Designing the future of e-fulfilment

There’s no denying that e-commerce has, and continues to have, a transformational impact on retail logistics. Swisslog has already helped a number of prestigious omni-channel businesses determine how best to move their intralogistics forward, via Click&Pick. This modular solution can be tailored to meet existing requirements, and is flexibly adapted to changing customer needs and business models. Here’s seven businesses making the most of its innovative features and setting the pace in the future of e-commerce intralogistics.

Competec: The Swiss Competec Group is the logistics company behind the electronics online shop www.brack.ch. The Click&Pick system provides Competec with a scalable state-of-the-art storage and picking process, with the capability of handling increasing numbers of small quantity orders. In addition, the installed solution has no single point of failure as all inventory bins can be delivered by any of the robots to any picking location – providing virtually 100% access all the time. In 2014, Competec took delivery of the 1,000th AutoStore robot sold by Swisslog and became the biggest AutoStore installation worldwide. www.swisslog.com/competec

CatchOfTheDay: A division of The Catch Group, Australia’s largest e-commerce group. The first AutoStore customer in the southern hemisphere. Gabby Leibovich, Founder of CatchOfTheDay, said: “This project will support our continued business growth and ensure fast, accurate and reliable order fulfilment to our customers. At the same time, it provides us with the ability to maximise our operational efficiency along with a significant reduction in operating costs.” www.swisslog.com/catchoftheday

Fossil: An international company specialising in the design and marketing of handbags, watches, fashion and jewellery, Fossil has a presence in more than 100 countries. New products, as well as new sales channels that give customers easier access to its merchandise than ever before, are the driving forces behind its expansion. “We needed an adequate logistics solution capable of supporting our new sales channels with fast and efficient processes,” said Josef Otter, CEO of parent company Fesco GmbH. www.swisslog.com/fossil

Hat World: Hat World, Inc. commissioned Swisslog to install a state-of-the-art Omni-channel order fulfilment and storage system, at its central distribution center in Indianapolis. Tony DeFrench, Vice President of Operations described the project as supporting, “…our continued sales growth and ensuring fast, accurate order fulfilment to our stores, 3rd party partners and direct e-commerce customers. At the same time, it will provide us the ability to maximise our operational efficiency with reduced inventory investment.”

PostLogistics: From its portfolio of Click&Pick solutions for e-Commerce intralogistics, Swisslog implemented an integrated AutoStore solution for Swiss Post. A key requirement for the project team was interfacing the facility to the SAP EWM (Extended Warehouse Management) system. The state-of-the-art storage and picking solution provided is capable of processing late orders for next day delivery and is fully scalable for future expansion. “The comprehensive testing we performed was definitely worthwhile because in live operations there haven’t been any appreciable problems with the AutoStore facility or the SAP EWM system”, said Patrick Stucki, Head of Business Development at Swiss Post. www.swisslog.com/yellowcube

DB Schenker: The global logistics provider has become the first to implement the pioneering CarryPick solution, part of the Swisslog Click&Pick e-commerce portfolio, for its customer Lekmer.com, Scandinavia’s largest online toy retailer. The CarryPick solution consists of 65 Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs), 1,500 mobile racking units and seven ergonomic workstations, installed together with Swisslog’s proprietary control systems, WarehouseManager. “Together with Swisslog, we have developed an inventory management solution that is unique for online businesses in Europe. This is designed to deliver levels of productivity that exceeds all manual solutions in the industry,” says Anders Holmberg, Business Development Manager of DB Schenker Logistics.

Varner: A leading retailer of strong fashion brands in Scandinavia, Varner commissioned Swisslog to act as general contractor for the material handling elements of a new distribution center (DC) in Vanersborg, Sweden. The order comprises cranes and conveyors for pallets and light goods, a crossbelt sorter, a hanging garment solution and Swisslog’s proprietary warehouse management software and controls systems. The storage volume of the DC amounts to 40,000 pallet locations in a high-bay warehouse, 330,000 dynamic locations in the miniload system as well as 60,000 bins in an AutoStore small parts storage system.