Conveyors & Automation Case Study Return to sender
When returns handling proved a bottleneck for the German catalogue and e-commerce company, Witt Weiden, the retailer found the solution in a split-tray sorter from KNAPP subsidiary, Dürkopp Fördertechnik.
H
eadquartered in the Ger- man city of Weiden, the company no longer be- longs to the Witt family of
mail order pioneers but is now a subsidi- ary of the far-reaching Otto Group. Witt Weiden markets clothing, shoes, accessories and household goods through both catalogue mail order and online channels, with annual sales of €570m. The company has approximately 2,400 employees and dispatches up to 77,000 parcels daily to about nine million customers. As in all direct sales operations, returns management plays a vital role. Only when customers receive their goods at home can they assess the various product qualities such as size, colour, fabric, feel and cut. If they dislike any aspect of the product, they can simply send it back. Previously, Witt used a cross-belt sorter to process its returns but, when servicing costs spiralled and bottlenecks began to
77,000 CSL Quarter Page Horizontal 63 x 186_(Machinery Update) 19/01/2012 08:54 Page 1
parcels dispatched daily by mail order company Witt Weiden
Pallet Conveying
form due to insufficient capacity, Witt’s management sought another solution. After considering various options, they chose the split-tray sorter from KNAPP subsidiary, Dürkopp Fördertechnik. During the two-month installation and
start-up period, the old system contin- ued to operate so that there was no disruption to the logistics processes.
TWO INFEEDS
Some 18 months on, the solution has proved its worth for Witt Weiden. Returned goods are mainly sealed items of clothing which are transported as folded goods such as shirts, blouses or trousers. Employ- ees check the returns thoroughly, repack them and sort out any damaged goods. Products are then placed on the conveyor system and supplied to one of the two auto- matic infeed stations of the split-tray sorter. Explained Manfred Pörtner, project man- ager for Dürkopp: “Having two infeeds dou- bles the hourly sorter performance, covering all performance peaks throughout the day.” The system has a high conveying speed of 1.3m/s and the use of square trays avoids the need to align clothing items in a certain direction, dramatically increasing throughput. Each of the sorter’s 24 outfeed stations
has two pneumatically operated openers. Using target codes, operators can define two outfeed points for each chute, which theoretically brings twice the sorter perfor- mance again. After the goods have been
Back to front: The split-tray sorter processing returns at the German mail order firm, Witt Weiden.
sorted, employees scan them, pack them into boxes and return them to storage. “We achieved the desired increase in per-
formance,” continued Manfred Pörtner, “and, importantly, ensured sufficient reserve capac- ity to make the investment future-proof.” n
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Order Picking Whether you are handling small items, trays, cartons, totes or pallets - CSL can provide an effective conveying solution for you MEMBER
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www.shdlogistics.com Storage Handling Distribution May 2012 37
Elevator Solutions
Conveyor Systems has for many years provided materials handling solutions for numerous companies and industrial sectors, utilising modular or custom build system designs and incorporating intelligent control systems to provide traceability and valuable management information.
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