Technische Unie, the largest wholesaler for electrical, sanitary, and mechanical-installation equipment in the Netherlands, has been placing its trust in WITRON’s Dynamic Picking System (DPS) for many years, in order to meet its order-picking needs and supply its customers.
Due to the constantly increasing throughput and further growth of the assortment/range, the company decided to adapt its logistics centre for current and future growth. The expansion – designed and implemented by WITRON as a general contractor – will be realised in three stages and completed in February 2019.
Expansion Plans
The expansion will include 20 multifunctional order-picking workstations (for a total of 80) and a new outbound lane (for a total of three). Thus, the throughput of the logistics centre will increase by more than 30%, so that nearly 100,000 order lines can be picked on a peak day, after productive use.
The system will also be amended by automated DPS and OCB (Order Consolidation Buffer) aisles, with 60,000 tote-storage locations (for a total of 257,000) and eight stacker cranes (for a total of 33).
The totes are divided into three parts, allowing the broad assortment of more than 89,000 different products to be stored in a space-saving manner. The ‘empty-tote infeed’ will be doubled in terms of size and throughput. This area is used to automatically destack the empty totes returned by the customers of Technische Unie and supply them to the DPS AS/RS.
Customer Service
The company is well known for its extraordinarily high level of customer service. Products that are ordered before 8 p.m. are picked by no later than 2.30 a.m. and arrive at the customer during the night or the following day.
The Alphen logistics centre, located in the heart of the Netherlands, plays a very important role in Technische Unie’s distribution network. From here, the wholesaler ships all small-volume products – at least 80% of its product range – to customers throughout the entire country.
Dynamic Picking System
The Dynamic Picking System (DPS) is based on the principles of both goods-to-person and person-to-goods picking. Depending on the relevant order structure, the items are arranged in the pick front, either permanently or on a demand-oriented basis. Therefore, the pick front is optimised at all times.
Stacker cranes controlled by the system carry out replenishment of the picking zones. The classification of the product structure is consistently verified and adapted by DPS.
The picking operation is supported by a pick-by-light system. The lengths that employees walk are shortened significantly due to both the static and dynamic staging of warehouse items, enabling a very high picking output, compared to conventional solutions.
The order totes in the Order Consolidation Buffer are automatically consolidated according to the customer and the route, so the shipping process meets the highest requirements in terms of cost-efficiency and flexibility.
In the outbound lane (dolly-loading lane), the picked and consolidated totes are stacked automatically, placed on dollies, provided with a lid, stretch-wrapped, and provided with a dispatch label before they are transported to the shipping area on the conveyor system.
For more information, visit www.witron.de.
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