in the Office Depot operation, Schaefer has integrated a carton cutting and lidding machine designed to reduce waste and the transport cube of each order by cutting down the size of each carton to the minimum height possible and lidding the carton in a single machine.”
Schaefer designed the shipping sortation system to be capable of picking over 5000 cartons per hour while delivering up to 30 plus internal locations for palletizing goods for local distribution and to extendable lorry loaders for the UK network as a whole.
Brammall said: “We are happy with the order fulfillment system delivered by Schaefer and had a very smooth ‘Go-Live’. The system performed well from the start and continues to do so. I was impressed with the overall management of the project, from the detailed handover from the sales team to the projecting team, to the site installation and commissioning. A good two-way communication was maintained throughout the project and I was never in any doubt that Schaefer had Office Depot’s requirements at the top of their agenda at all times.”
He continued: “The installation was finished on-time and within budget. Office Depot had a very tight programme; however from the day the builder arrived on site to the first order being shipped out, it took just 12 months. Office Depot had 23 weeks for the entire conveyor installation, including installation, commissioning and testing, which for the size and complexity of the system was very impressive.”
SSI Schaefer
Tel: 01264 386600
Email: solutions@ssi-schaefer.co.uk
www.ssi-schaefer.co.uk
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