Automated Case Picking
The Automated Case Picking (ACP) system enables fully automated order picking of a wide variety of products. It provides the answer to the most important challenges of today's retail distribution:
- 40% lower costs per case compared with traditional picking operation
- Lower dependency on availability of labour resources
- Store friendly delivery for multiple store formats
- 100% accuracy because of fully automated order picking process
- Minimal ergonomic and safety risks compared with todays’ manual order picking operations
- Improved service level by using optimised replenishment strategies
- Short order lead time
- Less floorspace required
In the ACP system, pallets coming from bulk storage are automatically depalletised layer by layer. Each pallet layer is stored on a tray in a miniload AS/RS system. Storing pallet layers instead of individual cartons, significantly reduces the number of crane movements and therefore the number of AS/RS systems required to handle the workload. Hence, the ACP system requires a significantly lower initial investment and reduces costs per case handled by 40% compared with a traditional picking operation. The ACP system has a very short payback time, less than 4 years. The ACP system also secures stock availability in the pick face and ensures short order processing time, improving service level to food retail stores. As a final step, a robotic palletiser can load dollies, roll cages and pallets with cartons of mixed dimensions.
The ACP system is suitable for most retail packaging types, including cardboard trays and shrink wrapped products. The complete system is controlled by the VISION software suite, including order planning, stock control, supervision and statistics.
Important characteristics of the ACP system are:
- Justifiable from 20.000 cases/day
- Capacity of 1.900 cases per hour per module
- Scalable to suit assortments up to 20.000 SKUs
- Fully flexible family grouping
- Pay back time less than 4 years
To attend a live demonstration, visit us at our Innovation Centre in Veghel, the Netherlands.
For more information, contact us.