materialhandlingupdate
BY DAVID MALONEY, SENIOR EDITOR
Tailored for performance
Apparel maker
Desigual’s new
automated
picking and
sorting solution
may use standard
components
found in other
systems. But
there’s nothing
ordinary about it.
SOMETIMES, THE LINE BETWEEN PICKING AND SORTING GETS BLURRED.
For instance, take a system where sorters divide batches of products into individual
orders, and in doing so, perform the order selection duties commonly done by pickers.
If that sounds like some kind of futuristic technology, it’s not. Desigual, an apparel
company founded in Barcelona, Spain, in 1984, has such a system. The automated setup
is designed specifically to meet the demands of high stock-keeping unit (SKU) turnover
and changing distribution cycles.
The name Desigual means unique or unequaled in Spanish. The company, whose colorful, fresh designs set fashion trends worldwide, ships some 22 million pieces of clothing annually from its distribution center in Barcelona. The items go out to more than
10,000 customer locations in 114 countries, including the company’s own branded
stores, Desigual sections in department stores (stores within stores), and a wholesale
channel. The facility also serves several thousand e-commerce customers daily. In the
United States, Desigual has its own stores in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las
Vegas, Miami, and Minneapolis. Desigual fashions are also sold in many larger Macys
stores.
Distributing a multichannel mix from a single facility can be a challenge. The company produces two collections each year—spring/summer and autumn/winter—each with
up to 1,000 different designs, including clothing, shoes, and accessories.
