In the not so distant pasts, when a customer ordered a pallet load of product from the DC it was for a promotion and consisted of a single SKU. More recently, in response to VAS requirements, DCs began building and shipping mixed SKU pallet loads, consisting of a few layers of two or three different products, referred to as a rainbow pallet. Then things got a little trickier when the big box retailers wanted promotional rainbow pallets built for an end-of-aisle display. Here the trick is to build columns of product rather than layers. By stacking product in columns customers don’t have to take the pallet apart to get the product they need.

While DCs may be able to order rainbow configurations directly from their vendors, and crossdock them to the customer, for the most part creating these palletizing arrangements in the typical consumer goods DC is done manually, off-line and in a special palletizing area.

But now, as retailers are being forced to reduce in-store labor, there is a growing demand for mixed SKU pallet loads that are arranged by aisle and optimized for product putaway location within the aisle. This extreme pallet building capability is well beyond the pale for most DCs. Manually building such a pallet, while keeping it stable enough to move, is a complex and time consuming challenge analogues to the famous Rubik’s Cube 3-D puzzle, only more physical.

Enter the New Age of Product Sequencing

Clearly the bar for meeting customers’ order fulfillment requirements has been raised. The good news is that material handling technology (equipment, controls, and software) is now sophisticated enough to enable DCs to build customer specific pallet loads automatically and cost effectively. There are in fact several automated approaches to solving this problem, a few of which are described in the SCDigest report (see – “Automated Case Picking 2009: The Next Frontier in Distribution Management”) – look for a new version of this report to be published later this year.

One solution is in some ways like a huge vending machine that has mini-load storage retrieval capability including an output that can sequence product to robotic palletizers in whatever order is required to build a stable load while attempting to satisfy the customer’s requirements (see pages 27 thru 29 of the above referenced report). Open-source software enables a robot controller to “teach itself” the movements required for a palletizing task. Multiple robotic functions operate with dual and triple arm technology and, using an actuator based system, can perform six to eight different functions at the same time.

In operations where manual labor is used to palletize, in addition to sequencing the cases, 3-D graphic displays show the worker where to place each case throughout the building operation - eliminating the guess work.

While these solutions take advantage of well established hardware, they are driven by sophisticated software programs based on complex algorithms.

In addition to building customer specific pallet loads, automatic product sequencing systems can deliver product in the required sequence to fluid-load trailers. It takes a lot of labor to identify and stake out a trailer’s worth of product into the right loading sequence. This equates to another big opportunity for Automated Case Picking (ACP) technology which ends up being a combination in which traditional sorting and conveying equipment integrates with new equipment and technology to deliver case-level products in a customer specific sequence.

“Smart” Approach to Material Handling Automation

Driven by customer demand for higher levels of VAS - the justification for MHA in the order fulfillment process has more to do with intelligent planning, control, and routing strategy than it does with movement of goods. However, smart isn’t always a good thing, especially if it becomes overly complicated. On the other hand, simple can be one-dimensional.

In today’s economy, DCs are more likely to adopt a “selective automation” strategy in order to avoid the overhead associated with a total system approach (see – “Selective Automation Reduces System Overhead and Opens Door to Increased Productivity”). Going forward many companies will automate only that part of their operation that is underperforming while postponing complementary improvements to a later time. Smart conveyor systems will play an ever increasing role in the adoption of this strategy.

Modularity, adaptability, reliability, and speed are the keys to cost effective MHA where products are snaking through a facility’s central artery en route to various operations. As system complexity increases, intelligent conveying and sorting systems that are designed to run as fast, as safe, and as accurately as possible, are essential for system success.

Conveyor and sortation manufactures have focused on simplifying installation and maintenance, making the equipment more reliable and designing systems with greater flexibility to accommodate future needs (see – “Advances in Conveyor Technology Increasing System Flexibility”).

Final Thoughts

There was a time when Henry Ford would sell you his Model T automobile in any color you wanted so long as it was black. But eventually, even Mr. Ford had to give-in to what customers wanted – a choice of colors. The challenge was to keep the assembly line going, which was the key to producing cars efficiently, and at an affordable price, while integrating a choice of colors into the assembly (order fulfillment) process.

The customer service challenge for DCs is similar to that faced by the automotive industry many decades ago - giving customers what they want and doing it efficiently.

The once all manual automobile assembly line is now highly automated. The strategy is based on continuous improvement as many of the important safety and convenience features, that were dealer add-ons just a few years ago, are factory installed on today’s cars. And so it will be for the DC - manual processes like picking cases and stacking them on pallets are being replaced with fully automated processes. This trend will continue simply because it is the most efficient cost effective solution to “having-it-your-way”

Agree or disagree with Holste's perspective? What would you add? Let us know your thoughts for publication in the SCDigest newsletter Feedback section, and on the website. Upon request, comments will be posted with the respondent's name or company withheld.

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