Next day delivery with 99,95% accuracy for Corporate Express
Corporate Express sells a wide range of office supplies in 27 countries on 5 continents. The company works via sales offices and a comprehensive online shop. Since July 2008 Corporate Express is part of Staples. Together, they are the world's largest office supply company.
Corporate Express is expecting significant volume growth over the next few years. The product range is also expanding rapidly. The proportion of products requiring special handling / value added services is rising. Customers require later cut-off times for placing their orders. Delivering a very high customer service level is key for Corporate Express' success. The company decided to replace 3 existing warehouses in Germany by a single central warehouse near Mainz. The new facility has to meet stiff requirements.
- Process up to 60,000 order lines per day
- Orders received by 18:00 hours have to be delivered the next day
- Picking accuracy has to exceed 99.95% to ensure customers receive the correct order.
- Ambitious sustainability targets, such as reduction of CO2 emissions.
The integrated order picking system for Corporate Express includes order picking of items as well as full cases. Items are picked by a batch picking system with order carts supported by Pick-by-Voice technology. Fast movers in full cartons are picked on pick-to-belt lines. Last step in the warehouse process is order consolidation and shipping sortation with a POSISORTER sliding shoe sorter.
The system has been designed to allow future expansion (such as a third pick-to-belt zone on the third floor, 2 additional carton closing lines). Corporate Express selected Vanderlande Industries because it developed the best concept for the company's requirements, because of the excellent cooperation within the project team and its experience in automated sortation systems.