Faced with the need to step up its fulfillment operations, a well-known beauty and cosmetics company invested in a new goods-to-person shuttle and picking system.
David Maloney has been a journalist for more than 35 years and is currently the group editorial director for DC Velocity and Supply Chain Quarterly magazines. In this role, he is responsible for the editorial content of both brands of Agile Business Media. Dave joined DC Velocity in April of 2004. Prior to that, he was a senior editor for Modern Materials Handling magazine. Dave also has extensive experience as a broadcast journalist. Before writing for supply chain publications, he was a journalist, television producer and director in Pittsburgh. Dave combines a background of reporting on logistics with his video production experience to bring new opportunities to DC Velocity readers, including web videos highlighting top distribution and logistics facilities, webcasts and other cross-media projects. He continues to live and work in the Pittsburgh area.
One of the world's best-known beauty and cosmetics brands recently upgraded its main European fulfillment center in Belgium to keep up with the fast-changing retail times. As is common among distributors, the U.S.-based company (which requested that its name not be used) has seen an increase in orders of smaller quantities that are shipped more often. This means less of the traditional case or pallet picking and more piece picking.
To address this shift, the company last year outfitted the Belgian distribution center, which handles the full portfolio of the company's brands, with a new goods-to-person shuttle and picking system, engineered and integrated by Inther Logistics Automation.
The new shuttle system complements the pick-to-light operation still being used for piece picking within the facility, which is located adjacent to one of the company's manufacturing plants. In addition to installing the new technology, the DC also upgraded its warehouse management system (supplied by Manhattan Associates) to a version that accommodates the batch processing of orders.
INTERNAL MAKE-UP
While the adjacent factory has been producing creams and lipsticks for 50 years, the Belgian distribution center dates back only to 2005. The DC was originally built to serve France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. Within a few years, however, it was expanded to allow the company to consolidate several other European distribution operations at the site. Today, the facility serves as a manufacturing distribution hub, with factories elsewhere in Europe and in Asia shipping their products there for distribution to 42 other logistics centers worldwide.
In addition to gathering goods from other European and Asian factories, the Belgian facility also consolidates products made in North America and elsewhere for transfer to six major distribution facilities located in Germany, Italy, Spain, Turkey, Greece, and Israel. In addition, the facility ships products directly to some 20,000 customer addresses in 36 different countries.
To manage such a variety of tasks, the company separated the facility into two operations that are connected by a common wall. In one section of the building, a third-party logistics service provider (3PL) performs pallet and case fulfillment. In the other section, direct employees of the cosmetic company handle the piece-picking end of the operation.
The facility manger explains that it is one building with two functions, but they run as an integrated process. He says another third-party provider had previously performed the pallet and case picking at an off-site location, but the results were disappointing. Since the facility already had the piece-picking operation in place, the company decided to move the pallet and case picking there as well. A separate building was erected for this purpose and was eventually expanded to eliminate the gap between the buildings.
In a typical day, the facility processes 120,000 line items and about 30,000 cartons. Overall, it ships about half a million units per year.
SPLIT DECISIONS
On the 3PL side of the building, workers equipped with radio-frequency (RF) terminals pick cases and pallets. Many of these are consolidated from the factories for delivery to the other European DCs. Workers also select cases from reserve storage to replenish the piece-picking operation on the other side of the building.
Pick-to-light remains the primary order fulfillment technology on the piece-picking side of the house. It is used for fast-moving (higher-demand) products and some medium-demand items. The functions are performed via a pick-and-pass method, with order containers passing from one light-directed zone to another. There are 7,000 pick-to-light locations within 45 zones. The use of different colored lights allows two or three people to work in each zone during busy periods. Management says the pick-to-light system was chosen for its guidance, speed, and accuracy.
The warehouse management system (WMS) creates picking waves based on when orders need to be consolidated for shipping. The wave data are then transferred to the Inther warehouse control system (WCS) to carry out the pick processes. The WCS determines the carton size needed for an order and where in the picking loop selection should begin. The cartons pass through the pick zones, with workers adding items to them as directed by the lights.
Up until last year, picking carts were also deployed to gather slow-moving items. The new automated shuttles and goods-to-person systems have since replaced the carts. There were several reasons for this upgrade. First was the amount of time it took for workers to travel to pick locations using the carts. Switching to the new shuttles and goods-to-person systems virtually eliminated the need for travel, reducing both the time and the labor required. It also reduced reliance on temporary labor, which was difficult to find within the area.
Another draw for the cosmetics company was the system's exceptional accuracy. Because it delivers only the product needed for an order to a workstation, there is little chance for error. On top of that, the system is both productive and efficient. Workers at the four goods-to-person stations can each pick up to 250 order lines per hour compared with only 75 lines an hour per person with the pick carts. It also allowed the company to expand its stock-keeping unit (SKU) count to about 18,000. Eventually, the system should enable workers to pick an impressive 300 order lines per man-hour.
Inther engineered and designed the new system using shuttle technology from Knapp AG. The system consists of a large automated storage system and the four goods-to-person picking stations. Due to space limitations, the automated storage is actually located on the 3PL side of the building. Conveyors pass through the wall to link the storage to the goods-to-person picking stations on the other side of the house.
SOPHISTICATED STYLING
The two-aisle automated tote storage and retrieval system contains 26 levels of racking (supplied by Nedcon). There are 52 Knapp shuttles in the system, one per level in each aisle, which move the totes in and out of 16,400 double-deep storage positions. Each shuttle rides on rails and operates only within its assigned level. Each aisle also has two lift elevators with platforms to raise and lower two totes at a time to the various levels and to outbound conveyors that transport the product totes to the picking stations. The four picking stations are located on a mezzanine above a portion of the pick-to-light area.
Two product totes are presented at a time to each workstation, so that one tote can be picked from while the other is departing the station to be replaced by another. The source tote is automatically tilted toward the worker to make item retrieval easier. SSI Schaefer supplied two types of source totes for the system. One is designed to hold a single SKU, while the other has compartments to hold up to four SKUs. A light in front of the tote illuminates to designate which compartment contains the needed SKU. A quantity indicator also displays how many of the fragrances, facial products, moisturizers, and other products to select. The worker then presses a lighted button to confirm pick completion.
A put-to-light system next directs placement of the picked items into four order cartons staged in the workstation. Similar to a pick-to-light setup, the system uses light displays to indicate which cartons should receive products, but only one carton is in play at any given time to assure accuracy. A weight scale at each position confirms that the carton receives the required items.
Once work is completed at the goods-to-person stations, the carton moves off to packing, unless the orders also need fast-moving items from the pick-to-light zones. If so, the carton will be conveyed to the floor level, where they enter the pick-and-pass system. The system also has the flexibility to reverse the pick order, starting with pick-to-light before moving to the goods-to-person area, if it alleviates a bottleneck.
Once all picking is complete, the orders move on to packing stations. From there, they're sent through a pop-up wheel sorter that is located on the 3PL side of the building, which consolidate the cartons for shipping.
APPLYING A SOLID FOUNDATION
Among other benefits, the addition of the shuttle technology and the WMS upgrade have allowed the facility to batch orders. Management explains that the new goods-to-person shuttle technology was needed before the DC could handle the volume associated with batch processing. Without the new technology, the company would have had to double the number of active pick-to-light locations to be fully batch-managed. That would have required adding mezzanines, conveyors, and more. The process would also have been slower, according to the facility manager.
The shuttle technology offered an alternative, as it allows much denser storage for the slow-moving items. Many of the medium-movers are also being transitioned into the automated system, which makes the remaining pick-to-light areas even more effective since their locations now contain primarily faster-moving products that are hit more often.
Another reason for turning to batch management was to comply with increasingly strict European regulations for tracking and tracing cosmetics and other healthcare products. The facility uses first-expired, first-out processing. This requires that a batch be allocated to every single item picked and is another reason why the facility moved to being fully batch-managed now.
The new technology and software will make it possible for the facility to fill up to 180,000 lines per day with a high degree of accuracy and minimal labor.
Supply chain planning (SCP) leaders working on transformation efforts are focused on two major high-impact technology trends, including composite AI and supply chain data governance, according to a study from Gartner, Inc.
"SCP leaders are in the process of developing transformation roadmaps that will prioritize delivering on advanced decision intelligence and automated decision making," Eva Dawkins, Director Analyst in Gartner’s Supply Chain practice, said in a release. "Composite AI, which is the combined application of different AI techniques to improve learning efficiency, will drive the optimization and automation of many planning activities at scale, while supply chain data governance is the foundational key for digital transformation.”
Their pursuit of those roadmaps is often complicated by frequent disruptions and the rapid pace of technological innovation. But Gartner says those leaders can accelerate the realized value of technology investments by facilitating a shift from IT-led to business-led digital leadership, with SCP leaders taking ownership of multidisciplinary teams to advance business operations, channels and products.
“A sound data governance strategy supports advanced technologies, such as composite AI, while also facilitating collaboration throughout the supply chain technology ecosystem,” said Dawkins. “Without attention to data governance, SCP leaders will likely struggle to achieve their expected ROI on key technology investments.”
The British logistics robot vendor Dexory this week said it has raised $80 million in venture funding to support an expansion of its artificial intelligence (AI) powered features, grow its global team, and accelerate the deployment of its autonomous robots.
A “significant focus” continues to be on expanding across the U.S. market, where Dexory is live with customers in seven states and last month opened a U.S. headquarters in Nashville. The Series B will also enhance development and production facilities at its UK headquarters, the firm said.
The “series B” funding round was led by DTCP, with participation from Latitude Ventures, Wave-X and Bootstrap Europe, along with existing investors Atomico, Lakestar, Capnamic, and several angels from the logistics industry. With the close of the round, Dexory has now raised $120 million over the past three years.
Dexory says its product, DexoryView, provides real-time visibility across warehouses of any size through its autonomous mobile robots and AI. The rolling bots use sensor and image data and continuous data collection to perform rapid warehouse scans and create digital twins of warehouse spaces, allowing for optimized performance and future scenario simulations.
Originally announced in September, the move will allow Deutsche Bahn to “fully focus on restructuring the rail infrastructure in Germany and providing climate-friendly passenger and freight transport operations in Germany and Europe,” Werner Gatzer, Chairman of the DB Supervisory Board, said in a release.
For its purchase price, DSV gains an organization with around 72,700 employees at over 1,850 locations. The new owner says it plans to investment around one billion euros in coming years to promote additional growth in German operations. Together, DSV and Schenker will have a combined workforce of approximately 147,000 employees in more than 90 countries, earning pro forma revenue of approximately $43.3 billion (based on 2023 numbers), DSV said.
After removing that unit, Deutsche Bahn retains its core business called the “Systemverbund Bahn,” which includes passenger transport activities in Germany, rail freight activities, operational service units, and railroad infrastructure companies. The DB Group, headquartered in Berlin, employs around 340,000 people.
“We have set clear goals to structurally modernize Deutsche Bahn in the areas of infrastructure, operations and profitability and focus on the core business. The proceeds from the sale will significantly reduce DB’s debt and thus make an important contribution to the financial stability of the DB Group. At the same time, DB Schenker will gain a strong strategic owner in DSV,” Deutsche Bahn CEO Richard Lutz said in a release.
Transportation industry veteran Anne Reinke will become president & CEO of trade group the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA) at the end of the year, stepping into the position from her previous post leading third party logistics (3PL) trade group the Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA), both organizations said today.
Meanwhile, TIA today announced that insider Christopher Burroughs would fill Reinke’s shoes as president & CEO. Burroughs has been with TIA for 13 years, most recently as its vice president of Government Affairs for the past six years, during which time he oversaw all legislative and regulatory efforts before Congress and the federal agencies.
Before her four years leading TIA, Reinke spent two years as Deputy Assistant Secretary with the U.S. Department of Transportation and 16 years with CSX Corporation.
Serious inland flooding and widespread power outages are likely to sweep across Florida and other Southeast states in coming days with the arrival of Hurricane Helene, which is now predicted to make landfall Thursday evening along Florida’s northwest coast as a major hurricane, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
While the most catastrophic landfall impact is expected in the sparsely-population Big Bend area of Florida, it’s not only sea-front cities that are at risk. Since Helene is an “unusually large storm,” its flooding, rainfall, and high winds won’t be limited only to the Gulf Coast, but are expected to travel hundreds of miles inland, the weather service said. Heavy rainfall is expected to begin in the region even before the storm comes ashore, and the wet conditions will continue to move northward into the southern Appalachians region through Friday, dumping storm total rainfall amounts of up to 18 inches. Specifically, the major flood risk includes the urban areas around Tallahassee, metro Atlanta, and western North Carolina.
In addition to its human toll, the storm could exert serious business impacts, according to the supply chain mapping and monitoring firm Resilinc. Those will be largely triggered by significant flooding, which could halt oil operations, force mandatory evacuations, restrict ports, and disrupt air traffic.
While the storm’s track is currently forecast to miss the critical ports of Miami and New Orleans, it could still hurt operations throughout the Southeast agricultural belt, which produces products like soybeans, cotton, peanuts, corn, and tobacco, according to Everstream Analytics.
That widespread footprint could also hinder supply chain and logistics flows along stretches of interstate highways I-10 and I-75 and on regional rail lines operated by Norfolk Southern and CSX. And Hurricane Helene could also likely impact business operations by unleashing power outages, deep flooding, and wind damage in northern Florida portions of Georgia, Everstream Analytics said.
Before the storm had even touched Florida soil, recovery efforts were already being launched by humanitarian aid group the American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN). In a statement on Wednesday, the group said it is urging residents in the storm's path across the Southeast to heed evacuation notices and safety advisories, and reminding members of the logistics community that their post-storm help could be needed soon. The group will continue to update its Disaster Micro-Site with Hurricane Helene resources and with requests for donated logistics assistance, most of which will start arriving within 24 to 72 hours after the storm’s initial landfall, ALAN said.