Systems integrator SDI Greenstone has developed a custom-built carton sortation system for the Playtex lingerie distribution centre in Barcelona. Replacing a manual operation the new system, capable of handling more than 2,000 cartons per hour, has enabled the distribution centre (DC) to streamline the competitive 'value-added' services provided to major retailers throughout Spain and Portugal
SDI Greenstone as also designed and built a special mezzanine floor to accommodate the DC's increasingly-busy garment packing operation.
The facility at San Sadurni d'Anoia, to the west of Barcelona, is operated by TNT Fashion Logistics. It forms part of a strategy recently launched by Sara Lee, which owns the well-known international Playtex brand (including the Wonderbra, Fila and Shock Absorber ranges), to establish a chain of model, identically-designed and operated, logistics centres across Europe. There will eventually be 15 or 16 such centres, all operated by TNT.
The distribution centre receives products – mainly brassieres and panties - from Playtex's manufacturers all over Europe and the Middle- and Far East. The centre holds more than 8,400 SKUs. These goods are either loose-packed, in boxes containing up to 200 items, or already pre-packaged by the supplier, ready for display in store. The items are checked and logged into the warehouse management system (WMS) using wrist-mounted RF scanners, and each box is labelled with a bar coded 'Licence Plate Number' (LPN) that is then used to track the box, and its contents, through the storage and retrieval process.
The boxes are palletised and random-stacked in racking. The racks have four upper levels for 'bulk' storage (holding around two million items as well as packaging materials) and four lower-levels, with half-height shelving, to provide 3,600 order picking locations. Man-up trucks are used for pallet putaway, and to replenish the order picking faces – tasks that are all driven by RF, cross-referencing the LPN labels.
Each day Sara Lee sends the centre electronic files, with details of the store orders to be assembled, from which picking labels are generated. Items are picked into store-specific 'shipping boxes', along with loose shipping labels, which are carried on trolleys. Orders can range from just a single bra to a full box; around 36,000 items are picked each day.
The SDI Greenstone Sorter
The shipping boxes are off loaded from the trolleys onto the SDI Greenstone sorter, which is driven by control software developed by sister company RTI. The sorter comprises a peripheral powered conveyor with five gravity roller conveyor spurs leading off it. As boxes pass onto the powered conveyor their bar-codes are read by in-line scanners and they are automatically diverted, by pneumatic pushers, onto the roller conveyors. The system fills up the spurs in sequence. Each of the five spurs has a work station at which the operator scans the loose label in the shipping box. Screens at the work stations then present instructions on how the box contents should be handled. The work stations also print out relevant labels – including details of price, size, colour, depending on the order – which are applied to all items in the shipping box. The boxes then pass down to a second powered conveyor that takes them to a four-lane secondary scanning area where the orders are double-checked and verified. Here the shipping label has a final scan and is stuck onto the box, which is then sealed ready for onward despatch.
Before the SDI Greenstone system was installed all this sortation process was undertaken manually. This was labour intensive, time-consuming and prone to inaccuracies. The SDI Greenstone sorter has made the operation quicker, more accurate and more traceable. But one of its more important benefits is its ability to accommodate the value-added services that Playtex is offering its major customers.
Spain's leading retail chain El Corte Inglés, for example, accounts for more than 30 per cent of Playtex brands' sales in Spain, and the company demands that products are delivered not only 'store ready', so they can be immediately placed on display, but also with a range of special labelling and ticketing. As well as carrying El Corte Inglés branding, the labelling may also have to include details of special offers, which are liable to change on a very frequent basis. Several other major retailers also require similar services.
TNT has assigned two of the work stations on the SDI Greenstone sorter specifically for such value-added services as these. Items requiring special treatment are identified as they are brought to the sorter's input station on the peripheral conveyor, and automatically diverted to the appropriate workstation.
"The ability to offer value-added services are vital for Sara Lee in maintaining a competitive edge for the Playtex brands in the big retail outlets," explains HernĂ n Lo Russo, TNT's Contract Manager at the Barcelona DC. "The SDI Greenstone system enables us to handle the processes easily and quickly, so we can turn round orders in the shortest possible time. It also gives us the flexibility to meet the ever-changing demands of the end customers. In essence SDI Greenstone helps TNT to help Sara Lee to help their customers!"
Much attention has been paid to ergonomics in the configuration of the sortation system. All loading points and work stations are at a comfortable working height, and the powered conveyor belts are constructed from interlocking low-friction plastic segments which affords almost silent running and requires minimal maintenance.