Picking at the Hazle facility is
directed by radio frequency (RF).
To begin the process, a worker
scans the bar code on a tote that will
be used to gather items. (A number
of orders will be picked together
into the tote, then sorted later for
individual customer orders.) Once
the worker scans the tote, his or
her handheld device displays the
location of the first pick in the
sequence, based on an optimized
travel path. Upon arrival, the worker selects the item and scans it to
confirm the pick has been made.
Additional picks are carried out the
same way.
COFE knows at all times where
workers are in their pick sequences. When
an order arrives at the facility that requires
an item that’s in line with the pick path of
a current sequence, COFE will automatically assign it to the worker’s pick list. The
picking process continues until the tote
is full or the associate reaches the end of
the shelving on that level. The tote is then
“closed out” on the RF device and pushed
off onto a takeaway conveyor that runs
through the middle of the module.
When the pick sequence is complete or
the tote is full, a spiral conveyor lowers
the completed tote to floor level, where
it is manually inducted into a crossbelt
sorter (supplied by Beumer). The cross-
belt sorts 48 customer orders at a time to
bins adjacent to Vargo Speedpack put-
wall workstations. The stations feature
rows of cubbyholes wired with put-to-light
technology to collect products for the 48
orders. The facility currently has 30 such
stations, but that can easily be doubled to
60 in the future. American Eagle went with
this put system to minimize the amount
of time products tie up a sorter bin. “The
dwell time with a [traditional] chute sys-
tem reduces the overall capacity of the
sorter,” explains Repp. “The cubby system
allows us to quickly move the items from
the sorter to free it up for more orders.”
To divvy up products among orders, a
worker scans the first sorted item. This
causes a light in one of the put wall’s cub-
byholes to illuminate, indicating that the
item should be placed in that cubby. The
worker continues to scan selections until
Theoretically, the facility
could accommodate the
same number of SKUs,
since each slot location
could hold a different prod-
uct. As a practical matter,
the building typically hous-
es about 50,000 different
SKUs.
NO WAITING FOR
“WAVES”
The fulfillment process is
designed so that items can
be selected for e-commerce
and store orders simultaneous-
ly. Based on its success using the
COFE system at its Kansas DC,
AE chose to implement it in the
Hazle picking operation as well. AE
uses a waveless process, meaning
that orders are not grouped into
waves as is common in pick opera-
tions. Instead, customer orders are
entered into worker pick lists on the
fly as they are received at the facili-
ty—a capability that promotes both
fulfillment flexibility and processing
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