Conveyors

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Filling orders from an inventory of 69,000 parts sounds anything but simple. Yet the folks at Future Electronics' new DC insist their workers could do it with their eyes closed.

Move over, Han Solo. Retailer Too Inc. has also made the jump to lightspeed. Its blazing fast new put-to-light fulfillment system has sent DC operations into hyperdrive.

The descriptions are right out of the personal ads: they're smart, they're sensitive, they're adaptable. But the ubjects aren't single men or women; they're today's high-tech conveyors.

Lagging productivity at its '50s-era DC in Columbus, Ohio, left retailer Big Lots with two choices: renovate the aging facility or shutter it and build a new high-tech facility somewhere else. Its decision may surprise you.

The key to smooth-running conveyor operations is keeping everything in motion. That's where sortation systems come in.

In European DCs, bags of coffee and sugar are whipping out of highly automated storage and retrieval systems at a rate of 3,000 cases per hour. Is America next?

There's more to conveyor performance than feet per minute. Smart users look for systems that can be installed quickly, are simple to maintain and stay up no matter what.