48 DC VELOCITY NOVEMBER 2014 www.dcvelocity.com
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When you can fill your trailers higher,
which way do you think your profits will go?
ORBIS Small-Format pallets carry the same size load as a standard
pallet, while occupying a smaller footprint in your trailers. The 42”x 30”
footprint increases order stack height, offering a more economical
delivery solution for reduced case orders. With pallets packed-out
higher, instead of wider, your trailer density will increase and so will
your profit margins. Contact us to learn more.
a shift in thinking | orbiscorporation.com/smallformat
will run side by side until the transition
is complete. The facility is also adding
new conveyors that will allow cases to be
picked directly to conveyor belts.
THERE’S SLOTS TO LIKE
For Polaris, much of zone routing’s
appeal is its ability to handle a wide
range of products. The Vermillion facility alone houses 60,000 stock-keeping
units (SKUs), which range from service
parts and tires to filters and accessories.
That kind of variety would be difficult
to accommodate in a fully automated
system, such as a miniload shuttle setup.
Not so with zone routing. Zones can
be configured to be as large or small as
needed, depending on the products’ size,
how often they’re ordered, and the need
to situate like-products together. Plus,
these systems allow items to be stored in
pallet flow racks, carton flow racks, and
shelving, and permit fast reconfiguration
as needs change.
Zone routing also gives companies the
flexibility to handle fluctuations in volume, whether they’re caused by seasonal
swings or simply uneven daily order patterns. For instance, at Polaris, as many
as five people might be assigned to a
zone during peak periods, which typically
occur between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. When
activity is slow, a single worker can cover
two or more zones.
To take best advantage of all that flexibility, of course, you must have good
slotting. The system must be able to keep
precise track of the whereabouts of every
item. And it has to be able to balance
work evenly across the various zones to
avoid logjams while still ensuring workers
in other areas are kept busy.
At Polaris, it’s a job that’s never finished. “Reslotting is a daily process,”
acknowledges Eickhoff. “We have someone working on it full time. Off road,
on road, snow, and summer—we are in
a constant state of motion on our SKUs
and introduce lots of new products on a
regular basis.”
INS AND OUTS
While zone routing has been around for a
couple of decades, advancements in con-
veyor design have made the process even
apparel, industrial supplies, food
and beverages, office supplies, phar-
maceuticals, medical supplies, and
personal care products.
Polaris is no newcomer to zone
routing; it has used the strategy at
both of its facilities for some years
now. In fact, the system now under-
going expansion in Vermillion dates
back to 1997. The current initiative
calls for additional Dematic convey-
ors and new racking to be installed to
double the split-case picking zones
to 16 from eight. The new conveyors
for the system are being installed
next to the old conveyors. The two
