The Material Handling Blog

“Our existing 26,000 square foot facility was just not enough.” Gerrie Electric turned to small scale automation to unlock warehouse footprint and productivity opportunities quickly and reliably. The result – error-free picking, a boost in throughput, a trajectory to achieve and beat a targeted 3-year ROI and room to accommodate their immediate growth for additional robots and ports to handle the increased demand. As the largest independent, electrical lighting and automation distributor in Ontario, Canada, Gerrie Electric serves customers ranging from car and steel OEMs, pharmaceuticals and individual contractors performing on-site electrical installations.

« Notre installation existante de 26 000 pieds carrés n’était tout simplement plus suffisante ». Gerrie Electric s’est tourné vers l’automatisation à petite échelle pour lever les restrictions dues à la superficie d’entrepôt et permettre rapidement et de façon fiable des opportunités de productivité. Le résultat : un prélèvement exempt d’erreurs, une amélioration de la productivité, une trajectoire pour atteindre et surpasser un rendement du capital investi sur trois ans ciblé, et de l’espace pour accommoder la croissance immédiate pour des robots et des ports supplémentaires afin de traiter l’augmentation de la demande.

Post originally published and provided courtesy of Scallog. In order to coordinate and absorb those retail flows as effectively as possible to meet demand, logistics engineers must become more efficient and productive, beyond trading off their resources as an adjustment variable. Automation, and specifically goods-to-person robotics, is a crucial element to ensure efficient logistics without compromising on the operator’s safety and well-being.

In 2022, Bastian Solutions announced a working relationship with Caja Robotics to integrate robotic systems in the U.S., with a plan to leverage each other’s capabilities in the material handling space to serve a range of projects and customer sites. We talked to Ilan Cohen, the CEO and Board Chairman at Caja Robotics, for a deeper insight on the technology and future of DC automation development. Ilan is an external founder with a Ph.D. in AI (artificial intelligence) and an extensive career in automation and robotics.

The question for today’s modern warehouses is no longer when should we automate, but how and where do we automate for the best impact? To help sort through these cutting-edge offerings, we’ve created a quick visual guide to understanding the basics of goods to person systems, including the different types, their benefits and important factors to consider. View the full-size infographic.

With all this innovation and growth in the goods to person warehouse automation sector, it’s vital to factor the impact on the whole system’s integration, tied together through software and controls. To compensate, WES systems are getting larger and more complex in order to integrate with new technologies provided by other vendors coming to market. To truly optimize a goods to person system, customers should consider each GTP technology’s merits, but also the software that will manage its operations.

Any automation solution is an investment. Integration of goods to person (GTP) is no different, and with technological advancements, GTP has always been known as a flexible solution that accommodates various products and operations. Demonstrating extensibility, however, reaches beyond minor adjustments or accommodations. Extensibility is the measure of the scalability and integrability of a product or system, providing for a truly future-proof solution that works well with new technologies and functions. Adapting to a changing economic and uncertain labor markets, as well as advancements in robotics and software, goods to person continues to prove to be a robust foundation for distribution center operations that can grow and adapt.

From a mechanical standpoint, a goods-to-person system certainly can attain the tote delivery rate advertised on a vendor’s website.  However, these advertised rates do not consider the primary determinant for the throughput rate that is actually realized at a goods-to-person work station – the pick cycle time.  Read: Key Factors in Goods-to-Person Throughput Design

Same-day fulfillment and delivery is a growing trend and one that is being explored by big name retailers for an additional competitive edge. With continuing growth in ecommerce sales and mobile device usage, companies will need to master the art of fulfillment in minutes to meet same-day delivery requests. So, how do retailers adjust operations for a better ROI and how do they balance current labor market challenges? Whether you have an omnichannel or direct to consumer, local fulfillment operation, below are some key points when considering a same-day delivery strategy.

Serving more than 80,000 customers in both Canada and the United States, Richelieu aimed to increase customer satisfaction with faster, reliable order fulfillment. As an international importer, distributor and manufacturer of specialty hardware, Richelieu manages over 110,000 SKUs. In addition to a faster and more streamlined order fulfillment approach, Richelieu was able to consolidate external storage by leveraging their Montreal facility. They looked to Bastian Solutions to advise and implement the right combination of automation technology to add to Richelieu’s facility longevity and implement a system that helps them reliably maintain strong customer service.

If your distribution center has grown in both SKUs and order volume or your typical order has shifted from retail to more ecommerce sales resulting in larger requests for smaller orders; it’s possible your picking productivity isn’t where it should be. You might also be struggling to find the labor to push orders out the door quickly and meet your service level agreements. These are just some of challenges that companies, both large and small, around the globe are facing as they adapt to market changes and shift fulfillment operations to cater to the latest ecommerce demands.

Scalability and flexibility are no doubt the focus of today and the future in distribution and production. Utilizing bins, bots and ports, the AutoStore goods to person technology brings a grid-based approach that allows customers to shrink their storage space exponentially while increasing their capacity for smarter, faster operations. Working together since 2013, last year Bastian Solutions expanded its portfolio of global partners with AutoStore to further support customers wherever they may be, providing them increased capacity, flexibility and accuracy.