all of the items for an order have been
gathered in the cubby, at which time the
light will remain illuminated to show that
the order is complete. The associate then
removes the items and places them into a
tote on a wheeled cart. The cart is ferried to
one of the three adjacent pack stations that
service each put wall.
At the pack station, a worker removes
each item from the tote, scans it, and determines whether to pack the order in a box or
a bag. The container is sealed and a shipping label applied. Completed parcels are
then placed onto a takeaway conveyor for
transport to another crossbelt sorter that
feeds shipping docks by carrier type and
transit mode, such as air, next day, ground,
and so forth.
KEEPING THE STORES STOCKED
Later this year, retail store fulfillment will
transition from Warrendale to the Hazle
DC. The process for filling store orders
is similar to the e-commerce fulfillment
process, with slight differences. Both types
of orders are filled within the modules. For
store orders requiring full cases (such as
orders associated with store openings or
new product introductions), RF coordinates the picking of cases from the shelf
directly to the conveyor in the module.
As a case is selected, a shipping label is
applied.
Store replenishment uses the same open
case inventory that’s used to fill e-commerce orders. Again, the picking process is
directed by RF, but different totes are used
for gathering the retail stores’ orders. Like
e-commerce orders, these are picked on a
waveless basis.
Completed totes are pushed off onto a
takeaway conveyor. However, the store
totes are then diverted to a separate put-
to-light area instead of being sorted with
the crossbelt unit. The put-to-light sys-
tem (supplied by Dematic) has space to
stage 3,500 cartons used for gathering store
orders. Each carton will ship to only one
store. Once the totes arrive in this area, a
worker at the station removes each item
and scans it. This causes a light adjacent to
the put carton to illuminate, indicating that
the product is needed by the store associ-
ated with that carton. The worker places
the item in the carton and hits a button to
confirm the action. This continues
until either the order is complete or
the carton is full.
The carton is then sealed, labeled,
and pushed off onto a takeaway
conveyor. The conveyor feeds a
small sliding shoe sorter that diverts
products to linehaul carrier lanes
for store delivery. When fully operational, the Hazle DC will service
between 450 and 500 stores.
LEAN AND GREEN
American Eagle Outfitters expects
that the new shared-inventory system will shave operating costs by
10 to 15 percent. The facility will
save further on energy use though
the implementation of low-power
conveyors that shut off when product is not present, as well as efficient
lighting that reduces electricity use.
The facility is in the process of
obtaining a LEED (Leadership in
Energy & Environmental Design)
certification from the U.S. Green
Building Council.
The Hazle Township facility is
space-efficient as well. While the
DC is expected to handle the same
volumes as its sister operation in
Ottawa, it won’t require as much
square footage to do so. The Vargo-designed system has allowed it to fit
into 20 percent less space than that
occupied by the Kansas building,
which provided significant savings.
Once fully operational, the new
facility should see even greater efficiencies of scale. The automated
system assures that it can easily handle the fluctuating volumes associated with a seasonal business such
as apparel. And just as fashions
change, so do order patterns; no
one knows for sure how volumes
will grow for each channel. But
now, AE is prepared with the distribution flexibility it needs to remain
a force in the fashion market. N
Please visit us in booth 4419 at ProMat 2015
