PACKAGING T
he technological leap closes the gap between order-picking and packing, enabling ecommerce businesses to offer its customers secure and compact boxed orders prepared with complete accuracy, and without manual intervention,
from pick right through to despatch. A ‘one touch’ operation.
SINGLE SYSTEM SOLUTION The innovative step, considered a ‘game-changer’, came about soon after Ferag installed its Skyfall automated pouch sortation system at a leading retail brand’s ecommerce centre in the UK. Equipped with 24,000 overhead pouches the Ferag system carries, directs and sorts a wide variety of picked goods from pick-stations, served by ASRS and Autostore systems, to over 70 manual packing boxing system, a CVP Everest from Sparck Technologies.
Ferag’s Skyfall pouch system is located maximising the use of available overhead space. Here, ordered items are picked from totes into open pouches and carried away, sorted and accumulated within dynamic storage buffers, before being called off to order and deliver at speed to packing benches. The system is designed for a throughput of 16,000 pouches per hour, with a buffer capacity of an hour, where pouches can be held for single or multiple item orders. A key advantage of the system is that each pouch is designed to carry multiple items together, for example; hanging garments, as well as
AUTO-UNLOADING POUCH
The Skyfall overhead pouch sorter was originally sourced to deliver single and multi-item orders to mainly manual packing desks. However, Ferag had recently developed an automated unloading capability for its pouches. This prompted the idea of closing the gap between
FERAG AND SPARCK COLLABORATE IN ‘GAME-CHANGER’ FOR AUTOMATED EFULFILMENT
In an ecommerce industry first, systems integrator, Ferag and auto-boxing specialist, Sparck Technologies, have collaborated to develop a continuous ‘one touch’ process from order-picking to individual ‘fit-to-size’ boxes ready for despatch.
picking and auto-packing, creating a direct infeed to Sparck’s CVP Everest to automate the whole process.
The CVP Everest is capable of producing 1100 boxes per hour with two operators. So, the question was, could Ferag’s pouch sorter and the new Everest boxing system be integrated to produce a continuous process from pick to despatch, with no manual intervention? If so, it would be a game changer.
34 DECEMBER/JANUARY 2024/25 | FACTORY&HANDLINGSOLUTIONS THE CHALLENGE
It was a great idea, but it was not without its complications. The highly versatile Ferag pouch sorter is designed to carry a diverse range of goods, making it well suited for varied product shoes.
Chris More, Ferag UK’s head of sales, explains how the pouch design was critical:
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