CASE STUDY: Outbound Shipping Sortation & Automatic QC System

The Problem: Need reduction in outbound shipping labor and picking errors

A major manufacturer of home interior items wanted to reduce labor associated with their outbound shipping operation. In addition, picking errors were too high and needed to be reduced.

The Solution: Outbound shipping sorter with in line checkweighers for all pick modules

CASI proposed installation of an outbound shipping sorter and in line checkweighers for all lines. A legacy system host interface had to be established to get the shipping data and to get the expected weights for the in line checkweigh. A side benefit of the system is that the proper placement of compliance labels is confirmed.

System Overview

The system begins with an interface to the customer’s legacy host system using SolidComm. Once the data is obtained for the sortation and checkweigh operation, the operators pick and pack items from the two pick modules.

After the items are picked, they are conveyed to the checkweighers where the shipping barcodes are read from either the top or side. The weight of the item is checked against the expected weight.

If the expected weight is outside the upper and lower control limits or if the barcode is unreadable, the item is diverted using a Sortmaster 100 divert.

Once the cartons pass through the automatic QC area, the two lines are merged together using a round robin merge.

As the cartons enter the sortation system, a metering belt creates the necessary space between the cartons. A fixed mount scanner array reads the compliance label barcodes and the system determines the correct sortation lane based upon the download from the customers host system.

The cartons are tracked to the correct sortation lane and diverted. Once the carton is diverted, it is added to the sortation statistics for the system.

All control for the system comes from the SolidSuite modules. SolidComm provides the data exchange with the customer’s legacy host, SoildCheck controls the over/under checkweigh and SolidRoute is used as the sortation controller.

Benefits from the new efficiencies

The benefits from the new system include reduced labor in the outbound shipping operation, automatic, consistent and touch labor free QC and verification of a proper, readable compliance label.