CONTENTS
Warehouse Management Success story page 34-35
Onninen builds new automated warehouse with the aid of Vanderlande
page 36-37
Outstanding awards for Boots UK and Witron
page 38
Quantronix’ CubiScan 150 acquires OIML and MID certification
When Chain Reaction Cycles wanted a Voice picking solution to improve picking efficiency, it came to Dematic and got much more.
D
Bike store rides on with Dematicʼs picking solution
ematic is supplying online bike store Chain Reaction Cycles with a solution for Voice
picking, packing and conveying as well as a tailored warehouse management system (WMS) in a scheme that is expected to deliver a 50 per cent improvement in order-picking efficiency. Chain Reaction Cycles sells bicycles, spare parts and accessories online, direct to the customer. Recently the company also expanded into winter sports goods and now offers some 84,000 different products from its 150,000 sq ft purpose-built facility in Ballyclare, just outside Belfast in Northern Ireland. Celebrating 25 years of business in 2010, this family-owned company became an online business 10 years ago and is
currently experiencing an impressive 40 per cent year-on-year growth.
Realising it needed to improve its picking process to accommodate this level of growth, and being aware of the benefits that Voice picking could deliver, CRC sought out Voice solutions and providers at the Logistics Link North Show, held in Doncaster during October 2009. Seeing a Voice system being demonstrated on Dematic’s stand they stopped and talked. Dematic subsequently spent three days on site at CRC conducting a study and setting up a live demonstration to convey the concept to those on the CRC board less familiar with Voice technology. During the consultation process the focus was solely on Voice picking together with a packing solution. However, Dematic’s concept differed from other companies bidding for the contract and caught CRC’s interest, as Stuart Stables, head of Dematic’s product division, explains: “We were able to identify issues with CRC’s in-house developed ERP system that, like other ERP systems, is built around general business processes and lacks the specialist warehouse capabilities of Dematic’s own Warehouse Management System (WMS), which we could tailor to
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MANUFACTURING &LOGISTICS
IT October 2010
suit CRC’s particular requirements. Competitive bidders could only offer proprietary software that could not compete on specification.”
Dematic won the contract, but now it was no longer for just Voice picking and a packing system but also for Dematic’s full WMS to cover all warehousing aspects for CRC; including goods receipts, putaway, replenishment, pick and pack, stock counting, cycle counting and kitting, where CRC build bicycle wheels according to customer requests. While working closely with CRC during the development of the WMS, Dematic identified significant possible improvements; from feeding orders to the packing area on an automated conveyor system. Packing cartons will be erected automatically and fed to packers while conveyors transport picked orders from the zones directly to the packers to reduce walking distance for the pickers. CRC approved of the concept and signed the contract for this further solution. With a tight timeline for its deployment, Dematic split the scheme into two phases. Phase 1 comprises the Voice pick system, which includes 35 Vocollect Talkman terminals, and the packing and dispatch system, which features 20 >>
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