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Order Fulfillment: Putting Goods To The Wall
Optimizing Piece Picking Operations
Distribution centers are adopting goods to person order fulfillment
solutions to optimize their piece picking operations. A new
process, known as a “put wall” solution, takes the goods to
person concept to the next level.
A put wall combines the productivity improvements that come
from goods to person order fulfillment with a picking model that
calls for using the same SKU to fill a multitude of orders at one
time. An example might be replenishing hundreds, or even several
thousand, store locations in a retail chain or sending the same
product or products to hundreds or thousands of sales reps in
the field.
Here’s How It Works.
Storage medium: As with a goods to person solution, a put wall solution
includes a high density storage medium. Typically, this is going to be a
mini-load ASRS or a shuttle system.
Two Step Put Wall Solution:
For a retailer or distributor filling hundreds or even thousands of orders,
Dematic has developed a two step put wall process that delivers higher
throughput rates.
Conveyance system: As with a goods to person solution, donor totes
will be routed from the storage system to a picking area.
Workstations: So far, a put wall sounds like a goods to person solution,
right? Picking is where the two approaches diverge. In a put wall order
fulfillment solution, the donor tote will be routed by conveyor to a put
wall area. This consists of a wall with cubby holes. A typical wall may
measure 10 feet square and contain 100 cubby holes that are each
large enough to hold a tote.
When the donor tote arrives by conveyor in the put wall area, the order
selector scans the tote and then scans each item as it is removed. The
system uses lights to direct the order selector to the right tote for that
item. A donor tote may contain dozens of one SKU or it may contain
many different SKUs. In this manner, the order selector can pick to up to
100 order totes at a time.
Multiple pick walls: A retailer with hundreds of stores may want to create
multiple pick wall zones. Once all of the items from a donor tote have
been picked for the first pick wall, the tote can travel to the next pick
wall where the process is repeated. That can be repeated again until all
of the items from the donor tote have been consumed.
Packing: In a typical set up, packing takes place on the opposite side
of the put wall. Lights notify packers that a shipping tote is ready for
packing once all of the items for an order have been picked. The tote
can be removed by the packers and prepared for shipment. Or, the
shipping tote can be pushed onto a packing conveyor and delivered to
a packing station.
The first step is a preput. A donor tote is delivered to a one-to-many
workstation. There, an order selector picks the contents from the donor
tote to multiple shipping containers, each destined to a specific put wall
zone. Once all of the items have been picked to that tote, it is released
and routed to the put wall zone for that tote.
In the second step, the order selector will follow the same process
as in the put wall solution described above: The order selector scans
the donor tote that has just arrived and then scans the items as they
are removed from the tote and places them in the appropriate shipping
container. Once all of the items for an order have been picked to that
tote, it is released to a packing station on the other side of the put wall.
While this preput process involves two touches, it delivers several
benefits: it allows a facility to pick more lines per hour than in a
conventional picking operation; it limits the amount of conveyor in the
facility and it fills orders for multiple locations in a smaller footprint.
Whether your facility employs goods to person or a put wall solution,
both offer the chance to improve productivity and throughput in a limited
footprint.
For more information visit: http://www.dematic.com/putwall
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