materialhandlingupdate SORTATION
Automated Vertical Storage Systems It All Adds Up To VALUE
Small parts are expensive. Traditional
shelving eats up valuable floor space
and exposes parts. What’s more, parts
can be tough to find and reach; keeping
accurate inventories a challenge.
The Lauyans Small Parts Storage
System (SPSS) is a USA manufactured
solution offering high density storage
utilizing vertical space for greater
footprint capacity, worker safety,
security, labor savings and the most
competitive pricing available.
Before you decide to buy any
Automated Storage System, go online
and check out our pricing.
www.SPSSonline.com
It All Adds Up To VALUE It All Adds Up To VALUE
Lauyans & Company, Inc.
1-866-LAUYANS (528-9267)
USA Manufactured
from the source box, the box is conveyed
to one of two intermediate picking storage buffers located nearby. The two
buffers have three aisles each and are
served by automated cranes. This area
has a total of 10,800 storage locations
and can hold the boxes on their trays
three deep. The boxes will be held in this
buffer until the products are needed.
This same buffer is also used to temporarily hold finished customer cartons
until they are sequenced to shipping.
The cranes serving the intermediate
picking buffer can perform 1,400 moves
per hour.
SORT CIRCUIT
The facility’s warehouse management
system, also provided by SSI Schaefer,
coordinates the sorting of items so that
all sizes of an SKU are packed together
to make store putaway faster.
“When it arrives at the store, it is ready
to put on sale,” explains Castresana.
“This puts the strain on the warehouse,
but we would rather do that than put
strain on the store, where the labor is
more expensive.”
Belt conveyors transport the items
from the pick stations to the facility’s
split-tray sorter. The conveyors act as
buffers to regulate the flow of goods into
the sorter without slowing down the
picking process preceding it. The sorter
consists of 70 trays moving in a circular
train. Upon approach, the items are
automatically scanned so the system
knows which item will be placed onto a
particular sorter tray. About 87 percent
of all goods in the facility can pass
through the sorter, with the remainder
handled manually.
The conveyor carries the product
above the sorter, and at the precise
moment the assigned tray passes below,
the belt rolls to gently drop the product
into the tray.
The sorter trays are hinged on the
sides and split in the middle, similar to
bomb bay doors, so they can quickly
open to deliver products into 54 staging
chutes located below. As the tray
approaches the chute to which the order
is assigned, the tray splits, gently
depositing the item into the chute. Each
chute will gather items from several dif-
ferent trays, depending on the size of the
order.
A UNIQUE COMBINATION
The combination of the ergonomic
picking-induction stations, the trays for
sorting, the chutes for staging and performing a secondary sort, and the movement of cartons below allows for very
high sorting rates in a very limited footprint. All of these movements are coordinated with sophisticated software that
enables the system to perform 9,000
sorts per hour, while managing 4,000
orders simultaneously and utilizing only
the 54 physical chutes of the system.
Castresana notes that while this sorter
solution uses standard components
found in other systems, the components
have never been put together in this
exact way before. The unique combination serves the demands at Desigual
well.
“The sorter is the key point,” he says.
“We did not intend to discover some-
thing new, but this works for us. In the
end, the automation was the best solu-
tion. It gives us control, security, and the
best performance for our demand.”
Unique enough to match its name –
Desigual. ;
