WE Fashion is a Dutch international operating company and has more than 250 shops and over 3.000 employees in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, Luxemburg, Austria and Switzerland. The international distribution centre and headquarter is located in Utrecht, The Netherlands.

The current shop delivery method is based on a push flow. For this operation WE has used a pick 2 light system for the last 10 years. The E-com flow is not done in house but is out-sourced to an external logistic partner.

Especially the E-com flow is increasing the last years and is expected to grow further the upcoming years. Unfortunately the costs for the external handling of the E-com orders are raising with the same percentages as the increasing volume.

Together with WE Europe DistriSort setup a business case based on handling the shop delivery flow and E-com flow in house. With the knowledge of WE of their operation and the know-how of DistriSort of sorting technology a business case was setup. After a thorough exercise it was determined very clearly that with investing in a flat sorter the investment was worth to do.

Another result from the business case is that with the flat sorter the shop delivery could be ended earlier during day time so the trucks can leave earlier. As a result of that the E-com operation can start immediately after the shop flow has ended.

The sorter had to be implemented on the existing floor and the position was so chosen that the current operation can continue while the sorter will be build up. This way no valuable production time is lost and a smooth start of operation with the flat sorter is guaranteed. Also it reduces the pressure on the staff to work immediately from day one on full production speed.

From the business case DistriSort determined that a dual split tray sorter with 1 induction platform with 6 induction operators was enough to offer the required speed for WE Europe. Based on the fact that WE Europe wanted to perform two flows on the same machine DistriSort offered a sorter with exits that are able to handle totes (shop delivery) and offer the ability to pack E-com orders at the sorter exit.

With one sorting system WE Europe is able to handle multiple logistic flows. Besides sorting the shop flow at day time and the E-com orders in the afternoon and evening the system is also used to sort collections for the shops. In the future the system can be adjusted to handle even more flows like the returns flow or incoming goods.

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