specialreport RETROFIT YOUR DC
nize something is missing,” Turner says.
To assure order accuracy, each container automatically
undergoes inspection as it leaves the each-pick area. A
check-weight system determines if the box is within a small
tolerance based on the goods ordered. If it determines a box
is out of tolerance, the system diverts it to a control area for
further examination. While the box is being weighed, a dig-
ital camera snaps a photo of the open container—the aver-
age box has about a dozen items—and archives the photo
for future reference. “We’ve seen tremendous improve-
ments in our order accuracy thanks to the various controls
installed on this system,” Turner says. “It has allowed us to
produce nearly perfect orders.”
Productivity gains have been substantial as well. “When
we were in traditional flow rack with manual picking,
[employees] who had been there for 10 years averaged
about 110 lines an hour. Now, we’re [averaging] three to
four times that,” Turner says. He adds that another advan-
tage of the pick-to-light system is that minimal training is
required. “New employees can now reach this level of pro-
ductivity and accuracy within a few weeks,” he says.
Riding along on a carousel
Orders filled from Allentown’s carousel units are also handled in batches, with workers picking into as many as 16
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totes at a time. When a container is completed, they move
it across cantilevered racks onto the conveyor system for
movement through the check-weight system and on to
shipping. (In both the pick-to-light and carousel operations, workers pick directly into the shipping containers.)
To avoid having workers wait around while a carousel’s
bins rotate into position, the system designers programmed
the WMS to automatically track how quickly goods are
moving and assign the fastest movers to multiple bins. “We
balance [the faster-moving items] out among a number of
carousels so we’re never waiting for a carousel to spin,”
Turner explains. The result has been a significant uptick in
speed. “We are getting 400 lines per hour in an environment
where in the past, the best we could do was 110,” he says.
In another bid to boost efficiency, the system designers
engineered a way to replenish the carousels from the rear.
Restocking through the back assures that replenishment
operations won’t interfere with the picking process.
For all their benefits, the carousels do have one minor
drawback. Replenishment requires workers to remove
goods from cases before depositing them in the carousel
bins, rather than just opening the cases as they did with the
flow racks. But that appears to have had a minimal effect on
productivity. All in all, the Allentown site has been able to
reduce labor by 35 to 40 percent.
Room for expansion
While the carousel and pick-to-light systems deserve most
of the credit for the productivity gains at the Allentown
DC, the operation has benefited from some minor changes
as well. A case in point is a relatively simple change made to
the labels that are printed when the WMS drops an order.
Each label is now color coded by customer via a colored
band at the bottom. “We may print customer A in red and
customer B in green, so when you go to apply a label, you
can quickly match colors rather than having to look at the
customer ID number,” Turner says. “If you watch someone
picking and see a red label on a box on a green pallet, you
know there’s a mistake. It has helped our quality control.”
Now that the new systems are in place, Allentown is
ramping up to take on more work. The facility, which ships
out about 2,000 totes a day on average, will soon absorb
operations from a nearby third-party DC. As business
expands, the facility should have no trouble accommodat-
ing additional volume. All it has to do is install more levels
of carousels and pick-to-light racks.
Asked how the new picking system is working out to
date, Carter, Turner, and other company officials say they’re
delighted with the results. Carter says, “Being able to take
an old bit of technology and retool it to a design that is very
applicable and very efficient for us, we couldn’t be more
excited.” The gains have been impressive enough, in fact,
that KeHe may soon go a step further. The company is considering launching a similar project at its 1 million-square-foot DC in Romeoville, Ill.
