Automation with a human touch

For most omni-channel businesses fulfilment and store replenishment have traditionally been highly labour-intensive activities, demanding huge numbers of warehouse workers for picking and packing operations – with even greater numbers required during peak periods. Competition for local labour has been a perennial problem for many organisations, particularly in areas with a high concentration of distribution centres. However, the issue of finding available labour at affordable rates is far from abating and seems set to continue.

Figures published by the Office for National Statistics for November 2018 to January 2019, estimate the UK unemployment rate at 3.9%, the lowest it has been since November 1974. And from 1^st April 2019 the National Living Wage for workers aged 25 and over will increase by 4.9% to £8.21 per hour.

The new reality of today’s labour market means businesses are faced with some tough challenges when it comes to planning for growth and maintaining operational performance. 

With fewer people available to carry out manual picking operations, many retail organisations are turning to the intelligent use of automation to boost the productivity of their labour force. Automation applied to the right processes can free up people for tasks that require the human touch, or where sight and judgement are essential – tasks such as packing and inspecting returns. 

One technology that has the potential to transform operational performance in the fulfilment centre, and free-up human resources for value-adding activities, is the pouch sorter. Dematic is a leader in intelligent sorter design and has successfully installed sortation solutions at many omni-channel sites across the globe. The benefits can be significant.

Dematic’s overhead pouch sortation system offers a flexible and highly scalable, dynamic buffering solution appropriate for both fulfilling ecommerce orders and assembling store friendly sequenced replenishment. Developed for the fashion retail sector, but with significant operational benefits for a much wider range of applications, the Dematic pouch sorter is perfect for omni-channel retailers, enabling the carriage of both flat product and hanging in a single pouch for order assembly.

Dave Bull, Sales Dematic, explains how the technology lends itself to solving a number of discrete problems encountered by omni-channel retailers. “The Dematic pouch sorter does two things. It sorts independently picked items into order sequence and delivers the order directly to the packing stations. So your two big efficiencies are in picking and packing”.

Dave Bull, Sales, Dematic

Another key benefit of this technology is that it enables ecommerce retailers to perform a batch pick, and because in a batch picking process density of picking is greatly increased – as it reduces the distances travelled by pickers – much higher pick rates are achieved, often presenting a 200 – 300% improvement on traditional methods. 

And it is inherently flexible. “You can easily vary the batch sizes, which creates flexibility,” says Dave Bull. “Importantly, the controlling Dematic iQ software supports a manual process too, so you can run manual picking alongside the batch picking operation during peak periods.”

The operation is simple. Batch picked items are delivered to high-speed induction stations where individual items are scanned and slipped into a hanging pouch. The fast overhead sortation system allows items to be stored in pouches within dynamic picking loops, buffering them until they are called off by the warehouse management system for specific orders, with items being delivered in sequence to the packing stations for efficient packing and despatch. 

Utilising available headroom, the Dematic pouch sorter is easily integrated into existing systems and as it comes in modules – each currently capable of sorting 7,500 items per hour – scalability can be readily achieved. For example, four modules together can give a sorting capacity of 30,000 items per hour. 

Importantly, the Dematic pouch sorter system is highly scalable from a low base. “Even with just one sorter module it’s very scalable. All you have to do is introduce more packing stations, pouches, induct stations and buffer lanes as you need them until you reach the module’s capacity of 7,500 items per hour. Then when you need extra bandwidth you just introduce another module,” says Dave Bull. 

Dematic’s pouch sorter also brings huge gains when handling returns. In the fashion sector where returns can be up to 40%, buffering returned items using the Dematic pouch sorter dramatically cuts time and effort in processing goods for re-sale, creating a far more responsive returns process that drives sales and boosts margins. 

In Dematic’s Centre of Excellence for Pouch Sortation in Bielefeld, Germany, further great advances are being made in developing the technology for automated induction and auto-drop. 

Winnie Ahrens, Sales Dematic, explains: “We have built various systems with automatic loading, as it works beautifully for returns. After an inspected item is refolded and put into a poly-foil it is dropped onto a belt that conveys it towards an automatic pouch induction point. The item is scanned, the pouch automatically opens and the item is dropped from the conveyor belt into the pouch. Using this innovation 1200 items an hour can be inducted, completely automatically.” 

Similarly, Dematic’s new automated pouch opening system allows 1200 units an hour to be automatically dropped onto a conveyor or chute through the clever use of a clip mechanism at the bottom of the pouch. Winnie Ahrens points out that this innovation has already had strong interest from the parcels sector, where poly-bagged items often cause problems on cross belt sorters. 

Importantly, the Dematic pouch sorter offers a low entry point to batch picking, below the cost of a cross-belt sorter and way under the price of a goods-to-person system. In fact, Dave Bull suggests that a Dematic pouch sorter can become viable at rates as low as 2000 items per hour at peak, and with a carrying capacity of 3kg per pouch, it has a broad range of potential applications right across the omni-channel retail sector – buffering and bringing together items as diverse as hanging garments, shoes, and accessories, as well as headphones or beauty products.

“What the Dematic pouch sorter allows you to do is pick a batch in advance, buffer it and then bring items down to individual packing stations in strict order sequence, which facilitates the fast and efficient packing and despatch of goods for individual customer orders. Accuracy and speed are combined, making for happy customers,” says Dave Bull. “Coupled with this you have the capability within the buffer system for holding returns or fast movers. In this way returned items are only touched twice. The savings and productivity gains are enormous,” he says.

“Of significant importance to omni-channel retailers, a Dematic pouch sorter facilitates a later cut-off, it allows you to smooth-out and manage your order picking process, the software enables manual processes to run in parallel with batch picking, it streamlines returns and it requires less capital investment to cover peak periods. All in all, the Dematic pouch sorter offers the flexibility needed to optimise fulfilment performance in a tight labour market,” concludes Dave Bull.

See Dematic’s pouch sorter technology working ‘live’ at IMHX 2019, stand 18 N30.
Register at www.dematic.com/IMHX
Search Dematic Pouch System for more information.