executive vice president of distribution and
supply chain, explains: “We wanted to take
two environments and combine them in a
sort of hybrid DC that would support both
specialty and national channel sales.”
That had implications for the order pick-
ing end of the Allentown operation. To be
precise, it meant the facility would have to be
able to handle orders for full pallet and full
case quantities as well as orders for individ-
ual items, or “eaches.” And it would have to
do it cost-effectively. “We had to improve our
throughput sales per square foot, which are
now up 50 percent,” says Carter. “Reduction
of fixed-cost expenses was a priority for us.”
It was clear from the outset that one of the
key parts of the project would be revamping
the facility’s each-picking system. In the past,
less-than-case order picking had been a
manual operation, with workers selecting
items from mezzanines and flow racks with
paper pick lists. But a more efficient process
would be required at the new DC. It was time
to automate.
To design and implement an automated
each-picking system in Allentown, KeHe
called on two partners: Automation
Dynamics, a Wylie, Texas-based material handling systems integrator that had overseen a
similar project at KeHe’s Dallas DC, and
Intelligrated, a Mason, Ohio-based firm that
designs and produces automated material
handling systems.
Turner set the bar high for the design project. The solu-
tion had to boost productivity, assure high levels of order
accuracy, and do it all efficiently. The DC has a tight win-
dow for processing orders, he explains. “When orders are
dropped in our environment, we have less than eight hours
before the first truck goes out. We cannot waste time chas-
ing a box through the system in order to get a 99.9-percent
accuracy rate.”
The solution also had to be compact. Intelligrated and
Automation Dynamics would have to take an each-pick
operation that had filled 50,000 square feet of space and fit
it into 20,000 square feet.
On top of that, the design team would have to devise a
system that could efficiently handle both fast- and slow-moving items—that is, the 2,000 SKUs that account for 80
percent of the facility’s orders as well as tens of thousands
of slower movers. Turner sums up the challenge this way:
“How were we going to take these eaches and create a dense
pick area that did not have to have levels and levels of pick
modules?”
Custom package
The solution the team came up with is a customized design
that combines pick-to-light technology (which is used in
conjunction with flow racks) and carousels. The setup
allows the company to use the optimal picking method for
each kind of item, Turner says. “We took the carousel system and used that for what I call the long tail, those C and
D items that have minimal movement, and integrated it
with a multi-level pick-to-light system that handles [the
fast-moving SKUs],” he explains.
As for equipment, the system incorporates photo-eye
accumulation conveyor, spiral conveyor, and a two-level
pick- and put-to-light mezzanine (to take advantage of vertical space). It also includes a warehouse management system (WMS) and eight eight-foot horizontal carousels.
Turner emphasizes that there was much more to the project than just installing the automated equipment. “We did a
lot of due diligence on the application of these two technologies,” he says. “We didn’t just say, ‘Let’s take a carousel
and let’s take a pick to light and slap them together,’ because
that in itself would not be faster than what we were already
dealing with. We had to get into the heart of it and actually
retool each pick solution.”
Orders by the batch
Because the orders handled in Allentown are relatively
small, the system designers opted for a batch processing
approach. For example, instead of sending a worker with a
single order tote through the whole pick-to-light setup, the
system is programmed to process multiple orders simulta-
neously. “We’ll go into a zone and scan 12 boxes at a time,
and lights will light up for all 12,” Turner says. “We’ll pick to
light, then put to light. A light bar under the conveyor tells
the worker which box to drop it into. So we’re able to batch
pick 12 orders at a time through the entire system.”
He adds that the pick-to-light zones are designed with
multiple entry and exit points for containers. “If a box is
completed, it can exit early, which gets it quickly through
the system. It also lets us introduce new boxes with differ-
ent start points. The selectors can maximize their batches at
all times to maintain efficiencies.”
KeHe’s WMS monitors the picking activity to ensure
operations stay on track. For instance, the system is able to
recognize immediately if a container is moved out of a zone
before picks in that zone for that order have been complet-
ed. “It returns the tote back into the zone before it exits the
pick-to-light environment so we don’t waste time allowing
a tote to travel through the whole system before we recog-
