99,99% service level with order picking system for slow movers at PLUS Retail
PLUS Retail, a prominent player in the Dutch food market, serves 278 independent PLUS supermarket entrepreneurs. The National Distribution Centre (NDC) in Middenbeemster supplies all of them. PLUS Retail decided to reorganise the supply chain for the more slow-moving items in its dry groceries product range and to automate parts of the order picking process. The main challenges were to meet the company’s high service level requirements, efficiency and preconditions for further growth.
Slow-moving products are picked via a fully automated ‘goods-to-man’ compact picking concept. Medium movers are picked via a ‘man to goods’ zone picking concept. A crucial decision was the optimal allocation of slow and medium movers to the 2 order picking areas (slotting). In the goods-to-man area 5 QUICKSTORE miniloads (AS/RS)supply 3 order picking stations with slow-moving products. Three zone picking areas are placed on either side of the outer miniloads. Here medium-movers are picked from flow racks supported by pick-to-light displays. The flow racks are replenished automatically by the 2 outer miniloads.
This intelligent order picking system saved PLUS Retail a significant amount in initial investment and follow-up expenses. PLUS entrepreneurs are very pleased with the improved service level: Goods are sorted by family groups and stacked path-optimised into roll cages for efficient unpacking in the shops. This results in more efficient shop replenishment. By automating the order picking process PLUS Retail was able to move product ranges from its Regional Distribution Centres (RDC) to the NDC, resulting in considerable savings both in the RDCs and in the NDC.
„Currently we guarantee a service level of 99,99%. This is an improvement of 90%”
(Theo van der Waart, Director PLUS Retail Beemster)