CASE STUDY: Pick to Belt, In Line Manifest and Carrier Sortation System

The Problem

American Christmas Light Supply had experienced extreme growth and had begun to over run their manual fulfillment capacity. Their product is very seasonal and the peak Christmas season rush would overwhelm their staff. Compounding the problem was the great spread in the load data.

No Cubing system was supplied, at the customer request.

The Solution

CASI was contracted to supply an automated fulfillment system using existing slider bed conveyor that could be used for a full case pick to belt system, a BudgetMaster powered 24 volt curve, in line parcel manifesting system and carrier sortation. The oversize in line scale would have to be 42 inches wide and 60 inches long to accommodate the oversize cartons. The oversize diverts would also have to accommodate the oversize cartons.

System Overview

The system starts with an interface to the customers legacy order entry system using SolidComm. Carrier interfaces also had to be established with UPS Worldship and FedEx Powership.

The system begins by picking full case cartons to belt and applying an license plate barcode is applied by have to the side of the carton the Barcode is placed in a ladder format in order to facility readability.

After the cartons travel around the BudgetMaster powered curve, the barcode is read in ladder format by the DS6300 barcode scanner. This data is combined with the weigh data from the scale and a shipping label is prepared for the carton.

After the label is prepared, the carton is placed in a known position by the CD 160 Blade stop carton cornering device. Once the vacuum sensor confirms the label is fully on the tamp pad, the SolidLabel system applies the label and triggers the label placement confirmation scanner to confirm label placement.

If the shipping labeling process has encountered any issue such as unreadable barcode, order not found in the database, etc., it becomes an exception is is diverted to a QC station as shown above. If the carton has been properly labeled, the carton is diverted to either the UPS or FedEx lanes.

Benefits from the new efficiencies

Benefits from the new fulfillment system include reduced labor costs, faster and more predictable order processing and the ability to double capacity without adding personnel.