materialhandlingupdate
BY DAVID MALONEY, SENIOR EDITOR
In some of
today’s high-tech
warehouses,
workers no
longer trudge up
and down aisles
to fill orders.
Sophisticated
machines deliver
everything they
need right to
their stations.
bring it on
BACK IN THE DAY, THERE WAS ONE THING ABOUT ORDER FULFILLMENT
operations you could pretty much take for granted. When it came to gathering items for
orders, the people did the walking and the equipment stayed put.
That’s no longer a safe assumption. Today, a growing number of companies are taking
the opposite tack. Instead of sending workers out to retrieve goods, they’re using automated material handling equipment to deliver items to order pickers who remain in a
fixed spot. This approach, known as goods to person, isn’t new. In fact, it’s been around
for several decades. But it’s attracting increased attention these days, particularly from
high-volume operations that do a lot of piece picking.
What’s driving much of the interest in this approach is its potential to enhance productivity. Suppliers of goods-to-person systems say the equipment can boost pick rates as high
as 1,000 lines per hour. Part of the reason is that workers spend less time traveling and
more time order picking, making them more productive. Another part is that automated
systems offer capabilities like product sequencing that help streamline the work flow.
There are other benefits as well. For one thing, these systems save space. Goods-to-person setups allow for denser storage and eliminate the need for traditional pick faces,
