Batch picking system facilitates 20 - 30% yearly growth for Amazon.de
Amazon is the world’s leading online retailer of books, CDs, DVDs and videos. At their German logistics hub in Bad Hersfeld, Amazon implemented a highly flexible batch picking and order consolidation system handling up to 300.000 orders per day. Vanderlande Industries handed the system over to Amazon within 5 months.
Order picking is conducted manually from shelving systems. Orders containing more than one order line go through a two-phased order picking process: product specific order picking (in batches), followed by subsequent order consolidation in a consolidation buffer. The order picking operation is supported by a tote conveyor system, which reduces the amount of time spent by staff moving between locations. At 35 rebin stations, barcode scanners are used to allocate products manually to individual orders via 54 sorting compartments, after which they are sent for packing. Packing stations have automatic shipping label lines that read, weigh and label parcels and conduct a quality check. The parcels are then forwarded to shipping sortation. A POSISORTER sliding shoe sorter sorts the cartons by shipment type and destination.
The 42,500 m2 centre offers the flexibility to handle yearly growth rates of 20-30% that are characteristic for the B2C industry. The system also makes it easy for Amazon to incorporate new products into their operation. Since the first implementation the system has already been successfully extended four times. Each time, the extension took place in the run-up to the Christmas season. Each extension is a testimony to the company's confidence in the reliability of Vanderlande Industries.
Click here for a video tour inside an Amazon warehouse