The Material Handling Blog

MSC Industrial Supply Co. knew it was time to update how work got done inside its customer fulfillment centers. With growing demand and a vast product catalog, they needed a way to handle more volume while improving the day-to-day experience for employees on the floor. That meant reducing physically demanding tasks, increasing flexibility, and building a more efficient system for order fulfillment. As a leading distributor of metalworking and MRO (maintenance, repair, and operations) products, MSC serves manufacturers and industrial customers across North America. Their operation includes over 7,000 associates and millions of SKUs flowing through two major fulfillment centers in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and Elkhart, Indiana.

E-commerce and retail are evolving fast, and small to medium-sized businesses are at the center of that growth. The U.S. alone is home to nearly 14 million e-commerce sites, accounting for 53% of all online retail sites globally. As more businesses move online, the competition to fulfill orders quickly and efficiently intensifies. In fact, small and medium-sized businesses expect their e-commerce sales to grow year-over-year. With growth comes challenges: How do you fulfill rising order volumes quickly and accurately without adding more labor or expanding physical space? Large-scale warehouse automation has long been the answer for enterprise operations, but for smaller businesses, automation has often felt out of reach—too complex, too expensive, and too overwhelming. That’s changing.

When Maurice’s, a women’s retail fashion brand, set out to reimagine its distribution strategy, it turned to GEODIS, a global leader in third-party logistics, to bring its vision to life. Tasked with designing and managing a 404,000-square-foot omnichannel distribution center, GEODIS needed a fulfillment system that could handle retail replenishment, direct-to-consumer shipping, and buy-online-pick-up-in-store (BOPIS) orders—all while keeping up with rising customer expectations and order volumes. To tackle these challenges, GEODIS sought a solution to deliver high-throughput capabilities and adapt to future growth. Their search led them to AutoStore, a proven order fulfillment technology, and Bastian Solutions, a trusted integrator with extensive experience in implementing automated systems. Through this collaboration, GEODIS and Bastian Solutions created a cutting-edge distribution center that balances speed, flexibility, and efficiency. With AutoStore at its core, the facility is equipped to meet the demands of today’s fast-paced retail logistics environment while remaining ready to scale for what’s ahead.

The future of warehousing lies in optimizing every aspect of your operation. The AutoStore system, a cutting-edge automated storage and retrieval solution, offers unmatched efficiency and flexibility. This innovative system uses robots on a grid to store and retrieve bins, maximizing space utilization and dramatically improving pick rates. However, the true success of AutoStore results from the precise configuration that meets your unique high-throughput needs.

AutoStore is redefining retail and customer service with an exciting new micro-fulfillment campaign and design concepts that will help retailers enhance a customer’s in-store experience

AutoStore está redefiniendo el servicio minorista y de atención al cliente con una nueva campaña de microprocesos y conceptos de diseño interesantes que ayudarán a los minoristas a mejorar la experiencia de la tienda del cliente.

Learn more about this unique automated warehouse storage system and what makes it the best option for maximizing storage density.